PRESIDENT OBAMA AND MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS,
PLEASE HOLD PRESIDENT SIRLEAF ACCOUNTABLE
By: Isaac Vah Tukpah, Jr.
President Obama, the Liberian people need your help in holding President Sirleaf accountable for corruption and the culture of impunity that prevails in Liberia.
Since 2006 when she assumed power, President Sirleaf has recognized the systemic, institutionalized, and rampant corruption prevalent in government but in the totality of her tenure, she has refused to do anything effective about corruption. Instead, this President has wrapped a protective cocoon around her appointees, family members, and protégés whenever their names have come up or when they have been accused of corruption. Madam Sirleaf has traversed the gamut of spins in defense of these corrupt individuals with her responses to their various acts by totally ignoring corrupt activities, relieving her appointees without any definite explanation, announcing their dismissals with every other reason but corruption, and has even been overly bold to the point of standing in the way of investigations of these folks without letting due process take place. Money has even been wired from her personal computer and her signature has been used in an attempt to get money from the Central Bank and still she has not made a concerted effort to crack down on corruption. It has even gotten to the point where her “hanging buddies”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Chair of the Anti Corruption Commission have taken a stand on her interference in the investigation and prosecution of her corrupt appointees. President Sirleaf is standing in way of Liberia’s progress.
I am sure the international community of which she has been a faithful partner is watching and by now has some grave concerns about Liberia’s future under this President’s administration, and the ineffectiveness of her governance and management of our post–war recovery. The consistent violent economic destabilization of our fragile road to economic and infrastructural recovery are too numerous to enumerate and when we compound that with the fact that our attention span is so short and we are so inundated with the corruption activities, it seems most Liberians have become numb to new information of corruption and have resigned themselves to maintaining this level of corruption as an acceptable national position.
President Obama, the Liberian people need your help in holding President Sirleaf accountable. During the 2005 election cycle, Liberians voted for President Sirleaf because they saw her as “the lesser of two evils”. Fast forward to today, the Sirleaf supporters are using the mantra “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.” President Obama, we can’t even get President Sirleaf to hold her appointees accountable for something as basic as declaring their assets. We continue to hear Madam President use the baseless corruption excuse that people sold their houses in America and used that money to build their mansions in Liberia. How true is that when the housing market was basically upside down and some of the folks she is speaking about never sold their houses and others of them never even owned houses -- but rather lived in apartments.
At the inauguration of the TRC in February 2006, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf made the following statement: “Our country cannot continue to evade justice and the protection of human rights throughout our land, especially of the kind that restores our historical place among civilized nations. Our Government will ensure that those culpable of the Commission of crimes against humanity will face up to their crimes no matter when, where, or how.” Oh, how wonderful this statement sounded back then! Unfortunately today, she has become oblivious to the commitment she has made. Most recently, she appointed Pearl Brown Bull to chair the Independent Panel of Experts responsible for vetting the appointees to the Independent National Human Rights Commission (INHRC). How can she appoint a former TRC Commissioner who refused to sign the final report due to “dissenting opinion”, to such a critical position? This sends a very conflicting message.
President Obama, the United States can help to end the consistent pillaging of Liberia’s coffers to the detriment of the general populace. Liberia is in need of leadership that will support the law enforcement and the judicial arms of our nation to ensure good governance. Liberians are ready to move Liberia forward President Obama, but we need your help. When you and your officials meet with President Sirleaf this week, please impress upon her the need to:
1. End the culture of corruption and impunity, and prosecute offenders
2. Stop protecting and begin prosecuting corrupt officials in her government
3. Make the Threshold Bill law
4. Implement the full recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
5. Put in place processes and systems to ensure free and fair elections in Liberia in 2011
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf White House visitation
Letter to President Obama
By TQ Harris Jr.
May 14, 2010
H.E. Barack Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC
Your Excellency:
Having learned that later this month you will host Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, at the White House, we would like to bring to your attention issues critical to Liberia’s recovery.
We are happy you have decided to meet with the leader of our nation. May we ask during your discussion with Madam Sirleaf that you please raise the issue of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations which is critical to national healing, stability and lasting peace. It is an essential element in Liberia’s revival following the devastating war that displace two-third the population, involved the rape, torture and maiming of tens of thousands and the murder of more than 250,000 civilians, including 5 American Nuns.
Since the release of the TRC Final Report almost a year ago Madam Sirleaf has refused to act in any way on the Commission’s recommendations; rather, she has allowed this genuine effort to heal the nation become a source of division, hatred and frustration which – if not addressed in a timely manner – will again plunge Liberia into violence.
Also, that the U.S. is a major contributor to Liberia’s recovery, perhaps Your Excellency might persuade Madam Sirleaf into explaining how she intends to address corruption while continuing to protect her friends and cronies caught in the act. In utter frustration, the head of the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission recently took the President to task on this very issue.
Since her election to the Presidency, Madam Sirleaf has expended enormous amount of time and resources persuading creditors, including the U.S. to forgive Liberia’s more than $5 Billion debt. Yet she has done nothing to ensure that Liberia never again amasses such astronomical debt without having anything to show. Regrettably, Madam Sirleaf seems unwilling to accept that in order for Liberia to prosper there must be Accountability and Rule of Law. She speaks eloquently on the subject but refuses to act.
Lastly, Your Excellency, Liberia needs a war crimes tribunal or some credible legal forum that is capable of dealing with atrocities perpetrated against defenseless men, women and children during the country’s brutal war; without justice, peace shall remain elusive and investment in Liberia will not produce the intended results.
Your Excellency, the beleaguered citizens of Liberia desperately seek your direct intervention in order to end the prolonged nightmare and rebuild our lives. Decades of injustice, intimidation and abuse have rendered Liberians powerless. Please help!
Thank you for reading this letter.
Respectfully,
Thomas Q. Harris, Jr.
Email: tqharrisforpresident@yahoo.com
Website: www.trharrisforpresident.com
May 14, 2010
H.E. Barack Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC
Your Excellency:
Having learned that later this month you will host Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, at the White House, we would like to bring to your attention issues critical to Liberia’s recovery.
We are happy you have decided to meet with the leader of our nation. May we ask during your discussion with Madam Sirleaf that you please raise the issue of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations which is critical to national healing, stability and lasting peace. It is an essential element in Liberia’s revival following the devastating war that displace two-third the population, involved the rape, torture and maiming of tens of thousands and the murder of more than 250,000 civilians, including 5 American Nuns.
Since the release of the TRC Final Report almost a year ago Madam Sirleaf has refused to act in any way on the Commission’s recommendations; rather, she has allowed this genuine effort to heal the nation become a source of division, hatred and frustration which – if not addressed in a timely manner – will again plunge Liberia into violence.
Also, that the U.S. is a major contributor to Liberia’s recovery, perhaps Your Excellency might persuade Madam Sirleaf into explaining how she intends to address corruption while continuing to protect her friends and cronies caught in the act. In utter frustration, the head of the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission recently took the President to task on this very issue.
Since her election to the Presidency, Madam Sirleaf has expended enormous amount of time and resources persuading creditors, including the U.S. to forgive Liberia’s more than $5 Billion debt. Yet she has done nothing to ensure that Liberia never again amasses such astronomical debt without having anything to show. Regrettably, Madam Sirleaf seems unwilling to accept that in order for Liberia to prosper there must be Accountability and Rule of Law. She speaks eloquently on the subject but refuses to act.
Lastly, Your Excellency, Liberia needs a war crimes tribunal or some credible legal forum that is capable of dealing with atrocities perpetrated against defenseless men, women and children during the country’s brutal war; without justice, peace shall remain elusive and investment in Liberia will not produce the intended results.
Your Excellency, the beleaguered citizens of Liberia desperately seek your direct intervention in order to end the prolonged nightmare and rebuild our lives. Decades of injustice, intimidation and abuse have rendered Liberians powerless. Please help!
Thank you for reading this letter.
Respectfully,
Thomas Q. Harris, Jr.
Email: tqharrisforpresident@yahoo.com
Website: www.trharrisforpresident.com
Thursday, May 13, 2010
A Second Term for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
A Second Term for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201005130584.html
Africa Confidential (London)
13 May 2010
Analysis
Burnishing a stellar international reputation, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is steeling herself for a tough campaign for a second presidential term in elections next year.
Since winning power in 2007, President Sirleaf has been held back by the weaknesses of her political support base at home. Successful at winning international financial support and investor interest, Sirleaf and her immediate circle of technocrats have never looked entirely comfortable amid the cut and thrust of Monrovia politics.
Sirleaf's Unity Party lacks a parliamentary majority, which has slowed down her work, and a rash of corruption scandals around ministers and presidential appointees has gone down badly with the public.
The President is said to have been shaken when, in November, the Congress for Democratic Change, led by the retired football star and failed presidential bidder George Weah, retained a Senate seat in a by-election in Montserrado County, where Geraldine Doe-Sheriff, a former executive of the Liberian Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC), swept up the women's and youth vote.
In response, the President has merged her Unity Party with the Liberia Unification Party (LUP) and the Liberian Action Party (LAP), former allies in the 1985 grand coalition against the regime of Samuel Doe.
Critics claim that the merger will increase the power of the American-Liberian elite (known locally as 'Congo') whose ancestors were resettled in Liberia when slavery was abolished in the United States. Sirleaf's most powerful allies include many of her Congo associates from her days in government under William Tolbert, and others who worked under the kleptocracy of Charles Taylor and the corrupt transitional administration of Gyude Bryant.
The merger will bring her closer to Varney Sherman, the powerful legal counsellor to the local branch of the steel giant ArcelorMittal and several other mining companies. He contested the election against her in 2005, carrying the flag of Bryant's LAP, which now controls a significant block in the legislature.
The merger also brings in Sherman's in-law, the acting Senate boss Cletus Wotorson, who was Minister of Mines under Tolbert and Director of LPRC and the Nimba Mining Company under Doe. Wotorson is close to Eugene Shannon, the current Mines and Energy Minister, who was with Sirleaf in exile in Côte d'Ivoire. Today he is given almost free rein with the lucrative bidding procedures for Liberia's iron ore.
Iron Ore, Iron Lady
Another gatekeeper for the ore deals is the Deputy Minister of Operations, Ernest C.B. Jones, who leads negotiations with big investors such as BHP Billiton and the Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz, who last month sealed a deal with Guinea to export iron ore via ArcelorMittal's railway in Liberia.
Jones wants Sirleaf re-elected, and diplomats worry that the Mining Ministry may be generating funds for next year's campaign. In December, United Nations experts criticised the Ministry for abusing diamond export procedures; Shannon's son Musa Shannon has diamond interests. The alliance will also cement ties with Adolphus Dolo, the influential junior senator from Nimba, a former general under Taylor. Unity Party insiders hope for tens of millions of dollars from Libya's Moammar el Gadaffi.
During the last year, the President has been criticised by oppositionists and members of her own government for the weakness of its stand on corruption. She has sacked or accepted the resignations of Agriculture Minister Christopher Toe, Public Works Minister Luseni Donzo, Information Minister Laurence Bropleh and Internal Affairs Minister Ambulai Johnson, her brother. There were allegations about the embezzlement of millions of the government's dollars.
Only Bropleh faces criminal charges. Donzo was moved to the position of Advisor on Infrastructure to the President, while the respected human rights activist Kofi Woods was moved from the Labour Ministry to take over at Public Works. Toe was controversially replaced by Florence Chenoweth, Minister of Agriculture under Tolbert, who implemented hikes in rice prices that led to riots in 1979.
The ministries of Health, Education, Mines and Finance have all been slammed by the Auditor General, John Morlu, over several million dollars of unaccounted funds. Sirleaf says she supports the audits but insists the findings show systemic failures rather than wilful corruption and that her government will tackle the problem. Her cousin, the Anti-Corruption Commissioner, Frances Johnson Morris, has spoken out about the government's inability to tackle corruption.
Blaming Banks
Last year Sirleaf dismissed Justice Minister Philip Banks, who is said to have soft-pedalled the corruption trial of Edwin Snowe, Taylor's former LPRC boss and a member of the House (AC Vol 48 No 3), who is subject to a UN travel ban and assets freeze. Unity insiders say US diplomats had told Sirleaf about alleged connections between members of her security apparatus, including her son Fombah Sirleaf, Director of the National Security Agency, and a mysterious Russian businessman.
The Russian, Victor Bogosyan, was deported in May 2009. A source close to the presidency says he 'had a line of government people waiting to see him'. Money-changers in town said he paid massive premiums for loans, while he set up a popular nightclub run by attractive Peruvian women.
The US officials are said to have linked Bogosyan to drugs deals. A Unity Party insider said that the President then summoned an informal meeting with all her security chiefs, at which Banks's officials explained that they knew all about this, and 'it was not something Madam President needed to know about'. Banks was soon fired.
Some politicians, activists and diplomats suspect that the Iron Lady's reform agenda has been ring-fenced by cliques, with the powers behind the throne said to be Ellen's sister 'Aunty Jennie' Bernard and her brother-in-law Estrada Bernard. A minister under Tolbert, he has close ties to Clarence Simpson, Tolbert's Attorney General and Associate Justice Minister, now an advisor to the Firestone rubber plantation.
Under Tolbert, Bernard was the boss of Willis Knuckles, Sirleaf's Presidential Advisor, who was caught up in scandal when a repairman found on his laptop pictures of him having sex with two women and emails soliciting payments for access to government contracts. Knuckles resigned as a minister in 2007 but is still believed to be involved in organising Sirleaf's travel. He is close to Medina Shepherd, a businesswoman angling for a senior position in the new Unity Party.
Juanita Neal, Taylor's Deputy Minister of Revenue and a presidential confidante, has made way for Elfreda Stewart Tamba, whose father Reginald Stewart, Director of Budget under Tolbert, was executed in 1980. Stewart was formerly a senior official in LBDI, a bank with close ties to Sirleaf, which holds various government accounts that are yet to be audited.
Sirleaf's opponents say her government is packed with American-Liberians, such as her family friend Binyah Kesselly, now Director of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs, on a salary of up to US$20,000 a month.
Another network is run by Morris Saytumah, who was Controller General of Liberia under Doe and Deputy Minister of Finance under Taylor. As Minister of State for Finance, Economic and Legal Affairs, he is known in political circles as the 'Prime Minister'. He clashed with Harry Greaves, the posh former Director of the LPRC, who was investigated after awarding a dubious contract to a Lebanese company, then embarrassed Saytumah by leaking voice recordings which showed that the supposed investigator, Aloysius Jappah, had in fact been sent to Greaves to demand $300,000 in extortion money. Both men were sacked.
Sirleaf's prospering allies include the family of Allen Brown, a former Taylor associate who was with her in exile in Côte d'Ivoire. His son Allen Brown Jr was invited home to take over some of the rice import monopoly traditionally run by powerful Liberian and Lebanese families, and to pour money into construction. Through his French connections in Abidjan he helped to bring Total into Liberian petrol retailing. He is said to have been squeezed out of some of his activities by Juanita Neal and Aunty Jennie.
Amid all this, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has listed Sirleaf among 49 political figures whom it blames for fuelling Liberia's 14-year war. It has asked her to step down from political office for 30 years (she is 71). Also among the 49 are Clarence Simpson and Richelieu Williams, Director General of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority.
The TRC's recommendations are unlikely to be adopted by the legislature but they have damaged her in the eyes of many Liberians.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201005130584.html
 |
| Add caption |
Africa Confidential (London)
13 May 2010
Analysis
Burnishing a stellar international reputation, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is steeling herself for a tough campaign for a second presidential term in elections next year.
Since winning power in 2007, President Sirleaf has been held back by the weaknesses of her political support base at home. Successful at winning international financial support and investor interest, Sirleaf and her immediate circle of technocrats have never looked entirely comfortable amid the cut and thrust of Monrovia politics.
Sirleaf's Unity Party lacks a parliamentary majority, which has slowed down her work, and a rash of corruption scandals around ministers and presidential appointees has gone down badly with the public.
The President is said to have been shaken when, in November, the Congress for Democratic Change, led by the retired football star and failed presidential bidder George Weah, retained a Senate seat in a by-election in Montserrado County, where Geraldine Doe-Sheriff, a former executive of the Liberian Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC), swept up the women's and youth vote.
In response, the President has merged her Unity Party with the Liberia Unification Party (LUP) and the Liberian Action Party (LAP), former allies in the 1985 grand coalition against the regime of Samuel Doe.
Critics claim that the merger will increase the power of the American-Liberian elite (known locally as 'Congo') whose ancestors were resettled in Liberia when slavery was abolished in the United States. Sirleaf's most powerful allies include many of her Congo associates from her days in government under William Tolbert, and others who worked under the kleptocracy of Charles Taylor and the corrupt transitional administration of Gyude Bryant.
The merger will bring her closer to Varney Sherman, the powerful legal counsellor to the local branch of the steel giant ArcelorMittal and several other mining companies. He contested the election against her in 2005, carrying the flag of Bryant's LAP, which now controls a significant block in the legislature.
The merger also brings in Sherman's in-law, the acting Senate boss Cletus Wotorson, who was Minister of Mines under Tolbert and Director of LPRC and the Nimba Mining Company under Doe. Wotorson is close to Eugene Shannon, the current Mines and Energy Minister, who was with Sirleaf in exile in Côte d'Ivoire. Today he is given almost free rein with the lucrative bidding procedures for Liberia's iron ore.
Iron Ore, Iron Lady
Another gatekeeper for the ore deals is the Deputy Minister of Operations, Ernest C.B. Jones, who leads negotiations with big investors such as BHP Billiton and the Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz, who last month sealed a deal with Guinea to export iron ore via ArcelorMittal's railway in Liberia.
Jones wants Sirleaf re-elected, and diplomats worry that the Mining Ministry may be generating funds for next year's campaign. In December, United Nations experts criticised the Ministry for abusing diamond export procedures; Shannon's son Musa Shannon has diamond interests. The alliance will also cement ties with Adolphus Dolo, the influential junior senator from Nimba, a former general under Taylor. Unity Party insiders hope for tens of millions of dollars from Libya's Moammar el Gadaffi.
During the last year, the President has been criticised by oppositionists and members of her own government for the weakness of its stand on corruption. She has sacked or accepted the resignations of Agriculture Minister Christopher Toe, Public Works Minister Luseni Donzo, Information Minister Laurence Bropleh and Internal Affairs Minister Ambulai Johnson, her brother. There were allegations about the embezzlement of millions of the government's dollars.
Only Bropleh faces criminal charges. Donzo was moved to the position of Advisor on Infrastructure to the President, while the respected human rights activist Kofi Woods was moved from the Labour Ministry to take over at Public Works. Toe was controversially replaced by Florence Chenoweth, Minister of Agriculture under Tolbert, who implemented hikes in rice prices that led to riots in 1979.
The ministries of Health, Education, Mines and Finance have all been slammed by the Auditor General, John Morlu, over several million dollars of unaccounted funds. Sirleaf says she supports the audits but insists the findings show systemic failures rather than wilful corruption and that her government will tackle the problem. Her cousin, the Anti-Corruption Commissioner, Frances Johnson Morris, has spoken out about the government's inability to tackle corruption.
Blaming Banks
Last year Sirleaf dismissed Justice Minister Philip Banks, who is said to have soft-pedalled the corruption trial of Edwin Snowe, Taylor's former LPRC boss and a member of the House (AC Vol 48 No 3), who is subject to a UN travel ban and assets freeze. Unity insiders say US diplomats had told Sirleaf about alleged connections between members of her security apparatus, including her son Fombah Sirleaf, Director of the National Security Agency, and a mysterious Russian businessman.
The Russian, Victor Bogosyan, was deported in May 2009. A source close to the presidency says he 'had a line of government people waiting to see him'. Money-changers in town said he paid massive premiums for loans, while he set up a popular nightclub run by attractive Peruvian women.
The US officials are said to have linked Bogosyan to drugs deals. A Unity Party insider said that the President then summoned an informal meeting with all her security chiefs, at which Banks's officials explained that they knew all about this, and 'it was not something Madam President needed to know about'. Banks was soon fired.
Some politicians, activists and diplomats suspect that the Iron Lady's reform agenda has been ring-fenced by cliques, with the powers behind the throne said to be Ellen's sister 'Aunty Jennie' Bernard and her brother-in-law Estrada Bernard. A minister under Tolbert, he has close ties to Clarence Simpson, Tolbert's Attorney General and Associate Justice Minister, now an advisor to the Firestone rubber plantation.
Under Tolbert, Bernard was the boss of Willis Knuckles, Sirleaf's Presidential Advisor, who was caught up in scandal when a repairman found on his laptop pictures of him having sex with two women and emails soliciting payments for access to government contracts. Knuckles resigned as a minister in 2007 but is still believed to be involved in organising Sirleaf's travel. He is close to Medina Shepherd, a businesswoman angling for a senior position in the new Unity Party.
Juanita Neal, Taylor's Deputy Minister of Revenue and a presidential confidante, has made way for Elfreda Stewart Tamba, whose father Reginald Stewart, Director of Budget under Tolbert, was executed in 1980. Stewart was formerly a senior official in LBDI, a bank with close ties to Sirleaf, which holds various government accounts that are yet to be audited.
Sirleaf's opponents say her government is packed with American-Liberians, such as her family friend Binyah Kesselly, now Director of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs, on a salary of up to US$20,000 a month.
Another network is run by Morris Saytumah, who was Controller General of Liberia under Doe and Deputy Minister of Finance under Taylor. As Minister of State for Finance, Economic and Legal Affairs, he is known in political circles as the 'Prime Minister'. He clashed with Harry Greaves, the posh former Director of the LPRC, who was investigated after awarding a dubious contract to a Lebanese company, then embarrassed Saytumah by leaking voice recordings which showed that the supposed investigator, Aloysius Jappah, had in fact been sent to Greaves to demand $300,000 in extortion money. Both men were sacked.
Sirleaf's prospering allies include the family of Allen Brown, a former Taylor associate who was with her in exile in Côte d'Ivoire. His son Allen Brown Jr was invited home to take over some of the rice import monopoly traditionally run by powerful Liberian and Lebanese families, and to pour money into construction. Through his French connections in Abidjan he helped to bring Total into Liberian petrol retailing. He is said to have been squeezed out of some of his activities by Juanita Neal and Aunty Jennie.
Amid all this, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has listed Sirleaf among 49 political figures whom it blames for fuelling Liberia's 14-year war. It has asked her to step down from political office for 30 years (she is 71). Also among the 49 are Clarence Simpson and Richelieu Williams, Director General of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority.
The TRC's recommendations are unlikely to be adopted by the legislature but they have damaged her in the eyes of many Liberians.
Friday, May 7, 2010
USA Wake Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Mr. Bernard Gbayee Goah |
Portland Oregon
May 7, 2010
USA Wake Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have pieced together what I think as a civilized person, and what other civilized people think should happen in order to protect the United States of America from people like Faisal Shahzad who tried to blow up an SUV in Times Square Saturday evening in New York.
I read in the news that the US government is now requiring airlines to check no-fly lists within two hours of being notified of list updates — a move aimed at preventing known terrorist suspects from boarding airplanes — as the man accused in the Times Square bombing did.
I am not sure why two hours of notification. I thought it would make enough sense for governments to update airlines automatically so that they check the list at once before flight hours. There should be a system in place to monitor people who buy one-way tickets to countries that are on the list as well. I find it hard to believe that this guy was on the list, bought a one-way ticket with cash here in the USA, and boarded a flight without being caught. Why isn't there a computer program that automatically updates itself and constantly checks names of passengers against it 24/7 at the airport so this doesn't have to be done manually?
My suggestion to the US government would be to introduce software that would automatically update airlines on names that are on the no fly list every minute. This is possible because a common software application like MS Access with VB can even do that. I find it hard to believe that there is no developed software program that can do name recognition from a ticket purchase to the list before it is entered onto the fight manifest. If antivirus software can automatically update itself, but there is no software in the US security system that would do that, then we are heading for more trouble! How come we call ourselves civilized people but we continue to slack on our own security? Maybe we should bring in some experts from Israel to revamp and supervise our security system in its entirety. We must understand that the enemies are not sleeping. They are working day and night to get at us therefore we must as well not sleep. We must work day and night to make sure we are saved. Governments should not only employ people who are qualified to do the job but who have the passion to do it. A good idea would be to employ a person, who is qualified, enjoys doing the job, is patriotic, and who would do everything to protect the United States.
Shahzad bought his ticket with CASH! First and foremost anyone who buys a ticket in cash, on the day of the flight should send up a red flag!
Let's see how many RED FLAGS went up for Shahzad:
1. Last minute reservation
2. Paid cash
3. one-way ticket to an Arab country
4. FBI BOLO out for this suspect
5. Name on No-Fly list
My question is why didn't Emirates Airlines check for this guy in the first place? Are they not required to do so? We all know that the UAE is one of the largest contributors to jihadists-especially the most radical kind.
OK let’s look at the ticket purchased. Unless the ticket agent was following policy, I believe that the ticket agent was incompetent and all of the TSA employees involved that day should be dismissed at once. I would like to publically thank the US Customs and Border Security for catching Shahzad. The FBI and NYC Police should have done a better job in the first place after all of the red flags! They sat, watched Shahzad go through TSA, they watched Shahzad hand the agent his ticket to board the plane … they watched the plane push from the station. Now they are watching the news headlines as well. "A Homeland Security official says the government will now require airlines to check updated no-fly lists within two hours of being notified of changes to the list." Two hours is too much. USA, please come up with an automatic security system that sends airlines updated no-fly lists in real time!
I think we should all see reasons to ask governments to incorporate Wal-Mart technology into the security system to protect homeland. If Wal-Mart can change a price in 1000 or more stores with a push of a button but the US security cannot up-date a no-fly list on time, we have a serious problem here!!!!! We must come up with software that profiles each and every passenger. Look, I am not joking, even Las Vegas has such elaborate technology systems that uses facial recognition from the time a person parks his or her car. Something is wrong with us and I think what’s wrong with us, is us. We must pressurize the government to spend tax payer’s money wisely to provide up to date security systems to this country. I see no reason whatsoever, why those in the position of security are not staying on a heightened sense of alert after 9/11.
On the other hand, it should not just be government’s responsibility to do all of the protection of homeland. Both private sectors as well as private citizens have such responsibilities as well. Lawful Immigrants must play a part in securing where they live as well. You live by the rules of the United States and help protect the United States or don’t come here are at all! The Private industry screwed up big time. They were the first line of defense and blew it up. DHS is the safety net. If private citizens just sit on their bums and wait for the government to do everything, we'll all be dead. Who sold him fertilizer? Who sold him fireworks? Who sold him 3 LP tanks? Who let him park where he did? Who sold him a ticket for cash? There were quite a few people involved in this guy's acquisition of all he needed to make a bomb. Emirates Air should be immediately suspended from flying in this country and a full investigation into their security measures should be done before allowing them to fly in the U.S. again.
I am embarrassed to learn that this guy was only put on the no fly list within 24 hours of his attempt to escape the US. One would have thought that traveling to Pakistan and training with the Taliban would have put him on the list months ago.
Let’s help to make the US safe for us and our children.
Bernard Gbayee Goah
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Country's Graft Team Clashes with President Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201005041037.html
Country's Graft Team Clashes with Sirleaf
Tamba Jean-Matthew
May 2010
Liberia's anti-corruption commission has asked President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to drop her support for officials accused of swindling public funds into their personal accounts.
For several weeks now, the anti-corruption commission has been battling to pin down the country's finance minister who is accused of stealing millions of public monies.
While Finance Minister Steven Ngafuan struggles to counter the allegations, he has this week received a presidential backing to the discontentment of the graft commission and the general public.
President Sirleaf in a public discourse intimated that the minister could not be held responsible for the theft and urged the commission to refrain from "irresponsibly" haunting innocent people.
Minister Ngafuan who is a close ally of the president, replaces a female and another sidekick of the president who has taken up a senior post with the World Bank.
But the graft commission officials insist that the institution will pursue clamping down on corrupt officials both in public and private sector until the war-battered country is ridden of the large chunk of mischievous elements in line with its mandate.
The commission since its inception nearly four years ago, has successfully roped in and pinned down several corrupt officials of President Sirleaf's government including ministers and directors.
Two months ago, the country's Information minister was found guilty of swindling public funds following an intricate process which insiders say the president could not stop.
When president Johnson-Sirleaf aspired for the position five years ago, she vowed to stamp out corruption both in public and private sphere in the country where the commission says the vice is increasingly becoming endemic.
Tamba Jean-Matthew
May 2010
Liberia's anti-corruption commission has asked President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to drop her support for officials accused of swindling public funds into their personal accounts.
For several weeks now, the anti-corruption commission has been battling to pin down the country's finance minister who is accused of stealing millions of public monies.
While Finance Minister Steven Ngafuan struggles to counter the allegations, he has this week received a presidential backing to the discontentment of the graft commission and the general public.
President Sirleaf in a public discourse intimated that the minister could not be held responsible for the theft and urged the commission to refrain from "irresponsibly" haunting innocent people.
Minister Ngafuan who is a close ally of the president, replaces a female and another sidekick of the president who has taken up a senior post with the World Bank.
But the graft commission officials insist that the institution will pursue clamping down on corrupt officials both in public and private sector until the war-battered country is ridden of the large chunk of mischievous elements in line with its mandate.
The commission since its inception nearly four years ago, has successfully roped in and pinned down several corrupt officials of President Sirleaf's government including ministers and directors.
Two months ago, the country's Information minister was found guilty of swindling public funds following an intricate process which insiders say the president could not stop.
When president Johnson-Sirleaf aspired for the position five years ago, she vowed to stamp out corruption both in public and private sphere in the country where the commission says the vice is increasingly becoming endemic.
LIBERIA STRATEGIC RECOVERY PLAN
It is with great optimism and hope that we make this clarion call to all Liberians and friends of Liberia. For more than 20 years Liberia has been ravaged by war and excessive corruption. Those who were not able to escape the atrocities of this period are still subject to an inadequate governmental system that does not cater to the citizenry. Greed for power is now paramount while children and women still suffer at the hands of those sworn to protect them. Poverty, ignorance and disease in the aftermath of the war have prevented the country from progressing!!! The infrastructure is gone; electrical power, clean drinking water, food production, security, education and the opportunity to earn a decent income are all memories of a distant past. The medical needs are astronomical.
How we got here is not important at this moment. Rather, how to move forward must become the focus of our efforts. If this nation is to survive, Liberians must put aside our petty politics as well as factional and tribal loyalties and realize we are One People with a common destiny.
That is why we are reaching out to all Liberians and friends of Liberia asking that you please contribute your knowledge and expertise to the drafting of a Master Plan for effective nation building. We want the best ideas to develop Liberia and empower its citizens! This call to action is for doctors, farmers, teachers, lawyers, women, the youth, elders, students, the religious community, laborers as well as the educated and uneducated alike who must have a say in producing the road map for total national recovery.
We are embarking upon reconstruction committed to CHANGING old habits. Only pride and arrogance would cause any individual, group or party to believe they alone have the best remedy for Liberia’s ills. It’s high time we disabuse ourselves of such destructive thinking and practices.
In the spirit of unity, we welcome and implore every Liberian to join us in formulating the Strategic Recovery Plan that TQ Harris will follow in shaping the New Liberia. Now you can become part of the Solution and make your voice heard.
Let us put our hands and minds together and create the perfect map that will guide not only TQ Harris administration, but future leaders as well. Time is of the essence! Please submit your ideas or provide your contact information if you would like to work on a specific aspect of the Plan. We value your contribution!
Thank you!
TQ HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN TEAM
Email: tqharrisforpresident@yahoo.com
Phone: 562.256.4271
http://www.tqharrisforpresident.com
Monday, April 12, 2010
What About Urey? Impunity Questions Cloud Ex Maritime Commish, Others
What About Urey? Impunity Questions Cloud Ex Maritime Commish, Others
By Rodney D. Sieh, rsieh@FrontPageAfrica.com
Source: http://www.frontpageafrica.com/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=3541&z=25
Justice Minister Frances Johnson-Morris says Liberia lacks laws to move on those on UN assets freeze list.
Benoni Urey, former Maritime Commissioner of the Charles Taylor era is considered to be a key buster of UN assets freeze sanctions.
Associate Justice Kabineh Janeh sought to enforce UN sanctions against Urey and Shaw but the decision was reversed by the Supreme Court.
Audits after audits have pointed to one conclusion – millions of dollars misused, or misappropriated from the coffers of Liberia. While the past regimes of William V.S. Tubman, William R. Tolbert, Samuel K. Doe and interim period of Amos Sawyer endured their share of scrutiny, it is the most recent administrations of Charles Taylor and Charles Gyude Bryant that is generating heat and attention from Liberians and the West African nation’s international partners.
Today, Bryant and senior officials from his National Transitional Government - Edwin Snowe, Sam Wlue, Tugbeh Doe, Lusinee Kamara, Sen. Richard Devine and Tapple Doe have all been mentioned in charges or questioned over allegations cited in audits conducted by the European Union, ECOWAS and UN Panel of Experts Findings.
Corruption, Impunity Reigns, US Report Finds
Justice Minister Frances Johnson-Morris says Liberia lacks laws to move on those on UN assets freeze list.
This week, the issue of impunity came to light, in yet another report - the US State Department Human Rights Report, reported that corruption and impunity is continuing in many levels of the government.”
One particular interest to Liberians has been the refusal of the Managing Director of the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation, Harry Greaves to unveil the details of an oil deal signed with the Nigerian government. The U.N. report said in June 2006, LPRC entered into a one-year contract with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to buy 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The report stated, despite its name, LPRC is not in position to refine the crude oil. “Thus, in August 2006, LPRC sold the contract to Addax Ltd, the largest independent oil producer in Nigeria, at the rate of 14 cents a barrel.”
UN Panel showed displeasure, as most Liberians have, over the manner in which Greaves’ LPRC handled the oil deal. The Panel maintained, “The contract, worth $0.5 million, was awarded without any competitive bidding. When the Panel sought clarification as to how the firm and price were determined in the absence of competitive bidding, Greaves has insisted that it was not possible to call for bids in such situations because of the lack of time.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has admitted on a couple of occasions that fighting corruption remains a daunting task for her administration. While Sirleaf has dismissed or suspended a number of former government officials, holding current officials responsible has also been a challenge.
Sanctions imposed, reversed
Benoni Urey, former Maritime Commissioner of the Charles Taylor era is considered to be a key buster of UN assets freeze sanctions.
Flashback to the Taylor era, Benoni Urey, Emmanuel Shaw, Grace Minor and others tied to handling millions of dollars for the former dictator remain on the loose despite continuous presence on the UN travel ban and assets freeze list.
What seemed at a first shot at justice emerged in 2004, when NTGL’s Justice Minister Kabineh Janeh led the charge as the government imposed economic sanctions on both Urey and Shaw.
At the time, Janneh said the government now had in its possession, enough evidence to proceed with the resolution of the U.N. According to Janeh, the assets of Shaw, a former finance minister in the 1980s and the former commissioner of Liberia's maritime affairs bureau, Benoni Urey, would remain frozen until further instructions from the UN Security Council. The pair is both top officials at a mobile phone company, Lone Star Communication.
Not too long after Janeh’s actions, the Supreme Court reversed the decision and ordered the suspension of economic sanctions imposed on Shaw and Urey.
Lawyers for the pair argued Janeh acted unconstitutionally as only judges have the power to issue such instructions. In rendering its decision, the court also ordered the removal of security officials from the company's premises, where they had been posted following the move to freeze the assets.
With very little to move on, Janeh and the NTGL abandoned its quest.
Preparation flaws hampered efforts, UN says
Associate Justice Kabineh Janeh sought to enforce UN sanctions against Urey and Shaw but the decision was reversed by the Supreme Court.
FACING CHARGES
A look at officials from the NTGL period who have been questioned, jailed or accused so far.
Gyude Bryant: Facing charges of failing to account for US$1,397,255 spent during his two year tenure.
Edwin Snowe: The former Speaker of the House of Representatives Edwin Snowe faced the Special Investigation Team of Liberian National Police Force to answer questions on allegations of corruption during his tenure as Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).
Lusinee Kamara, reportedly worked along with co-defendants connived and conspired and disbursed directly in cash from government accounts.
Sam Wlue: State prosecutors claim that the former Minister of Commerce and Industry in the erstwhile National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) had escaped the country to avoid prosecution on alleged “Theft of Property” charges. Wlue arrived back in the country Monday evening.
Tugbeh Doe, former Deputy Finance Minister for Administration, reportedly used a scheme to “disburse directly in cash” from the Central Bank of Liberia accounts.
Tugbeh Doe reportedly withdrew US$212,400 and paid the amount to co-defendant, Roberta Francis. No reason for the payment was given. Francis was special assistant to Doe.
Albert Quaye, head of the Fraud Division at the Finance Ministry, named in charges against Tugbeh Doe.
Roberta Francis, Special Assistant to Deputy Finance Minister, named in charges against Tugbeh Doe.
Wesley Johnson, the former Vice Chairman, Wesley Johnson who was also implicated in the report was acquitted.
It was a great effort from Janeh, but according to the UN panel, the NTGL simply did not prepare its case properly. “The National Transitional Government took considerable time to initiate action to freeze the assets of the persons designated by the Security Council. When the Government finally acted, it did so only against 2 of the 26 persons on the list, and that too without proper preparation,” said the panel.
According to the panel, the lack of preparations led the high court to intervene to stay the administrative order when the affected persons challenged the orders.
At the time of the court’s findings, the panel reported that several of those on the assets freeze list were frantically making efforts to dispose of their properties.
“The Panel contacted a number of countries - Burkina Faso, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America - to obtain information about the assets frozen by them in pursuance of Security Council resolution 1532 (2004). The Panel has learned that, as at the time of writing, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States have identified and frozen the assets of three listed individuals, namely, Leonid Minin, Agnes Reeves-Taylor and Benoni Urey, respectively.”
Allegations against Urey
For much of the Taylor era, Urey’s name resonated as the key figure on whose shoulders much of Taylor’s inner workings relied. For example, the UN Panel of Experts reported in 2001 that it was on the orders from Urey that the Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry (LISCR) transferred $525,000 to San Air General Trading's account at Standard Chartered Bank in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, "for arms and transportation in violation of Security Council resolutions."
The panel described Urey as "little more than a cash extraction operation and cover from which to fund and organize opaque off-budget expenditures, including for sanctions-busting".
As Urey roams free in Monrovia, many of those cited for probe have been crying foul. “Why have they waited all this time until now to come up with this? They’re only doing it because I was very vocal about the manner in which they carried out the arrest of Tugbeh Doe, his brother Abraham and other members of the NTGL,” says Sen. Richard Devine, who heads the powerful Ways and Means Committee and one of those mention in misappropriation of funds at the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation (LPRC).
In a recent interview with FPA, Devine took swipe at the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration’s continued attempt to shift attention from the realities on the ground and ignoring the day-to-day plight of ordinary Liberians.“People are struggling to survive here everyday and they’re carrying out this witch hunt."
Second to the Forestry Development Authority, the BMA was a key source of revenues for the Taylor government. Regrettably, much of the monies generated went toward the purchase of arms and ammunition –with Urey serving as Taylor’s right hand.
‘Paradoxical and confusing’, says auditor general
The bureau generated millions in the first six months of 1999 as strong tonnage gains established the Liberian register as one of the world's largest, with nineteen vessels of 402,540 gt joining the flag in February alone. Coupled with twenty-seven vessels of 816,265 gt in March, and fifteen vessels of 379,059 gt in April, the register now stands at 1,960 ships totaling 64, 270,512 gt.
By the end of Taylor’s era, the dictator reportedly stole some $100 million and left behind scores of former child soldiers, still coping with the after effects of their war years. Aides to Taylor say, as the former dictator languishes in jail, the man behind all of his many evil deeds remains free.
In the latest findings by the UN panel, the experts took current Justice Johnson-Morris to task for not doing much to bring Urey, Shaw and others from the Taylor era to justice or implement the assets freeze. Morris has reportedly suggested that there are not enough laws on the books to bring charges against Urey and other members accused of misappropriating funds from the Taylor era. However, the newly-confirmed Auditor General of Liberia, John Morlu told FrontPageAfrica Thursday, “only in Liberia can the justice minister say they need special laws from the national legislature to enforce U.N. Security Council sanctions. But then that same justice minister does not call for a special law to enforce ECOWAS report.”Morlu added, he finds these two positions to be rather paradoxical and confusing.
Besides owning one of the biggest farms in Liberia, Urey is considered one of the key U.N. sanctions busters as he continues to profit from business interests in Monrovia. Both Urey and Shaw continue to receive monthly salaries from the cellular telephone company Lonestar. In addition, their company, PLC receives 4 per cent of the monthly revenue of Lonestar. Ecobank has furnished information relating to nine bank accounts of seven designated persons, according to a previous U.N. report. Urey is strongly regarded as one notable violator of the ban. A report by the Coalition for International Justice in 2005, suggested that after Urey was placed on the Treasury Department's list of designated individuals; he attempted to sell a house he owns in Maryland for about $1million but the deal was halted after the Treasury Department became aware of the deal. The report says Urey, acting on Taylor's orders, requested one of Taylor's former wives to cash in nearly US$2million in Inmarsat shares in London. The transaction was blocked by British authorities because of suspicions that the money was going to Taylor.
In 2001 for example, the shipping registry generated $44 million with $18 million for the government but millions of those funds, described as illegal by the panel was requested by Urey, for the San Air General Trading through a bank in the United Arab Emirates. The airline is connected to Victor Bout, known for operating an intricate gun-running operation between Eastern Europe and a host of African countries, including Liberia.
According to the panel, all the transfers were made at the request of Urey through LISCR's New York office in violation of an arms embargo against Liberia. Urey, according to the panel, maintains a number of other business interests, including diamonds. One of his deputies was Sanjivan Ruprah, a close business partner of Bout. FrontPageAfrica gathered late last year that Urey, fearing a deeper look at his finances by UN experts sought to dispose some of his assets into a holding firm.
Maritime Profits used to buy arms
According to a UN Panel of Experts report, Urey was behind the transfer of funds used to purchase arms and ammunitions which were used by child soldiers during the fourteen-year civil war.
At the time, the LISCR CEO, Yoram Cohen, said the registry made the payments at the request of the Liberian government and had no idea where the money was going. "We did not pay anyone knowingly to buy arms. We made hundreds of wire transfers to Liberia. They asked us to make four to non-governmental accounts. We notified them in the summer of 2000 that payments will be made only to governmental accounts. It will never happen again," Cohen said.
In effect, the panel concluded without doubt that the revenues from the Liberian cargo and cruise ship registry was used to buy weapons for the West African country's ruling militia in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, according to a U.N. report dated Oct. 22.
According to the report, the LISCR made four payments to non-government accounts in June 2000 and July 2000 on the instructions of Urey's agency. The payments included the separate transfers of $525,000 and $400,000 to an account in a bank in the United Arab Emirates. "These two payments were for arms and transport in violation of the sanctions," the report said.
According to the panel, LISCR later refused to make payments other than to the Liberian government. But, the report said, Urey "changed strategy," moving the money from Liberian accounts to the bank in the UAE through the personal account of Sanjivan Ruprah, identified by the U.N. as an arms dealer known to have held a Liberian diplomatic passport as deputy commissioner of maritime affairs. Urey has denied knowing Ruprah.
In the wake of the allegations against Urey, observers say one of the biggest challenges facing Liberia is the issue of money laundering as they point to how or why Urey is getting away with sanctions busting. Because there is no effective system of control in place to prevent money laundering, various reports have indicated a high level of money laundering from Liberia to various countries by the likes of Urey and Snowe over the years.
For now, Bryant and his former officials continue to raise a red flag over what they view as a ‘Witch Hunt’. Amid repeated concerns by Liberians, observers say the key to eliminating the culture of impunity lies in how the government strategizes its plan to include members of the Taylor administration, in particular Urey who has been credited as the brain behind Taylor’s arms and ammunitions which inflicted irreparable wounds on child soldiers and victims of war, carnage and destruction.
By Rodney D. Sieh, rsieh@FrontPageAfrica.com
Source: http://www.frontpageafrica.com/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=3541&z=25
Justice Minister Frances Johnson-Morris says Liberia lacks laws to move on those on UN assets freeze list.
Benoni Urey, former Maritime Commissioner of the Charles Taylor era is considered to be a key buster of UN assets freeze sanctions.
Associate Justice Kabineh Janeh sought to enforce UN sanctions against Urey and Shaw but the decision was reversed by the Supreme Court.
Audits after audits have pointed to one conclusion – millions of dollars misused, or misappropriated from the coffers of Liberia. While the past regimes of William V.S. Tubman, William R. Tolbert, Samuel K. Doe and interim period of Amos Sawyer endured their share of scrutiny, it is the most recent administrations of Charles Taylor and Charles Gyude Bryant that is generating heat and attention from Liberians and the West African nation’s international partners.
Today, Bryant and senior officials from his National Transitional Government - Edwin Snowe, Sam Wlue, Tugbeh Doe, Lusinee Kamara, Sen. Richard Devine and Tapple Doe have all been mentioned in charges or questioned over allegations cited in audits conducted by the European Union, ECOWAS and UN Panel of Experts Findings.
Corruption, Impunity Reigns, US Report Finds
Justice Minister Frances Johnson-Morris says Liberia lacks laws to move on those on UN assets freeze list.
This week, the issue of impunity came to light, in yet another report - the US State Department Human Rights Report, reported that corruption and impunity is continuing in many levels of the government.”
One particular interest to Liberians has been the refusal of the Managing Director of the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation, Harry Greaves to unveil the details of an oil deal signed with the Nigerian government. The U.N. report said in June 2006, LPRC entered into a one-year contract with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to buy 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The report stated, despite its name, LPRC is not in position to refine the crude oil. “Thus, in August 2006, LPRC sold the contract to Addax Ltd, the largest independent oil producer in Nigeria, at the rate of 14 cents a barrel.”
UN Panel showed displeasure, as most Liberians have, over the manner in which Greaves’ LPRC handled the oil deal. The Panel maintained, “The contract, worth $0.5 million, was awarded without any competitive bidding. When the Panel sought clarification as to how the firm and price were determined in the absence of competitive bidding, Greaves has insisted that it was not possible to call for bids in such situations because of the lack of time.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has admitted on a couple of occasions that fighting corruption remains a daunting task for her administration. While Sirleaf has dismissed or suspended a number of former government officials, holding current officials responsible has also been a challenge.
Sanctions imposed, reversed
Benoni Urey, former Maritime Commissioner of the Charles Taylor era is considered to be a key buster of UN assets freeze sanctions.
Flashback to the Taylor era, Benoni Urey, Emmanuel Shaw, Grace Minor and others tied to handling millions of dollars for the former dictator remain on the loose despite continuous presence on the UN travel ban and assets freeze list.
What seemed at a first shot at justice emerged in 2004, when NTGL’s Justice Minister Kabineh Janeh led the charge as the government imposed economic sanctions on both Urey and Shaw.
At the time, Janneh said the government now had in its possession, enough evidence to proceed with the resolution of the U.N. According to Janeh, the assets of Shaw, a former finance minister in the 1980s and the former commissioner of Liberia's maritime affairs bureau, Benoni Urey, would remain frozen until further instructions from the UN Security Council. The pair is both top officials at a mobile phone company, Lone Star Communication.
Not too long after Janeh’s actions, the Supreme Court reversed the decision and ordered the suspension of economic sanctions imposed on Shaw and Urey.
Lawyers for the pair argued Janeh acted unconstitutionally as only judges have the power to issue such instructions. In rendering its decision, the court also ordered the removal of security officials from the company's premises, where they had been posted following the move to freeze the assets.
With very little to move on, Janeh and the NTGL abandoned its quest.
Preparation flaws hampered efforts, UN says
Associate Justice Kabineh Janeh sought to enforce UN sanctions against Urey and Shaw but the decision was reversed by the Supreme Court.
FACING CHARGES
A look at officials from the NTGL period who have been questioned, jailed or accused so far.
Gyude Bryant: Facing charges of failing to account for US$1,397,255 spent during his two year tenure.
Edwin Snowe: The former Speaker of the House of Representatives Edwin Snowe faced the Special Investigation Team of Liberian National Police Force to answer questions on allegations of corruption during his tenure as Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).
Lusinee Kamara, reportedly worked along with co-defendants connived and conspired and disbursed directly in cash from government accounts.
Sam Wlue: State prosecutors claim that the former Minister of Commerce and Industry in the erstwhile National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) had escaped the country to avoid prosecution on alleged “Theft of Property” charges. Wlue arrived back in the country Monday evening.
Tugbeh Doe, former Deputy Finance Minister for Administration, reportedly used a scheme to “disburse directly in cash” from the Central Bank of Liberia accounts.
Tugbeh Doe reportedly withdrew US$212,400 and paid the amount to co-defendant, Roberta Francis. No reason for the payment was given. Francis was special assistant to Doe.
Albert Quaye, head of the Fraud Division at the Finance Ministry, named in charges against Tugbeh Doe.
Roberta Francis, Special Assistant to Deputy Finance Minister, named in charges against Tugbeh Doe.
Wesley Johnson, the former Vice Chairman, Wesley Johnson who was also implicated in the report was acquitted.
It was a great effort from Janeh, but according to the UN panel, the NTGL simply did not prepare its case properly. “The National Transitional Government took considerable time to initiate action to freeze the assets of the persons designated by the Security Council. When the Government finally acted, it did so only against 2 of the 26 persons on the list, and that too without proper preparation,” said the panel.
According to the panel, the lack of preparations led the high court to intervene to stay the administrative order when the affected persons challenged the orders.
At the time of the court’s findings, the panel reported that several of those on the assets freeze list were frantically making efforts to dispose of their properties.
“The Panel contacted a number of countries - Burkina Faso, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America - to obtain information about the assets frozen by them in pursuance of Security Council resolution 1532 (2004). The Panel has learned that, as at the time of writing, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States have identified and frozen the assets of three listed individuals, namely, Leonid Minin, Agnes Reeves-Taylor and Benoni Urey, respectively.”
Allegations against Urey
For much of the Taylor era, Urey’s name resonated as the key figure on whose shoulders much of Taylor’s inner workings relied. For example, the UN Panel of Experts reported in 2001 that it was on the orders from Urey that the Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry (LISCR) transferred $525,000 to San Air General Trading's account at Standard Chartered Bank in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, "for arms and transportation in violation of Security Council resolutions."
The panel described Urey as "little more than a cash extraction operation and cover from which to fund and organize opaque off-budget expenditures, including for sanctions-busting".
As Urey roams free in Monrovia, many of those cited for probe have been crying foul. “Why have they waited all this time until now to come up with this? They’re only doing it because I was very vocal about the manner in which they carried out the arrest of Tugbeh Doe, his brother Abraham and other members of the NTGL,” says Sen. Richard Devine, who heads the powerful Ways and Means Committee and one of those mention in misappropriation of funds at the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation (LPRC).
In a recent interview with FPA, Devine took swipe at the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration’s continued attempt to shift attention from the realities on the ground and ignoring the day-to-day plight of ordinary Liberians.“People are struggling to survive here everyday and they’re carrying out this witch hunt."
Second to the Forestry Development Authority, the BMA was a key source of revenues for the Taylor government. Regrettably, much of the monies generated went toward the purchase of arms and ammunition –with Urey serving as Taylor’s right hand.
‘Paradoxical and confusing’, says auditor general
The bureau generated millions in the first six months of 1999 as strong tonnage gains established the Liberian register as one of the world's largest, with nineteen vessels of 402,540 gt joining the flag in February alone. Coupled with twenty-seven vessels of 816,265 gt in March, and fifteen vessels of 379,059 gt in April, the register now stands at 1,960 ships totaling 64, 270,512 gt.
By the end of Taylor’s era, the dictator reportedly stole some $100 million and left behind scores of former child soldiers, still coping with the after effects of their war years. Aides to Taylor say, as the former dictator languishes in jail, the man behind all of his many evil deeds remains free.
In the latest findings by the UN panel, the experts took current Justice Johnson-Morris to task for not doing much to bring Urey, Shaw and others from the Taylor era to justice or implement the assets freeze. Morris has reportedly suggested that there are not enough laws on the books to bring charges against Urey and other members accused of misappropriating funds from the Taylor era. However, the newly-confirmed Auditor General of Liberia, John Morlu told FrontPageAfrica Thursday, “only in Liberia can the justice minister say they need special laws from the national legislature to enforce U.N. Security Council sanctions. But then that same justice minister does not call for a special law to enforce ECOWAS report.”Morlu added, he finds these two positions to be rather paradoxical and confusing.
Besides owning one of the biggest farms in Liberia, Urey is considered one of the key U.N. sanctions busters as he continues to profit from business interests in Monrovia. Both Urey and Shaw continue to receive monthly salaries from the cellular telephone company Lonestar. In addition, their company, PLC receives 4 per cent of the monthly revenue of Lonestar. Ecobank has furnished information relating to nine bank accounts of seven designated persons, according to a previous U.N. report. Urey is strongly regarded as one notable violator of the ban. A report by the Coalition for International Justice in 2005, suggested that after Urey was placed on the Treasury Department's list of designated individuals; he attempted to sell a house he owns in Maryland for about $1million but the deal was halted after the Treasury Department became aware of the deal. The report says Urey, acting on Taylor's orders, requested one of Taylor's former wives to cash in nearly US$2million in Inmarsat shares in London. The transaction was blocked by British authorities because of suspicions that the money was going to Taylor.
In 2001 for example, the shipping registry generated $44 million with $18 million for the government but millions of those funds, described as illegal by the panel was requested by Urey, for the San Air General Trading through a bank in the United Arab Emirates. The airline is connected to Victor Bout, known for operating an intricate gun-running operation between Eastern Europe and a host of African countries, including Liberia.
According to the panel, all the transfers were made at the request of Urey through LISCR's New York office in violation of an arms embargo against Liberia. Urey, according to the panel, maintains a number of other business interests, including diamonds. One of his deputies was Sanjivan Ruprah, a close business partner of Bout. FrontPageAfrica gathered late last year that Urey, fearing a deeper look at his finances by UN experts sought to dispose some of his assets into a holding firm.
Maritime Profits used to buy arms
According to a UN Panel of Experts report, Urey was behind the transfer of funds used to purchase arms and ammunitions which were used by child soldiers during the fourteen-year civil war.
At the time, the LISCR CEO, Yoram Cohen, said the registry made the payments at the request of the Liberian government and had no idea where the money was going. "We did not pay anyone knowingly to buy arms. We made hundreds of wire transfers to Liberia. They asked us to make four to non-governmental accounts. We notified them in the summer of 2000 that payments will be made only to governmental accounts. It will never happen again," Cohen said.
In effect, the panel concluded without doubt that the revenues from the Liberian cargo and cruise ship registry was used to buy weapons for the West African country's ruling militia in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, according to a U.N. report dated Oct. 22.
According to the report, the LISCR made four payments to non-government accounts in June 2000 and July 2000 on the instructions of Urey's agency. The payments included the separate transfers of $525,000 and $400,000 to an account in a bank in the United Arab Emirates. "These two payments were for arms and transport in violation of the sanctions," the report said.
According to the panel, LISCR later refused to make payments other than to the Liberian government. But, the report said, Urey "changed strategy," moving the money from Liberian accounts to the bank in the UAE through the personal account of Sanjivan Ruprah, identified by the U.N. as an arms dealer known to have held a Liberian diplomatic passport as deputy commissioner of maritime affairs. Urey has denied knowing Ruprah.
In the wake of the allegations against Urey, observers say one of the biggest challenges facing Liberia is the issue of money laundering as they point to how or why Urey is getting away with sanctions busting. Because there is no effective system of control in place to prevent money laundering, various reports have indicated a high level of money laundering from Liberia to various countries by the likes of Urey and Snowe over the years.
For now, Bryant and his former officials continue to raise a red flag over what they view as a ‘Witch Hunt’. Amid repeated concerns by Liberians, observers say the key to eliminating the culture of impunity lies in how the government strategizes its plan to include members of the Taylor administration, in particular Urey who has been credited as the brain behind Taylor’s arms and ammunitions which inflicted irreparable wounds on child soldiers and victims of war, carnage and destruction.
Open Letter to President Barrack Hussein & Mrs. Michelle Obama By Joe Gbaba, Sr., Ed. D.
Open Letter to President Barrack Hussein & Mrs. Michelle Obama
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D. C. 20500, U. S. A.
By Joe Gbaba, Sr., Ed. D.
Exiled Liberian Playwright & Artist/Scholar
This open letter was prompted by the recent pronouncement made by Liberian terrorist warlords including incumbent President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Prince Johnson, and many supporters of mayhem in Liberia, declaring their candidacy and intent to run come 2011 presidential and general elections in Liberia. Obviously, the defiance of the President and her supporters regarding the recommendations of the TRC sets the unfriendly tone for political chaos and uneven playing field for all participants during the scheduled general elections in 2011. Consequently, it is mandatory that the verdict of Liberian terrorist warlords be determined before that time in order to ensure peace and security and the return to genuine democracy in Liberia next year.
Also, this letter is intended to request the American Government and people to make amends with the Government and people of Liberia for America’s dubious role in fueling the Liberian Civil War that led to the death of more than a quarter of a million Liberian citizens.
Dear President Barrack and Mrs. Michelle Obama:
This is an SOS call from me to you regarding the suffering of post-war Liberian citizens living in Liberia, as well as Liberian refugees residing in foreign lands such as the United States of America, Europe, Australia, and on the continent of Africa. My main reason for writing you is because Liberian citizens at home and those in the Diaspora are being held hostage by Liberian warlords like Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Prince Johnson, and many others who have committed heinous crimes against the Liberian people and humanity and who are still parading the corridors of power in Liberia with impunity. At the present moment, these war criminals have out rightly refused to implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), on grounds that the Act that established the TRC along with its recommendations is 'unconstitutional.' Therefore, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Prince Johnson, and many others, have announced their intent to run for public office during the forthcoming presidential and general elections in 2011, especially when they were banned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission not to participate in politics in Liberia for thirty years. In addition, the proper peace and reconciliation mechanisms have not been put in place in post-conflict Liberia as yet; therefore, the climate is not ripe for free and fair presidential and general elections in Liberia in 2011. However, smooth political transfer of power may be realized when the fate of Liberian terrorist warlords has been determined through constitutional means and with support from the international community. Consequently, this may ultimately and hopefully lead to the arrest, indictment, and prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes in Liberia, so that they may be tried at The Hague for atrocities they committed against the Liberian people and humanity. In this case, there will have been justice done; and the political playing field would then be even; and Liberians would be prepared to participate in free and fair presidential and general elections.
Mr. President and Madam First Lady, it is the living truth that these culprits financially and morally supported the Liberian Civil War and they subsequently actively participated in it and committed atrocities beyond proportion. Consequently, that led to the death of more than 250,000 Liberian citizens. Unfortunately, the Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters are the same ones who took over the helm of the Liberian State in cohort with international peace negotiators from the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This power-sharing arrangement was made by virtue of their being belligerent warlords who held all of us at gun point and also because they refused to cease hostilities if their demands were not met by international and local mediators. Therefore, the decision to allow culprits to head the Liberian Government was definitely in contravention of the Constitution of Liberia and it was against the will of the Liberian people as well.
However, power-sharing was allowed because the Liberian people were weary of war and they hoped that the perpetrators of human carnage would eventually reason and give way for true democracy to flourish after their first six year term of office was ended. Sad to say, these war criminals have remained inflexible and they continue to inflict suffering and economic hardships on all Liberians with impunity and without end. As a result, these violent prone Liberian citizens have intentionally stalled the truth and reconciliation process in Liberia at this time because they do not want to be arrested and prosecuted for the atrocities they committed during the Liberian Civil War. In addition, they have also dampened the hopes of Liberian refugees who would like to return home after general elections are held in 2011. This is because millions of Liberians (including myself) feel insecure living under the gavel of Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her terrorist supporters based on Mrs. Sirleaf‟s and her supporters‟ previous involvement in financing and abetting mayhem in Liberia.
Also, Liberia is being presently re-peopled by immigrants and ethnic groups from other West African states based on ECOWAS’ protocol while Liberians are lingering in refugee camps and dying from various curable diseases and sicknesses. These migrant workers and immigrants are non-Liberian citizens and they are gradually occupying the hinterland of Liberia and are displacing Liberians in their own country. As a result, there are numerous unresolved land disputes in Liberia at the writing of this open letter to you. Hence, if this kind of strategy continues for the next ten to twenty years, the new population of Liberia will be significantly different in terms of our history and culture and the deprivation of bonafide Liberians to own land on their own Native soil. Further, the Sirleaf Government continues to inflict hardships on all Liberians in terms of lack of Government control over prices of goods and services in Liberia; lack of employment opportunities and high unemployment rate; high death toll due to the lack of basic public utilities and mental health and medical services, as well as the lack of good communication networks, farm-to-markets roads, and public safety. In addition, post-war Liberians are deprived of the basic prerequisites of modern life, such as safe pipe-borne drinking water, electricity, well staffed schools, hospitals, clinics, and rehabilitation programs for former combatants and child soldiers and civilians who were traumatized by the civil war and by the atrocities they witnessed over the past twenty years.
Most of our children sit on bare floors to learn without the convenience of having desks and chairs to sit on in most of our classrooms. There are no culturally relevant textbooks and the educational system continues to project the hegemony of the minority Settler group that constitutes the ruling class of Liberia for nearly two centuries. Additionally, the educational system continues to neglect the history and culture of indigenous Liberians. Consequently, this type of educational system is creating more division among the Liberian people. In essence, it further suppresses the under served of the Liberian society and it puts most poor and uneducated Liberians at risk of being easily overpowered by alien cultures, and by self-hatred and self-dejection. Presently, ritualistic killing is on the rise as well and armed robbery is also a big safety factor to reckon with because many of Liberia‟s child soldiers and former combatants were not properly rehabilitated. As a consequence, there is a very high crime rate in the country and Liberian citizens are living in fear every day and night because they dare not speak up against Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters for fear of reprisals. Also, it is my belief that the Sirleaf Government neglected to properly rehabilitate former combatants and child soldiers so that they may have readied fighters whenever they once again decide to terrorize the Liberian people if election results do not turn out in their favor.
In addition, humanitarian aids provided through the good will of the international community are being mismanaged and not used for their intended purposes. Hence, there is a high degree of misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance in Liberia. In other words, officials of the Sirleaf Government are abusing their authority in order to achieve their desired result of getting rich over night and to perpetuate themselves in power. As a result, they carry out unlawful acts that cannot be legally justified or that conflict with the laws of the land (the Constitution of Liberia). Furthermore, the recent outright refusal of the Sirleaf Government to recognize the will of the Liberian people through the recommendations of the TRC is indeed practically the same as failure to meet legal obligations as the 'elected Government' of the Liberian people.
Also, due to the recent pronouncement made by Mrs. Sirleaf and her supporters, all Liberian refugees living abroad, as well as Liberian citizens living in Liberia, are concerned about national security issues, and Liberians are also concerned about the outright defiance and unconcerned attitude of Mrs. Sirleaf and her cohorts with regards to the inalienable rights of Liberian citizens and the mandates of the TRC. In this light, I strongly believe that there cannot be presidential and general elections in Liberia when there is a hung verdict concerning the fate of Liberian terrorist warlords who are holding hostage the Liberian peace process, especially by not recognizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations. Against these backdrops, it is safe to ask a battery of questions in order to arrive at the core of the argument of whether or not the TRC was an illegal and unconstitutional set up:
(1) If the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were 'unconstitutional' then when, why and how and for what reasons was it set up?
(2) Did Mrs. Sirleaf and her cohorts not know the TRC was an 'unconstitutional' set up
prior to the commencement and implementation of the functions of the TRC in Liberia and in the Diaspora
(3) If the TRC were 'illegal,' then from where did the TRC get seed monies to operate?
(4) Did the Sirleaf Government not provide funding for the TRC during the course of
the Commission‟s existence?
(5) Or, if the Sirleaf Government provided funding for the TRC to operate, then why
was it pumping Liberian Government funds in an 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional' body?
(6) Who appointed the Commissioners of the TRC and from where did the TRC get its
mandate?
(7) What is so 'unconstitutional' about a body being set up by the Liberian people to
resolve their national conflict?
(8) Which is more unconstitutional, to unite Liberian citizens and restore the rule of
law; or to divide and murder Liberian citizens through the force of arms?
(9) What was more unconstitutional than inciting Liberians against their own Nation
State so that they might take up arms and kill one another in cold blood?
(10) What was even more unconstitutional than to purchase weapons of mass
destruction that cost the precious lives of more than 250,000 Liberian citizens due to
the greed of Liberian terrorist warlords to regain political and economic power?
(11) Further, what was more heinous a crime than to recruit children between the
ages five and above as child soldiers and as innocent killing machines, so that Liberian
terrorist warlords might rule Liberia in contravention of the Constitution of the
Republic of Liberia?
(12) Besides, what was so constitutional about the formation of interim
governments outside of Liberia and outside of the Constitution of Liberia?
(13) What is the position or role of the UN, AU, ECOWAS, and the United States of
America, with respect to the implementation of the TRC recommendations in Liberia?
Further discussing the issue of constitutionality, it is safe to state at this juncture that Liberians accepted the various peace accords and power-sharing arrangements over time because Liberians were tired of war and they wanted peace. Thus, it was not because the ECOWAS, UN, or AU peace accords were constitutional in Liberian terms; but rather, it was because Liberians wanted peace. Of course, at that time Liberian terrorist warlords who are now crying in the name of ‘Constitution’ did not cry out to say it was 'unconstitutional' to set up interim governments in Abuja, Accra, Banjul, and Freetown and to select a group of supporters of heavily armed warring factions to hold prominent Government of Liberia positions as their spoils of war. Mind you, these are individuals who committed atrocities against the Liberian people and humanity and they insisted that they would not drop their arms unless they were rewarded with big Government jobs. Hence, most of the power-sharing schemes were designed to keep Liberian warring factions in business instead of striving to end the Liberian Civil War. Thus, these 'peace deals' became a lucrative business between peacekeepers and belligerent parties to the Liberian conflict at the expense of the precious lives of Liberian civilians: particularly women, children, teenagers, and the elderly.
Against this backdrop, Liberians accepted power-sharing terms like bitter pills so peace might prevail in Liberia. Therefore, Liberian terrorist warlords should definitely not be crying that it is ‘unconstitutional’ for them to abstain from participating in politics after they have brought so much death and destruction upon all of us. In other words, it is impossible at this stage of the Liberian peace process for Liberian terrorist warlords to cut their own cake and eat it. They must be willing to make amends with the Liberian people at this time and they must understand that the process of peace and reconciliation requires a spirit of give-and-take. In addition, banning Liberian terrorist warlords is constitutionally justified because these war criminals committed atrocious and rebellious acts against the Liberian State and its people; consequently, they are a threat to the safety of the Liberian society and people and they are also a threat to themselves.
Therefore, it is indeed constitutional to prohibit from running for public office Liberians who have committed treasonous acts and insurrection against the Liberian State, particularly when they have admitted to committing atrocities or when it is glaringly clear they abetted lawlessness and human carnage inside and outside of Liberia (including the Republics of Sierra Leone and Guinea for instance). Their unlawful acts were in contravention of the Constitution of Liberia, as well as the safety of the Liberian Nation State. Further, they also breached international and humanitarian laws by carrying on massive murder of hundreds of thousands of Liberian citizens. However, one major reason why these Liberian terrorist warlords believe they can get away with the atrocities they have committed with impunity is because Charles Taylor was arrested and charged with war crimes by the Sierra Leone led UN War Crime Tribunal because of atrocities he (Charles Taylor) allegedly committed against the people of Sierra Leone and humanity. Liberia does not have a UN led War Crime Court. As a result, Charles Taylor and other Liberian warlords have not been charged for the crimes they committed against the Liberian people because the Sirleaf Government has refused to give credence to the TRC recommendations that call for setting up a War Crime Court to formally charge and prosecute Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters.
Also, Liberians fault the United States Government through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the 'mysterious release' of Liberian terrorist leader, Charles Taylor, who spearheaded the mayhem with help from Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and many others whose names were submitted for prosecution by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As a direct consequence, the connivance of Liberian terrorist warlords with the CIA and other Western and African nations later led to the death of more than a quarter million Liberian citizens. In this light, these culprits who are now ruling Liberia committed treasonous acts against the Liberian State and people and we find that their atrocious acts are unconstitutional and that they should therefore be prosecuted with the full force of the laws of Liberia and international humanitarian and human rights laws.
In view of the foregoing, the United States of America should take responsibility for her actions in fueling the Liberian Civil War by 'releasing' Liberian terrorist leader Charles Taylor from maximum prison in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1985. Mr. Taylor himself confessed at his hearing in July of 2009 in The Hague that the American CIA secured his release from prison. Based on this event and circumstance, Liberia today is grieving the loss of more than 250,000 Liberian citizens, with thousands of Liberians lingering in refugee camps in African and Western and Far Eastern nations. Also, many Liberians would like to return home but they fear reprisals from Liberian terrorist warlords who are currently in power. As a consequence, there is a huge death toll among Liberian refugees due to the deplorable living conditions in which they are entangled around the globe, such as: economic hardships and lack of good medical care; due to feelings of disappointment about not being able to return to their homeland when the war was supposedly declared ended; and also due to separation from loved ones over a protracted period of time. For instance, my wife and I have not seen our eighty-year old mothers for more than thirteen years and we were unable to attend the burials of our fathers who were past eighty-five when they died while we were in exile because of safety issues.
Therefore, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, I would like to call upon you on behalf of millions of my countrymen and women to impose economic and political sanctions on the Sirleaf Government until the recommendations of the TRC can be implemented before presidential and general elections can be held in Liberia in 2011. The main reason for this clarion call is because the atrocious acts Liberian terrorist warlords committed against Liberians and humanity were unconstitutional and they indeed are in contravention of the charters of the United Nations, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States, as well as in contravention of international humanitarian and human rights laws. Thus, the continued presence of these terrorist warlords in the Liberian society at this time is subjugating the Liberian people to continued duress and psychological torture and trauma. It is also promoting the institution of lawlessness as the acceptable culture of Liberia and is replacing democracy with human carnage and disrespect for the dignity of the human person.
Mr. President and Madam First Lady, this is the catastrophic situation in Liberia today. International negotiators made the wrong decisions by entrusting the security of the State of Liberia and the lives of the Liberian people into the care of culprits who committed mayhem in contravention of the Constitution of Liberia. Thus, it can be likened to the owner of a herd of goats giving a leopard his goats to keep while he goes on a field trip. Hence, it is obvious that no goats will be left by the time the owner returns from his field trip because leopards prey on goats! Therefore, something must be done now to save the Liberian nation and its citizens from the frigid grips of gruesome murderers and perpetrators of injustice in Liberia. In this connection, it is important first for the recommendations of the TRC to be recognized by the Government on the ground; and that the Government will exercise its good will as a democratically elected Government of the people of Liberia to immediately begin the implementation of the TRC recommendations in the genuine interest of peace and reconciliation in post-conflict Liberia. For, to do otherwise, demonstrates on the part of Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that her Government does not stand for peace and reconciliation in Liberia.
In view of the above mentioned, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, now is the time for the American Government and people to save the day and make amends with the Liberian nation and people for the atrocities the United States partly abetted by releasing or not re-arresting Charles Taylor who was jailed in a maximum Plymouth prison cell in the State of Massachusetts. He was awaiting extradition for embezzling $900,000. Thus, as a result of his 'release' by the CIA Charles Taylor‟s terrorist actions caused the death of more than a quarter of a million Liberians. As a result, Liberia and its citizens experienced more disaster as a consequence of terrorist attack than the American nation and people did on September 11, 2001. In view of the foregoing, the atrocities that Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden inflicted upon the American people can in no way be compared or measured to the atrocities and mayhem Liberians experienced under Charles Taylor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and other Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters over the span of twenty years.
For an example, when Al-Qaeda used 19 hijackers and attacked by aircraft hijacking, mass murder, and suicide attack on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 between the hours of 8:46 a.m. to 10:28 a.m. via UTC-4, in three different locations (New York City, Arlington County, Virginia; and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania), it was reported that America lost approximately 2,973 victims, and 6,000 injured. Now, compare the American figure to the Liberian figure of more than 250,000 victims, more than 100,000 injured, and more than 1 million people displaced in their own homeland and in refugee camps around the world! From these projected figures, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, I am sure you now understand why Liberians are nervous about elections being held in 2011 when major hurdles to the successful accomplishment of the peace and reconciliation process have not been resolved in Liberia.
Further, I need not remind you, Your Excellencies, that Liberia is the Israel of the Black Race; that Liberia along with Haiti and the Empire of Ethiopia was the Beacon of Hope, of Black Independence and of Self-rule. Liberia was a peacemaker and an original signatory to the charters of the League of Nations, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States, among many others. In addition, Liberia contributed troops to the UN's efforts to end the civil war in the Congos in the early 1960s and Liberia spearheaded human rights cases at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the best interest of the Black Race and in pursuit of the total liberation of the African continent.
All these great contributions and Black symbolism that Liberia represents will go to waste if your Administration does not move swiftly to restore constitutional democracy and the rule of law to post-conflict Liberia through the Democratic Party of the United States and with Concressional bipartisan support. In this light, you can be a great help in restoring peace, genuine democracy and the rule of law to post-conflict Liberia by enforcing and recognizing the TRC recommendations in order to help bring to justice perpetrators of mayhem in Liberia. Hence, by so doing, this will also be in line with America‟s ardent desire to rid the world of terrorists and perpetrators of human carnage.
In conclusion, I thank you, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, for your patience and I look forward to a speedy and favorable response or resolution to our problems in Liberia. In addition, I am forwarding you this letter via mail and a copy of my most recently published book entitled: Conflict Resolution and the Concept of Change: A Reminder to the Truth and Reconciliation Process from the Liberian Perspective. It is my ardent wish that this book may inform you about the plight of the Liberian people, and I hope it may also subsequently authorize you to make an informed decision that will be in the best interest of the United States of America and the Republic of Liberia, respectively.
Respectfully yours,
Joseph Tomoon-Garlodeyh Gbaba, Sr., Ed. D.
Exiled Liberian Playwright & Artist/Scholar
April 4, 2010, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D. C. 20500, U. S. A.
By Joe Gbaba, Sr., Ed. D.
Exiled Liberian Playwright & Artist/Scholar
This open letter was prompted by the recent pronouncement made by Liberian terrorist warlords including incumbent President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Prince Johnson, and many supporters of mayhem in Liberia, declaring their candidacy and intent to run come 2011 presidential and general elections in Liberia. Obviously, the defiance of the President and her supporters regarding the recommendations of the TRC sets the unfriendly tone for political chaos and uneven playing field for all participants during the scheduled general elections in 2011. Consequently, it is mandatory that the verdict of Liberian terrorist warlords be determined before that time in order to ensure peace and security and the return to genuine democracy in Liberia next year.
Also, this letter is intended to request the American Government and people to make amends with the Government and people of Liberia for America’s dubious role in fueling the Liberian Civil War that led to the death of more than a quarter of a million Liberian citizens.
Dear President Barrack and Mrs. Michelle Obama:
This is an SOS call from me to you regarding the suffering of post-war Liberian citizens living in Liberia, as well as Liberian refugees residing in foreign lands such as the United States of America, Europe, Australia, and on the continent of Africa. My main reason for writing you is because Liberian citizens at home and those in the Diaspora are being held hostage by Liberian warlords like Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Prince Johnson, and many others who have committed heinous crimes against the Liberian people and humanity and who are still parading the corridors of power in Liberia with impunity. At the present moment, these war criminals have out rightly refused to implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), on grounds that the Act that established the TRC along with its recommendations is 'unconstitutional.' Therefore, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Prince Johnson, and many others, have announced their intent to run for public office during the forthcoming presidential and general elections in 2011, especially when they were banned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission not to participate in politics in Liberia for thirty years. In addition, the proper peace and reconciliation mechanisms have not been put in place in post-conflict Liberia as yet; therefore, the climate is not ripe for free and fair presidential and general elections in Liberia in 2011. However, smooth political transfer of power may be realized when the fate of Liberian terrorist warlords has been determined through constitutional means and with support from the international community. Consequently, this may ultimately and hopefully lead to the arrest, indictment, and prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes in Liberia, so that they may be tried at The Hague for atrocities they committed against the Liberian people and humanity. In this case, there will have been justice done; and the political playing field would then be even; and Liberians would be prepared to participate in free and fair presidential and general elections.
Mr. President and Madam First Lady, it is the living truth that these culprits financially and morally supported the Liberian Civil War and they subsequently actively participated in it and committed atrocities beyond proportion. Consequently, that led to the death of more than 250,000 Liberian citizens. Unfortunately, the Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters are the same ones who took over the helm of the Liberian State in cohort with international peace negotiators from the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This power-sharing arrangement was made by virtue of their being belligerent warlords who held all of us at gun point and also because they refused to cease hostilities if their demands were not met by international and local mediators. Therefore, the decision to allow culprits to head the Liberian Government was definitely in contravention of the Constitution of Liberia and it was against the will of the Liberian people as well.
However, power-sharing was allowed because the Liberian people were weary of war and they hoped that the perpetrators of human carnage would eventually reason and give way for true democracy to flourish after their first six year term of office was ended. Sad to say, these war criminals have remained inflexible and they continue to inflict suffering and economic hardships on all Liberians with impunity and without end. As a result, these violent prone Liberian citizens have intentionally stalled the truth and reconciliation process in Liberia at this time because they do not want to be arrested and prosecuted for the atrocities they committed during the Liberian Civil War. In addition, they have also dampened the hopes of Liberian refugees who would like to return home after general elections are held in 2011. This is because millions of Liberians (including myself) feel insecure living under the gavel of Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her terrorist supporters based on Mrs. Sirleaf‟s and her supporters‟ previous involvement in financing and abetting mayhem in Liberia.
Also, Liberia is being presently re-peopled by immigrants and ethnic groups from other West African states based on ECOWAS’ protocol while Liberians are lingering in refugee camps and dying from various curable diseases and sicknesses. These migrant workers and immigrants are non-Liberian citizens and they are gradually occupying the hinterland of Liberia and are displacing Liberians in their own country. As a result, there are numerous unresolved land disputes in Liberia at the writing of this open letter to you. Hence, if this kind of strategy continues for the next ten to twenty years, the new population of Liberia will be significantly different in terms of our history and culture and the deprivation of bonafide Liberians to own land on their own Native soil. Further, the Sirleaf Government continues to inflict hardships on all Liberians in terms of lack of Government control over prices of goods and services in Liberia; lack of employment opportunities and high unemployment rate; high death toll due to the lack of basic public utilities and mental health and medical services, as well as the lack of good communication networks, farm-to-markets roads, and public safety. In addition, post-war Liberians are deprived of the basic prerequisites of modern life, such as safe pipe-borne drinking water, electricity, well staffed schools, hospitals, clinics, and rehabilitation programs for former combatants and child soldiers and civilians who were traumatized by the civil war and by the atrocities they witnessed over the past twenty years.
Most of our children sit on bare floors to learn without the convenience of having desks and chairs to sit on in most of our classrooms. There are no culturally relevant textbooks and the educational system continues to project the hegemony of the minority Settler group that constitutes the ruling class of Liberia for nearly two centuries. Additionally, the educational system continues to neglect the history and culture of indigenous Liberians. Consequently, this type of educational system is creating more division among the Liberian people. In essence, it further suppresses the under served of the Liberian society and it puts most poor and uneducated Liberians at risk of being easily overpowered by alien cultures, and by self-hatred and self-dejection. Presently, ritualistic killing is on the rise as well and armed robbery is also a big safety factor to reckon with because many of Liberia‟s child soldiers and former combatants were not properly rehabilitated. As a consequence, there is a very high crime rate in the country and Liberian citizens are living in fear every day and night because they dare not speak up against Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters for fear of reprisals. Also, it is my belief that the Sirleaf Government neglected to properly rehabilitate former combatants and child soldiers so that they may have readied fighters whenever they once again decide to terrorize the Liberian people if election results do not turn out in their favor.
In addition, humanitarian aids provided through the good will of the international community are being mismanaged and not used for their intended purposes. Hence, there is a high degree of misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance in Liberia. In other words, officials of the Sirleaf Government are abusing their authority in order to achieve their desired result of getting rich over night and to perpetuate themselves in power. As a result, they carry out unlawful acts that cannot be legally justified or that conflict with the laws of the land (the Constitution of Liberia). Furthermore, the recent outright refusal of the Sirleaf Government to recognize the will of the Liberian people through the recommendations of the TRC is indeed practically the same as failure to meet legal obligations as the 'elected Government' of the Liberian people.
Also, due to the recent pronouncement made by Mrs. Sirleaf and her supporters, all Liberian refugees living abroad, as well as Liberian citizens living in Liberia, are concerned about national security issues, and Liberians are also concerned about the outright defiance and unconcerned attitude of Mrs. Sirleaf and her cohorts with regards to the inalienable rights of Liberian citizens and the mandates of the TRC. In this light, I strongly believe that there cannot be presidential and general elections in Liberia when there is a hung verdict concerning the fate of Liberian terrorist warlords who are holding hostage the Liberian peace process, especially by not recognizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations. Against these backdrops, it is safe to ask a battery of questions in order to arrive at the core of the argument of whether or not the TRC was an illegal and unconstitutional set up:
(1) If the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were 'unconstitutional' then when, why and how and for what reasons was it set up?
(2) Did Mrs. Sirleaf and her cohorts not know the TRC was an 'unconstitutional' set up
prior to the commencement and implementation of the functions of the TRC in Liberia and in the Diaspora
(3) If the TRC were 'illegal,' then from where did the TRC get seed monies to operate?
(4) Did the Sirleaf Government not provide funding for the TRC during the course of
the Commission‟s existence?
(5) Or, if the Sirleaf Government provided funding for the TRC to operate, then why
was it pumping Liberian Government funds in an 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional' body?
(6) Who appointed the Commissioners of the TRC and from where did the TRC get its
mandate?
(7) What is so 'unconstitutional' about a body being set up by the Liberian people to
resolve their national conflict?
(8) Which is more unconstitutional, to unite Liberian citizens and restore the rule of
law; or to divide and murder Liberian citizens through the force of arms?
(9) What was more unconstitutional than inciting Liberians against their own Nation
State so that they might take up arms and kill one another in cold blood?
(10) What was even more unconstitutional than to purchase weapons of mass
destruction that cost the precious lives of more than 250,000 Liberian citizens due to
the greed of Liberian terrorist warlords to regain political and economic power?
(11) Further, what was more heinous a crime than to recruit children between the
ages five and above as child soldiers and as innocent killing machines, so that Liberian
terrorist warlords might rule Liberia in contravention of the Constitution of the
Republic of Liberia?
(12) Besides, what was so constitutional about the formation of interim
governments outside of Liberia and outside of the Constitution of Liberia?
(13) What is the position or role of the UN, AU, ECOWAS, and the United States of
America, with respect to the implementation of the TRC recommendations in Liberia?
Further discussing the issue of constitutionality, it is safe to state at this juncture that Liberians accepted the various peace accords and power-sharing arrangements over time because Liberians were tired of war and they wanted peace. Thus, it was not because the ECOWAS, UN, or AU peace accords were constitutional in Liberian terms; but rather, it was because Liberians wanted peace. Of course, at that time Liberian terrorist warlords who are now crying in the name of ‘Constitution’ did not cry out to say it was 'unconstitutional' to set up interim governments in Abuja, Accra, Banjul, and Freetown and to select a group of supporters of heavily armed warring factions to hold prominent Government of Liberia positions as their spoils of war. Mind you, these are individuals who committed atrocities against the Liberian people and humanity and they insisted that they would not drop their arms unless they were rewarded with big Government jobs. Hence, most of the power-sharing schemes were designed to keep Liberian warring factions in business instead of striving to end the Liberian Civil War. Thus, these 'peace deals' became a lucrative business between peacekeepers and belligerent parties to the Liberian conflict at the expense of the precious lives of Liberian civilians: particularly women, children, teenagers, and the elderly.
Against this backdrop, Liberians accepted power-sharing terms like bitter pills so peace might prevail in Liberia. Therefore, Liberian terrorist warlords should definitely not be crying that it is ‘unconstitutional’ for them to abstain from participating in politics after they have brought so much death and destruction upon all of us. In other words, it is impossible at this stage of the Liberian peace process for Liberian terrorist warlords to cut their own cake and eat it. They must be willing to make amends with the Liberian people at this time and they must understand that the process of peace and reconciliation requires a spirit of give-and-take. In addition, banning Liberian terrorist warlords is constitutionally justified because these war criminals committed atrocious and rebellious acts against the Liberian State and its people; consequently, they are a threat to the safety of the Liberian society and people and they are also a threat to themselves.
Therefore, it is indeed constitutional to prohibit from running for public office Liberians who have committed treasonous acts and insurrection against the Liberian State, particularly when they have admitted to committing atrocities or when it is glaringly clear they abetted lawlessness and human carnage inside and outside of Liberia (including the Republics of Sierra Leone and Guinea for instance). Their unlawful acts were in contravention of the Constitution of Liberia, as well as the safety of the Liberian Nation State. Further, they also breached international and humanitarian laws by carrying on massive murder of hundreds of thousands of Liberian citizens. However, one major reason why these Liberian terrorist warlords believe they can get away with the atrocities they have committed with impunity is because Charles Taylor was arrested and charged with war crimes by the Sierra Leone led UN War Crime Tribunal because of atrocities he (Charles Taylor) allegedly committed against the people of Sierra Leone and humanity. Liberia does not have a UN led War Crime Court. As a result, Charles Taylor and other Liberian warlords have not been charged for the crimes they committed against the Liberian people because the Sirleaf Government has refused to give credence to the TRC recommendations that call for setting up a War Crime Court to formally charge and prosecute Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters.
Also, Liberians fault the United States Government through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the 'mysterious release' of Liberian terrorist leader, Charles Taylor, who spearheaded the mayhem with help from Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and many others whose names were submitted for prosecution by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As a direct consequence, the connivance of Liberian terrorist warlords with the CIA and other Western and African nations later led to the death of more than a quarter million Liberian citizens. In this light, these culprits who are now ruling Liberia committed treasonous acts against the Liberian State and people and we find that their atrocious acts are unconstitutional and that they should therefore be prosecuted with the full force of the laws of Liberia and international humanitarian and human rights laws.
In view of the foregoing, the United States of America should take responsibility for her actions in fueling the Liberian Civil War by 'releasing' Liberian terrorist leader Charles Taylor from maximum prison in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1985. Mr. Taylor himself confessed at his hearing in July of 2009 in The Hague that the American CIA secured his release from prison. Based on this event and circumstance, Liberia today is grieving the loss of more than 250,000 Liberian citizens, with thousands of Liberians lingering in refugee camps in African and Western and Far Eastern nations. Also, many Liberians would like to return home but they fear reprisals from Liberian terrorist warlords who are currently in power. As a consequence, there is a huge death toll among Liberian refugees due to the deplorable living conditions in which they are entangled around the globe, such as: economic hardships and lack of good medical care; due to feelings of disappointment about not being able to return to their homeland when the war was supposedly declared ended; and also due to separation from loved ones over a protracted period of time. For instance, my wife and I have not seen our eighty-year old mothers for more than thirteen years and we were unable to attend the burials of our fathers who were past eighty-five when they died while we were in exile because of safety issues.
Therefore, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, I would like to call upon you on behalf of millions of my countrymen and women to impose economic and political sanctions on the Sirleaf Government until the recommendations of the TRC can be implemented before presidential and general elections can be held in Liberia in 2011. The main reason for this clarion call is because the atrocious acts Liberian terrorist warlords committed against Liberians and humanity were unconstitutional and they indeed are in contravention of the charters of the United Nations, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States, as well as in contravention of international humanitarian and human rights laws. Thus, the continued presence of these terrorist warlords in the Liberian society at this time is subjugating the Liberian people to continued duress and psychological torture and trauma. It is also promoting the institution of lawlessness as the acceptable culture of Liberia and is replacing democracy with human carnage and disrespect for the dignity of the human person.
Mr. President and Madam First Lady, this is the catastrophic situation in Liberia today. International negotiators made the wrong decisions by entrusting the security of the State of Liberia and the lives of the Liberian people into the care of culprits who committed mayhem in contravention of the Constitution of Liberia. Thus, it can be likened to the owner of a herd of goats giving a leopard his goats to keep while he goes on a field trip. Hence, it is obvious that no goats will be left by the time the owner returns from his field trip because leopards prey on goats! Therefore, something must be done now to save the Liberian nation and its citizens from the frigid grips of gruesome murderers and perpetrators of injustice in Liberia. In this connection, it is important first for the recommendations of the TRC to be recognized by the Government on the ground; and that the Government will exercise its good will as a democratically elected Government of the people of Liberia to immediately begin the implementation of the TRC recommendations in the genuine interest of peace and reconciliation in post-conflict Liberia. For, to do otherwise, demonstrates on the part of Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that her Government does not stand for peace and reconciliation in Liberia.
In view of the above mentioned, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, now is the time for the American Government and people to save the day and make amends with the Liberian nation and people for the atrocities the United States partly abetted by releasing or not re-arresting Charles Taylor who was jailed in a maximum Plymouth prison cell in the State of Massachusetts. He was awaiting extradition for embezzling $900,000. Thus, as a result of his 'release' by the CIA Charles Taylor‟s terrorist actions caused the death of more than a quarter of a million Liberians. As a result, Liberia and its citizens experienced more disaster as a consequence of terrorist attack than the American nation and people did on September 11, 2001. In view of the foregoing, the atrocities that Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden inflicted upon the American people can in no way be compared or measured to the atrocities and mayhem Liberians experienced under Charles Taylor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and other Liberian terrorist warlords and their supporters over the span of twenty years.
For an example, when Al-Qaeda used 19 hijackers and attacked by aircraft hijacking, mass murder, and suicide attack on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 between the hours of 8:46 a.m. to 10:28 a.m. via UTC-4, in three different locations (New York City, Arlington County, Virginia; and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania), it was reported that America lost approximately 2,973 victims, and 6,000 injured. Now, compare the American figure to the Liberian figure of more than 250,000 victims, more than 100,000 injured, and more than 1 million people displaced in their own homeland and in refugee camps around the world! From these projected figures, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, I am sure you now understand why Liberians are nervous about elections being held in 2011 when major hurdles to the successful accomplishment of the peace and reconciliation process have not been resolved in Liberia.
Further, I need not remind you, Your Excellencies, that Liberia is the Israel of the Black Race; that Liberia along with Haiti and the Empire of Ethiopia was the Beacon of Hope, of Black Independence and of Self-rule. Liberia was a peacemaker and an original signatory to the charters of the League of Nations, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States, among many others. In addition, Liberia contributed troops to the UN's efforts to end the civil war in the Congos in the early 1960s and Liberia spearheaded human rights cases at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the best interest of the Black Race and in pursuit of the total liberation of the African continent.
All these great contributions and Black symbolism that Liberia represents will go to waste if your Administration does not move swiftly to restore constitutional democracy and the rule of law to post-conflict Liberia through the Democratic Party of the United States and with Concressional bipartisan support. In this light, you can be a great help in restoring peace, genuine democracy and the rule of law to post-conflict Liberia by enforcing and recognizing the TRC recommendations in order to help bring to justice perpetrators of mayhem in Liberia. Hence, by so doing, this will also be in line with America‟s ardent desire to rid the world of terrorists and perpetrators of human carnage.
In conclusion, I thank you, Mr. President and Madam First Lady, for your patience and I look forward to a speedy and favorable response or resolution to our problems in Liberia. In addition, I am forwarding you this letter via mail and a copy of my most recently published book entitled: Conflict Resolution and the Concept of Change: A Reminder to the Truth and Reconciliation Process from the Liberian Perspective. It is my ardent wish that this book may inform you about the plight of the Liberian people, and I hope it may also subsequently authorize you to make an informed decision that will be in the best interest of the United States of America and the Republic of Liberia, respectively.
Respectfully yours,
Joseph Tomoon-Garlodeyh Gbaba, Sr., Ed. D.
Exiled Liberian Playwright & Artist/Scholar
April 4, 2010, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.
Charles Taylor’s Officers On Britain’s War Crimes Search List
Source: http://www.newdemocratnews.com/story.php?record_id=1953&sub=14
Taylor’s Officers On Britain’s War Crimes Search List
Officers from Mr. Charles Taylor’s army are amongst others British Immigration and security services will be searching for in Britain for prosecution, according to a new law that has come into force, The Independent reports. The US and some European countries have adopted new laws allowing the prosecution of war criminals from other countries who live in America or some European states.
Britain is taking serious steps to ensure that war criminals are not allowed in the UK, and amongst the caseload Immigration and security services now have is that regarding suspected Liberian war criminals, many still in the UK. The cut-off point for investigating and prosecuting war criminals in Britain is 1991, but critics say the date should be taken back as far as 1948.
There are also discussions to include non-Brtish citizens for prosecution. The US is already ahead, with the law that war criminals on its soil will be prosecuted. The Independent:
“Last year the Justice Secretary Jack Straw committed Labour to ending Britain’s alleged reputation as a haven for war criminals and said cases dating back to 1991 could be considered. That rule comes into force today (7April).
“The potential caseload for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service includes high-ranking officers from the Afghan communist-era security service. Others identified by Aegis are a member of the Sudanese Janjaweed, several Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka, a member of the Mosquito rebel group from Sierra Leone, officers in Charles Taylor’s army in Liberia, a Somali warlord, a member of the Serb militia Arkan’s…” See full article, “Robert Verkaik: How Scotland Yard gave up hunt for war criminals.” The Independent: The decision to close Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit 11 years ago brought to an end Britain’s specialist involvement in the investigation of atrocities committed in the Second World War.
Many of the key Nazi suspects living in the UK had either died or were too ill to stand trial.
Under the old War Crimes Act brought in under Margaret Thatcher’s government only two cases ended in prosecution. A year later, in 2000, Labour was severely embarrassed by the case of General Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in London over war crimes committed in Chile in the 1970s.
While Britain wrestled in the 1990s with the consequences of historic war crimes committed more than 50 years ago, modern genocides in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo presented Britain’s criminal justice system with a new challenge.
Newly created international war crimes tribunals established to hold to account hundreds of war criminals from Africa and the former Yugoslavia could not tackle the problem of suspects who fell outside their jurisdiction and had found safe haven in the UK.
And in 2004 the Home Office gave greater emphasis to war crimes teams of specialists who looked at immigration cases considered by the UKBA. They prioritised evidence of war crimes and passed on the names of suspects to the Metropolitan Police.
Last year the Justice Secretary Jack Straw committed Labour to ending Britain’s alleged reputation as a haven for war criminals and said cases dating back to 1991 could be considered. That rule comes into force today.
Critics of the current system believe the Government must go further. A report from Parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee published last year said the 1991 cut-off date and a requirement that only UK residents should face prosecution would leave an “impunity gap” allowing war criminals to visit Britain without fear of prosecution. A cross-party group of MPs and peers say the 1991 cut-off date means the 1994 Rwandan massacres are covered but not the 1970s Cambodian genocide. They have urged the Government to go as far back as 1948 for genocide and 1949 for war crimes.
The potential caseload for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service includes high-ranking officers from the Afghan communist-era security service. Others identified by Aegis are a member of the Sudanese Janjaweed, several Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka, a member of the Mosquito rebel group from Sierra Leone, officers in Charles Taylor’s army in Liberia, a Somali warlord, a member of the Serb militia Arkan’s Tigers, a rebel from Angola and several Balkan suspects.
Mr Straw said last year: “It’s important that a strong message goes out that there are not going to be any safe havens for people who have committed these kinds of crimes.” But the prosecution figures speak for themselves – not a single case in nearly 10 years. It’s time the Government made sure the CPS and the police are given the resources to turn these words into convictions.
Independent
Taylor’s Officers On Britain’s War Crimes Search List
Officers from Mr. Charles Taylor’s army are amongst others British Immigration and security services will be searching for in Britain for prosecution, according to a new law that has come into force, The Independent reports. The US and some European countries have adopted new laws allowing the prosecution of war criminals from other countries who live in America or some European states.
Britain is taking serious steps to ensure that war criminals are not allowed in the UK, and amongst the caseload Immigration and security services now have is that regarding suspected Liberian war criminals, many still in the UK. The cut-off point for investigating and prosecuting war criminals in Britain is 1991, but critics say the date should be taken back as far as 1948.
There are also discussions to include non-Brtish citizens for prosecution. The US is already ahead, with the law that war criminals on its soil will be prosecuted. The Independent:
“Last year the Justice Secretary Jack Straw committed Labour to ending Britain’s alleged reputation as a haven for war criminals and said cases dating back to 1991 could be considered. That rule comes into force today (7April).
“The potential caseload for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service includes high-ranking officers from the Afghan communist-era security service. Others identified by Aegis are a member of the Sudanese Janjaweed, several Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka, a member of the Mosquito rebel group from Sierra Leone, officers in Charles Taylor’s army in Liberia, a Somali warlord, a member of the Serb militia Arkan’s…” See full article, “Robert Verkaik: How Scotland Yard gave up hunt for war criminals.” The Independent: The decision to close Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit 11 years ago brought to an end Britain’s specialist involvement in the investigation of atrocities committed in the Second World War.
Many of the key Nazi suspects living in the UK had either died or were too ill to stand trial.
Under the old War Crimes Act brought in under Margaret Thatcher’s government only two cases ended in prosecution. A year later, in 2000, Labour was severely embarrassed by the case of General Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in London over war crimes committed in Chile in the 1970s.
While Britain wrestled in the 1990s with the consequences of historic war crimes committed more than 50 years ago, modern genocides in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo presented Britain’s criminal justice system with a new challenge.
Newly created international war crimes tribunals established to hold to account hundreds of war criminals from Africa and the former Yugoslavia could not tackle the problem of suspects who fell outside their jurisdiction and had found safe haven in the UK.
And in 2004 the Home Office gave greater emphasis to war crimes teams of specialists who looked at immigration cases considered by the UKBA. They prioritised evidence of war crimes and passed on the names of suspects to the Metropolitan Police.
Last year the Justice Secretary Jack Straw committed Labour to ending Britain’s alleged reputation as a haven for war criminals and said cases dating back to 1991 could be considered. That rule comes into force today.
Critics of the current system believe the Government must go further. A report from Parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee published last year said the 1991 cut-off date and a requirement that only UK residents should face prosecution would leave an “impunity gap” allowing war criminals to visit Britain without fear of prosecution. A cross-party group of MPs and peers say the 1991 cut-off date means the 1994 Rwandan massacres are covered but not the 1970s Cambodian genocide. They have urged the Government to go as far back as 1948 for genocide and 1949 for war crimes.
The potential caseload for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service includes high-ranking officers from the Afghan communist-era security service. Others identified by Aegis are a member of the Sudanese Janjaweed, several Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka, a member of the Mosquito rebel group from Sierra Leone, officers in Charles Taylor’s army in Liberia, a Somali warlord, a member of the Serb militia Arkan’s Tigers, a rebel from Angola and several Balkan suspects.
Mr Straw said last year: “It’s important that a strong message goes out that there are not going to be any safe havens for people who have committed these kinds of crimes.” But the prosecution figures speak for themselves – not a single case in nearly 10 years. It’s time the Government made sure the CPS and the police are given the resources to turn these words into convictions.
Independent
Friday, March 26, 2010
Message to Political Party Leaders in Liberia on the TRC Final Report
Dear Fellow Liberians,
The TRC report is a good chance for you all to save Liberia from this unwanted night mare that continues to threaten our survival as a people as well as our very existence as a civilized nation.
The TRC report stands as a resurrecting pillar of our failed state (Liberia). If followed through, this pillar will uphold justice and truth for all Liberians. You all will agree with me that the TRC final report contains more than just accounts against perpetrators; the TRC’s final report has given a complete picture of the gross human rights violations that occurred as a result of the horrible conflict that ripped our country apart.
The TRC final report is a synthesized document, a shared history if you will, that can allow us to have a deep understanding of our past; it gives insight into the perspectives of those who supported the destruction of our country and took the lives of so many as well as those who were victims in one way or another who have been left to tell our story.
The TRC final recommendations about reconciliation, rehabilitation, justice, and reparation purposely minimized the magnitude of crimes committed during the war by some of our current leaders, in an effort to open the door of acceptance to the implementation of the TRC. Yet, some of our current leaders have refused to move forward with the TRC’s recommendations, choosing greed and pride over national interests. Of course, this attitude got Liberia in this mess in the first place.
Implementing the TRC’s recommendation is the only step our President can take to prove to the Liberian people that she puts the country first above everything else. Unfortunately, she is instead inciting the Liberian populace to come against the TRC report as well as refuse to honor it in its entirety. This is in stark contrast to what she alluded to at the inception of the TRC, which was that she whole heartedly supported its establishment, its continuity, and even suggested that she would respect the recommendations and implementation. Since the TRC’s recommendations would exclude her from Liberian politics, it is now considered by her and her administration unacceptable, and against the peace and stability of Liberia.
The TRC report would not destabilize Liberia, the act of not implementing it will. The TRC offers very specific guidance on how to stabilize our nation through truth, justice, and reconciliation instead of retaliation. The TRC report outlines ways in which we can cultivate a culture of human rights and build structures to ensure that the atrocities of the past do not reoccur. It also stresses the importance of healing as a nation through continued dialogue in an attempt to create one history and deter people from expressing their pain through violence.
Great men of Liberia, now that the TRC has done its part, we must ensure it is implemented. It is up to all of us, but mostly you, the elders and politicians who are in the spot light of national politics. Your role is critical to the future of Liberia. It would be on your shoulders, should Liberia slip into the abyss of total destruction because of your refusal to work together for the common good. One thing you are able to do as a group is to move people to action, but unless you first unite and move them with emotion, they won’t move at all. Once you have captured their hearts, you will have captured their minds. But you as leaders must have a stronger relationship and connection with one another. Which of you will be the first to step forward and take responsibility for the future of Liberia? I challenge each and every one of you to start a dialogue with your fellow politicians as well your fellow countrymen. Liberia’s capacity to achieve its greatness will be determined by your abilities to unite, connect, and empower your people to act for their own good.
Robert Goisueta writes, “One thing you must all know is that leadership is one of the things you cannot delegate. You either exercise it, or you abdicate it.” All of you are great leaders; therefore, I challenge you all to exercise your leadership by working together. Just as in sports, a coach needs a team of good players to win, a country needs a team of good leaders to succeed.
There are some who are very upset by the TRC report. Some sought to discredit it even before it was released to the public. They should not be allowed to succeed. They are aware that their points are meaningless, but until we stand up and remain steadfast in making sure that the TRC report is honored and implemented, they will continue to fight for the contrary. They will continue to test our courage to fight in favor of the TRC final report.
Fellow Liberians, let us accept the final report of the TRC as the way, an indispensable way, to healing our land, our people, and to bring unity and reconciliation, thereby casting off the shackles of history.
However, there are obstacles that must be overcome in order for progress to be made. Politicians must not seek to aggrandize themselves by claiming that only they know the solution to Liberia’s immense problems. The problem in Liberia is compound complex and needs more than one head to come up with durable solutions. You all continue to say the same thing over and over without any action thought or mention of collective action.
It holds no weight if you individually support the TRC report. Your power comes from your collective support of the TRC report. Why have you all not come together to draft a document in support of the TRC report? Who do we look to if not you? The war scattered us as a people and we look to you to reunite us as a nation and as a political force, for the people are the government, are they not?
The world will respect such a document because it represents the voice of the people. But if hundreds of you run to congress everyday saying the same thing over and over, it becomes very difficult for even the US to work with any of you because you have not streamlined into one entity. The US Congress is not a branch of the Liberian government, and we must make it as easy as possible to understand the true plight of Liberia and to assist us.
Do not allow your individual political ideologies or affiliations overshadow the pressing issues at hand. Power cupidity will not solve the problems in Liberia. You all cry corruption, hardship, embezzlement, and the lack of rule of law in Liberia. But all of you continue to refuse to work together to solve these problems that are affecting the Liberian people. Will you not step up to rescue this drowning nation?
I hope this letter will serve as a conduit through which you all will be moved and decide to work together for the sake of the restoration of peace, reconciliation, justice and stability in Liberia. If there was ever a time in history that begged for you all to work together, it is now for Liberia is in grave danger!
I hope to hear from you all as soon as possible.
Bernard Gbayee Goah
503 646 1896
________________________
I have a responsibility to help Liberia become a better country. I have come to realize that there is no workable system in Liberia as such; the foundation upon which a lawful government must function does not exist. The situation in Liberia cannot be fixed unless the entire system of government is reinvented. Liberia needs a workable but uncompromising system that will make the country an asylum free from abuse and other forms of corruption. Any attempt to institute the system mentioned above in the absence of rule of law is meaningless, and more detrimental to Liberia as a whole.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Corruption Has Brought Down Many Great Nations
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201002170521.html
Corruption Has Brought Down Many Great Nations
David Sseppuuya
16 February 2010
Opinion
Kampala — Lest we forget, many great nations and empires have been brought down by corruption. Even civilisations, have undergone, owing to the sheer weight of corruption.
- Rome - so powerful, so vibrant, yet so soft in the moral centre. The collapse of the Roman Empire was caused mainly by corruption in the leadership, many have argued. In Corruption and the Decline of Rome (1988), Ramsay MacMullen, a leading historian, argues that the collapse was caused by economic conflict between the upper and lower classes of the empire.
- The Soviet Union - nuclear super power, puppet master of the Eastern Bloc, champion of social equality, but ultimately the real life playing out of Orwell's Animal Farm.
- Some have postulated that the "coming collapse of America as we know it" will be the consequence of corporate greed and corruption. Snippets of it have been evident in the last three years, with inherent economic weaknesses in the US plunging the world into recession.
Which way, Uganda? The choices are stark - either go the way of integrity in governance, or enjoy the short-term benefits of degenerate governance and social existence, while slowly but surely knotting the rope by which the country will hang itself.
Corruption, with all its facets - moral, financial probity, political accountability, personal discipline, social consciousness - manifests itself fairly strongly in just about every aspect of Ugandan life.
Quite apart from the usual suspects - the managers of (financial and material) resources - the custodians of public trust like politicians, the Church, educators, civic leaders and civil servants, as well as family heads, and even primary school children aspiring for class monitor, have fallen foul of the false allure of corruption. And how about the private individual who will not pay her taxes, or let alone the car owner who will not respect traffic rules?
When they compiled the Uganda Country Report
http://www.nepaduganda.or.ug/documents/CountryReviewReport-Uganda.zip, the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) noted that corruption was cross-cutting (that is a broad) problem shooting across the four areas of concern, of democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, socio-economic development and corporate governance. But what, then, is the way forward?
Speaking in Kampala at a public lecture by Sundulos Africa Leadership Training last July, Ghanaian Prof Stephen Adei, an authority on governance in Africa, told Ugandans that "a country without think tank capacity is like a human being without a brain."
Think-tank is the way to go. APRM has taken our governance issues to public discourse, in the form of the Uganda Governance Forum, where stakeholders openly discuss the day's concern and plot a way forward.
The Governance Forum debate on corruption, under the theme 'Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Legal and Institutional Framework for Combating Corruption in Uganda', last month drew a diverse crowd that included the Principal Judge, the Inspector General of Government (IGG), the ethics minister, legislators, academics, church leaders, politicos and politicians of all hue and colour, students and activists, and business leaders. The IGG set the tone from the outset by emphasising that corruption needs honest discussion at all levels.
The consensus is that Uganda has enough, and some even think, a surfeit, of anti-corruption laws.
Witness the Constitution itself, the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Police Act, the Leadership Code, the IGG Act 2002, the Local Government Act, the Access to Information Act, among others.
We could probably get the Whistleblowers Bill and a Witness Protection Bill coming through the legislative processes.
So, it is not for the lack of legislation and, as the Principal Judge puts it, "we should not rely only on the law." We must, as the ethics minister says, cut out "the hypocrisy, double standards and lip-service" that has thus far characterised the anti-corruption drive. Legalism can only help so much, but we should, as well, look at the moral and other extra-judicial approaches. Noting a less-than-zealous willingness to tackle corruption, the think tank has the following recommendations:
- Leadership Code - the public service should ensure that public servants declare wealth at the start of service and monitor it consistently; expand wealth declaration beyond the current pool of public leaders
- Institutions - the Executive must act on recommendations of commissions of inquiry; Parliament must debate and act on Auditor General and IGG annual reports; check actual cost of services and products
- Morals - faith groups must emphasise moral education; moral aptitude tests be part of recruitment policy
- Judiciary - the Judiciary's role is not to fight corruption. There is a need to look beyond prima facie (first sight) evidence; get more judges and magistrates to tackle backlog; consider confiscating/recovering wealth/stolen loot of the corrupt.
As Uganda seeks to transform, the Governance Forum will sit monthly, making its contribution to what management scientist J.P. Kotter calls "a guiding coalition, a coalition which at the national level is a think tank".
Corruption has had its day for much too long. It is too late for the Romans, and the Soviets are but a footnote in history. Where does Uganda want to be?
The writer is a media consultant
Corruption Has Brought Down Many Great Nations
David Sseppuuya
16 February 2010
Opinion
Kampala — Lest we forget, many great nations and empires have been brought down by corruption. Even civilisations, have undergone, owing to the sheer weight of corruption.
- Rome - so powerful, so vibrant, yet so soft in the moral centre. The collapse of the Roman Empire was caused mainly by corruption in the leadership, many have argued. In Corruption and the Decline of Rome (1988), Ramsay MacMullen, a leading historian, argues that the collapse was caused by economic conflict between the upper and lower classes of the empire.
- The Soviet Union - nuclear super power, puppet master of the Eastern Bloc, champion of social equality, but ultimately the real life playing out of Orwell's Animal Farm.
- Some have postulated that the "coming collapse of America as we know it" will be the consequence of corporate greed and corruption. Snippets of it have been evident in the last three years, with inherent economic weaknesses in the US plunging the world into recession.
Which way, Uganda? The choices are stark - either go the way of integrity in governance, or enjoy the short-term benefits of degenerate governance and social existence, while slowly but surely knotting the rope by which the country will hang itself.
Corruption, with all its facets - moral, financial probity, political accountability, personal discipline, social consciousness - manifests itself fairly strongly in just about every aspect of Ugandan life.
Quite apart from the usual suspects - the managers of (financial and material) resources - the custodians of public trust like politicians, the Church, educators, civic leaders and civil servants, as well as family heads, and even primary school children aspiring for class monitor, have fallen foul of the false allure of corruption. And how about the private individual who will not pay her taxes, or let alone the car owner who will not respect traffic rules?
When they compiled the Uganda Country Report
http://www.nepaduganda.or.ug/documents/CountryReviewReport-Uganda.zip, the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) noted that corruption was cross-cutting (that is a broad) problem shooting across the four areas of concern, of democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, socio-economic development and corporate governance. But what, then, is the way forward?
Speaking in Kampala at a public lecture by Sundulos Africa Leadership Training last July, Ghanaian Prof Stephen Adei, an authority on governance in Africa, told Ugandans that "a country without think tank capacity is like a human being without a brain."
Think-tank is the way to go. APRM has taken our governance issues to public discourse, in the form of the Uganda Governance Forum, where stakeholders openly discuss the day's concern and plot a way forward.
The Governance Forum debate on corruption, under the theme 'Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Legal and Institutional Framework for Combating Corruption in Uganda', last month drew a diverse crowd that included the Principal Judge, the Inspector General of Government (IGG), the ethics minister, legislators, academics, church leaders, politicos and politicians of all hue and colour, students and activists, and business leaders. The IGG set the tone from the outset by emphasising that corruption needs honest discussion at all levels.
The consensus is that Uganda has enough, and some even think, a surfeit, of anti-corruption laws.
Witness the Constitution itself, the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Police Act, the Leadership Code, the IGG Act 2002, the Local Government Act, the Access to Information Act, among others.
We could probably get the Whistleblowers Bill and a Witness Protection Bill coming through the legislative processes.
So, it is not for the lack of legislation and, as the Principal Judge puts it, "we should not rely only on the law." We must, as the ethics minister says, cut out "the hypocrisy, double standards and lip-service" that has thus far characterised the anti-corruption drive. Legalism can only help so much, but we should, as well, look at the moral and other extra-judicial approaches. Noting a less-than-zealous willingness to tackle corruption, the think tank has the following recommendations:
- Leadership Code - the public service should ensure that public servants declare wealth at the start of service and monitor it consistently; expand wealth declaration beyond the current pool of public leaders
- Institutions - the Executive must act on recommendations of commissions of inquiry; Parliament must debate and act on Auditor General and IGG annual reports; check actual cost of services and products
- Morals - faith groups must emphasise moral education; moral aptitude tests be part of recruitment policy
- Judiciary - the Judiciary's role is not to fight corruption. There is a need to look beyond prima facie (first sight) evidence; get more judges and magistrates to tackle backlog; consider confiscating/recovering wealth/stolen loot of the corrupt.
As Uganda seeks to transform, the Governance Forum will sit monthly, making its contribution to what management scientist J.P. Kotter calls "a guiding coalition, a coalition which at the national level is a think tank".
Corruption has had its day for much too long. It is too late for the Romans, and the Soviets are but a footnote in history. Where does Uganda want to be?
The writer is a media consultant
‘Most Formidable Force’ Senator PYJ Adds Doubts On Presidential Declaration
Monrovia - When he announced immediately following the President’s declaration of her intention to run for a second term that he too will be contesting the presidency in 2011, Nimba County Senior Senator Prince Johnson (independent) who hastily arranged a few journalists in what seemed like an impromptu press conference did not mention that he was petitioned by the Liberian people; yet during Wednesday’s Focus on Africa program broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the former warlord told the world that he was petitioned by the Liberian people and not a self-declaration on intent.- When he announced immediately following the President’s declaration of her intention to run for a second term that he too will be contesting the presidency in 2011, Nimba County Senior Senator Prince Johnson (independent) who hastily arranged a few journalists in what seemed like an impromptu press conference did not mention that he was petitioned by the Liberian people; yet during Wednesday’s Focus on Africa program broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the former warlord told the world that he was petitioned by the Liberian people and not a self-declaration on intent.
“Who am I to say no when my people ask me to lead them?” Senator Johnson said when he was quizzed by the BBC journalist about his recent declaration.
MESSAIC CALLING?
"The people see me as someone who always stands in their defense and they decided to petition me. So, I must follow the people’s request”.
Senator Prince Y. Johnson(Independent-Nimba County
“The people see me as someone who always stands in their defense and they decided to petition me. So, I must follow the people’s request”, the senator said.
Just a few minutes after President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced her second presidential bid interest at the end of her controversial State of the Nation Address on January 25 before members of Liberia’s 52nd National Legislature on Capitol Hill, the once-fearful warlord-turned politician wasted no time in declaring his intention to contest next year’s presidential election as he declared that he will be the ‘most formidable’ force in the race, thereby implying that he will beat the incumbent President Sirleaf as she too had just announced few minutes to Senator Johnson’s declaration that she will be a formidable force.
“She said she will be a formidable force. We are saying we will be the most formidable force”, the Nimba County lawmaker had said as he revealed that his legislative colleague, Grand Cape Mount County Senior Senator Abel Massalley (National Patriotic Party-NPP) as his running mate.
Whether he and his new political partner will be the most formidable force to reckon with in the 2011 elections or not, what remains very sticky is the senator’s refusal to state that he was petitioned by the Liberian people during his brief post-state of the nation address press conference.
Anyone who is cognizant of the political landscape in Liberia fully knows that the petitioning of individuals, whether staged-managed or not, for elect-able posts are always characterized by a group of people formally giving the group’s petition to their prospective candidate most often done during a formal gathering or program.
Senator Johnson was the leader of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), a splinter group of then-rebel leader Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
Many still believe that Senator Johnson is still temperamental as he was during his INPFL days evidenced from his hasty press conference in which he declared his intention. They believe that he may have been provoked by the President’s broken promise of the 2005 campaign which may have angered him prompting a self-declaration instantly in an apparent move to make President Sirleaf aware of a muddy political battlefield in 2011 especially when it comes to acquiring votes from Nimba County. This, they believe, was the case that led to Senator Johnson’s instant declaration which could not have possibly been a petition from any group as he even gave the announcement in the absence of his running-mate, Senator Massalley, though he, Senator Massalley, confirmed his political partnership with Senator Johnson days later.
‘PYJ’, as he is otherwise referred to especially during his warrior days, during Tuesday’s regular session told fellow legislative members of the Liberian Senate that his new party will be named National Union for Democracy and Progress (NUDP).
Since his announcement, many have held the opinion that the decision of the ‘most formidable’ candidate for 2011 is aimed at pressuring President Sirleaf, especially in his vote-rich county of Nimba where he brags about collecting the highest number of votes during the 2005 elections.
The former warlord’s confidence to throw his hat into what promises to be one of the tensely contested presidential elections in post-war Liberia might have stemmed from this backdrop of getting the highest number of votes from the country’s second largest populated county which makes him to apparently believe that Liberians have forgiven him in part despite being indicted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia.
Apart from recommending him for prosecution for massacre and other war crimes, the Final Report of the TRC is also recommending that the former warlord be made to account for the remains of former President Samuel K. Doe who was captured and killed by him in less than a year’s time from the launching of the Taylor-led rebel invasion nine months earlier.
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