Charles Taylor is innocent until proven guilty, and he was very, very rich

Liberia’s Information Minister appealed to Liberian and Sierra Leonean journalists to treat former leader Charles Taylor innocent into proven guilty. Taylor of Liberia is presently on trial in The Hague for 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity during fighting in neighboring Sierra Leone. He denies the charges.

"The stories you write, the interviews and questions you ask, and the analyses you provide, indeed, have serious implications in our both countries," Dr. Lawrence K. Bropleh said, according to The News in Monrovia.

He’d like to see an independent commission to monitor and evaluate the media coverage from both post-conflict countries.

Nonetheless, here is something they may have to chew on. The chief prosecutor in the case against Taylor claims the former leader had at one time nearly $5 billion in U.S. bank accounts. Taylor has long denied that he bought weapons to fuel the war machine through illicit sales of Liberian diamonds and timber. (The diamond sales are documented here.)

For Liberian logging companies, the past may come back to haunt

It wasn’t long ago that we posted a little piece on the politics surrounding Liberia’s decision to open up the bidding process for logging companies to begin cutting trees and selling the lumber on the international market. This made news because in 2003 the UN Security Council banned the country from exporting timber because profits from the industry were going to purchase guns and fueling the country’s civil war.

Even though it will be providing jobs and much needed financial resources to the country, re-launching the timber sector is something of a controversial move. For one, many timber companies have bloody hands from their role in the decade-long civil war. Thus, the government decided not to grant licenses to those companies involved in aiding and abetting civil disturbances, codewords, apparently, for involvement with warlords.

Anyway, the Forest Development Authority has now barred 17 logging companies from taking part in the new timber contracts. The Inquirer from Monrovia claims that these companies have been accused of at least one of the following actions: supporting militias, facilitating sales of arms for timber, or aiding civil instability. So far, one company has appealed the decision.

If a tree falls in Liberia, who will profit?

Three companies in Liberia are getting ready to begin logging, creating jobs and funding basic services, the government and other development agencies say.

The United Nations Security Council banned Liberia from exporting timber in 2003, after learning warlords were diverting profits to purchase weapons, expanding fighting in that country and Sierra Leone. At that point, timber sales made up 20 percent of the country’s GDP, increasing significantly from 6 percent more than a decade before.

A World Bank forestry export working in Liberia told IRIN that logging will begin bringing in nearly $2 for the Liberian government this year, but that amount will jump to $26 million by the end of 2010. As part of the reform agreed to by the government to have the timber ban lifted, an international group of development agencies, the World Bank and USAID will monitor logging and profits to avoid illegal logging and the siphoning of revenue.

A group of internal and West African environmental organizations argue that the international group nor the Liberian government has not been stringent enough in properly vet those groups and individuals applying for logging licenses. One particular problem they see is loopholes in the rules against awarding contracts to “those who have aided and abetted civil disturbances.”

As former Liberian-based human rights campaigner Shelby Grossman points out in her blog, the groups are most likely speaking about Maryland Wood Processing Industries, owned by Abbas Fawas, a Lebanese man that allegedly worked closely with Charles Taylor. There’s a whole host of ugly stuff about Abbas on the internet; absent from the trial against Charles Taylor, his name does appear in testimony at the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Most importantly, it is unknown whether Abbas has applied for a permit to continue logging.

It should be remembered that the Liberian president recently tabled a law that would make it illegal for foreigners to own business in 26 sectors, a move supported by most of the local business community. The bill came about over fears of Lebanese power within Liberian economy.

In their press release, the environmental groups also claim that the country -- like other West African nations -- has not passed a proper community rights law that will codify who exactly will profit from the extraction of resources, a noted method to insure rural development.

Open letter from Human Rights Watch to Ban Ki-moon

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is currently touring four West African states. On the eve of that trip, Human Rights Watch wrote an open letter to the Secretary General regarding outstanding human rights issues in Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire.

Here are the excerpts.

Liberia:

While the [Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission]—empowered to recommend for prosecution the most serious offenders—has made significant progress chronicling a record of abuses, there appears to be no national strategy and little discussion by Liberian or international actors for holding perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to account. Human Rights Watch believes that the many victims of these unspeakable crimes deserve justice for what they have suffered, and that prosecutions of the most serious crimes committed would go a long way towards consolidating and firmly anchoring respect for the rule of law in Liberia.

During your discussions with representatives of Liberia’s government and civil society we therefore urge you to emphasize the importance of accountability for past human rights violations, and also to encourage them to develop a strategy for prosecuting those allegedly responsible for the most egregious crimes. Given the persistent weaknesses in the Liberian justice system, international support is very likely to be necessary to ensuring justice for these crimes.

Cote d’Ivoire:

Impunity for Past and Ongoing Human Rights Abuses: Côte d’Ivoire is characterized today by an intense focus on the part of nearly all actors with a stake in the Ivorian crisis—at both the international and local levels—on the process leading towards upcoming presidential elections, currently scheduled for November of this year. While Human Rights Watch salutes the progress that has been made in implementing the Ouagadougou Agreement and the role the United Nations has played therein, we are concerned that in its narrow focus on elections, the international community risks losing sight of the need to resolve issues of impunity for human rights violations that are critical not only to calm during the upcoming elections themselves, but also to long-term prospects for peace and stability.

Despite the relative decrease in political tensions since the signing of the Ouagadougou Agreement, impunity for past and ongoing violations of human rights persists. Should political tensions rise in the lead-up to elections, Human Rights Watch is concerned that the prevailing climate of impunity could facilitate a dramatic resurgence of human rights abuses, which in turn could threaten the integrity of the elections themselves. It is therefore imperative that the international community begin to work with the government of Côte d’Ivoire in advance of the elections to tackle issues arising from impunity and the need for justice.

The letter called for three ways the United Nations could continue its critical role:

• Initiate a public dialogue regarding the human rights abuses that occurred during the civil war.
• Publish the findings of the 2002 study on human rights violations in the country
• Push the Ivorian government to accept a mission of the International Criminal Court to asses the possibility of an investigation regarding crimes committed in the country.

Liberian refugees in Ghana to be repatriated in six months?

From The Inquirer:

Latest reports from Accra, Ghana say the Government of that country and Liberia in collaboration with the UNHCR have signed a tripartite agreement for the repatriation of Liberian refugees from that country within six months.

The tripartite agreement was signed last Wednesday at the Ghanaian Interior Ministry, following discussions between the three sides.

According to Deputy Information Minister, Gabriel Williams, who is currently in Accra, Ghana, he told this paper yesterday that the agreement spelt out that the repatriation process began as of April 15, 2008.

Mr. Williams, who spoke to this paper when he was contacted on the issue to provide details of the agreement, said the Ghanaian Minister of Interior, Mr. Kwanena Dartels, signed on behalf of his country while the Deputy Internal Affairs Minister of Liberia, Madam Estelle Liberty who is heading the Liberian delegation to the talks signed on behalf of Liberia.

…

In a related development, a court in Ghana is expected to rule next Friday on whether the Ghanaian government acted correctly or wrongly over the issue concerning the repatriation of the refugees.

The court's ruling comes against the backdrop of a petition filed with the court by some human rights groups who contended that the Ghanaian authority acted wrongly and reportedly mal-handled the refugees.

Talks over Liberian refugees in Ghana concluding

The News:

Discussions among the tripartite committee set up to conduct an orderly repatriation of thousands of Liberian refugees from the Buduburum Camp in Ghana are concluding, Information Minister Dr. Laurence Bropleh has disclosed.

Minister Bropleh told a news conference at his Capitol Hill office Wednesday that discussions among representatives from the Liberian government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Ghanaian government have being cordial.

"The government wants an orderly repatriation of Liberians living in the camp and has ensured that our citizens are treated fairly while awaiting their final repatriation back to Liberia," Dr. Bropleh noted.

According to UNHCR official record, there are about 42,000 Liberians currently living in the Buduburum Camp following the expiration of the voluntarily repatriation exercise last June.

Liberian refugees have been living in the Buduburum camp since the civil war erupted some 18 years ago.

Human rights groups in Ghana sue government over treatment of Liberian refugees

A coalition of Ghanaian human rights groups has sued the Accra government for its treatment of Liberian refugees.

Ghanaian police arrested more than 600 Liberian refugees – mostly women and children – on March 17 at the Buduburam camp after a five week sit-in strike in front of the camp. A few days later, police reentered the camp and arrested about 30 men who they claimed were causing trouble.

Nearly 40,000 Liberian refugees reside in Ghana, some who have lived there since 1990 when the country’s civil war began. Most of them live in Buduburam camp, just outside of Accra.

The protesters were demanding UNHCR, the UN refugee organization, either resettling them in a third country – like the U.S. or a European country – or increasing their repatriation allowance from $100 to $1000 if they were to return to Liberia.

From IRIN:

The Human Rights Coalition is filing a suit on behalf of one of the detained refugees, Chucider Lawrence, asking the Ghanaian government to release her and provide justification for her arrest and detention.

“We want to test the law with this case and depending on the outcome we will proceed with a general suit to compel the government to answer to the gross human rights abuses of the [all the detained] refugees,” said Amuzu.

Under Ghanaian law no one can be detained for more than 48 hours without being arraigned.

The Ghanaian government has justified its action saying the refugees have violated laws by protesting to the police without notice.

“Further deportations have not been discarded,” said Ghana deputy information minister, Frank Agyekum, however he also said the deportations have been suspended pending the outcome of diplomatic discussions with the Liberian government.

Ghana has attempted to invoke the 1951 Refugee Convention claiming that once conditions improve in person’s country of origin, it is no longer necessary that the host government supports them.

In other news, the UNHCR has asked Ghana’s government to cease forcibly deporting refugees who are registered with the organization.

"It is very unfortunate that the unacceptable actions of a few have led to this situation,” said George Okoth-Obbo, the UNHCR Director of International Protection Services. “Refugees of course have the duty to respect the laws of the country of asylum established for good public order. Any further sit-ins, demonstrations or other unlawful acts must cease unconditionally. At the same time, while fully understanding the frustration of the authorities, I would like to reiterate UNHCR's call to the Government not to make any further deportations and to work with us to address the situation through other mechanisms available within the laws of Ghana. Unfortunately, the victims in all of this are the innocent majority of Liberian refugees who call Ghana home".

Liberian refugees in Ghana: Protests are only tip of the iceberg

On February 19, a group of women refugees from Liberia began a sit-in protest on a soccer pitch directly in front of the Buduburam refugee camp, which lies just west of the capital Accra. The women were demanding immediate resettlement to third countries, or if they were returned to Liberia, UNHCR, the United Nations refugee organization should increase their return grant from $100 to $1000.

After four weeks, the sit-in protest had gathered steam, and the government of Ghana claimed the refugees were violating the public order by blocking traffic and preventing students from attending school. On March 17 police entered the camp and arrested nearly 700 women and children. The government of Liberia condemned the protestors’ “unruly” conduct and apologized to the Ghanaian president. (Here’s a second-hand version of the police action.)

Five days after the first arrests, Ghanaian police swept again through the camp, this time searching for men officers had accused of further fomenting dissent, with rumors swirling that they had cached weapons and were trafficking cocaine. (Neither weapons nor drugs were found.) Press reports claimed many of the wanted men had fled to the bush, yet police arrested around 35 people. (Reports from refugees claimed that the arrests were carried out at random.) At least half of those arrested were not registered as refugees, the Ghanaian government claimed, so officials deported 16 people to Liberia, a move that raised the ire of human rights groups and UNHCR.

Civil wars
Liberian refugees first began arriving in Ghana in 1990, and the refugee population exploded later that decade when the country’s civil war broke out full bore. As recently as 2006, 40,000 Liberians were living in the camp. Delegations of the two governments recently met over the refugees’ status and are working out a plan to repatriate the more than 24,000 Liberian refugees still living in the country.

Semantics King jr., a six-year resident of the Buduburam camp, currently lives in Minnesota in the United States. A journalist working in radio, he fled to Ghana in 2000 after receiving death threats. When he was living in the camp, he launched The Vision newspaper, which provided news to refugees and training to young journalists. Since moving to the U.S., he began the New Liberian.

He said the women began the soccer-pitch protest because they had heard the UNHCR was sitting on the money intended to repatriate the refugees back to Liberia. Rumors began spreading through the camp from the Liberian legislature, he said, claiming Sierra Leone refugees currently living in Liberia were to receive $15,000 per family to reconstruct their homes. The women argued that if the UNHCR could spend $15,000 per Sierra Leone family, the organization could easily spend $1,000 per Liberian refugee.

The UNHCR began a voluntary resettlement project in 2004, but very few refugees took the group up on the offer. Most people worried the $100 repatriation fee would not adequately cover resettling in war-scarred Liberia. Other refugees worried about returning to a country where they had no family ties. Continuing ethnic violence is yet another reason so many remain at the camp. Instead of returning to Liberia, some refugees would like to be resettled to a third country, like Canada or the United States.

The heart of the matter
The UNHCR’s resettlement program was not the only factor in the protests, King said. “The conditions of the camp are appalling,” he told me by telephone. “I lived there for six years and I came to realize that UNHCR has done nothing good for the refugees.”

He said that from 1997 to 2003, the UN group all but pulled out of the camp, hoping that refugees would begin resettling after Charles Taylor officially took power after the 1997 election. Since the agency has returned, refugees continue to provide for their own basic needs. “[Refugees] fend for themselves at the camp,” he said. “There is no food. There is no water to take a bath. You have to pay to educate your children.”

Some people questioned why Liberian refugees could not simply repatriate in Ghana, another Anglophone West African country. King says many scoffed at the idea mostly because of the little protection the Ghanaian government has offered refugees. Not only is paying school fees an issue, but he maintains that Ghanaian police often drag their feet when investigating crimes against Liberians, including more than a few grisly murders that have taken place inside and outside the camp. “People in Ghana don’t like the refugees, he said. “How can you talk about integration when there is no protection for refugees?”

One of the reason for the prosecution of refugees, he said, is the Ghanaian press often paints them in a negative light with blatant one-sided reports (another reason he began The Vision). “Until recently no Ghanaian journalist ever set foot in the refugee camp to take a look at what these people were (and are still) going through,” he said. (Here is an example of reporting on the refugee situation in the Ghanaian press.)

With the demands of the refugees hardening, along with the position of the Ghanaian government, the UNHCR has to find a solution soon before the atmosphere at the camp reaches a tipping point. “If they don’t act now,” King said. “And people are allowed to stay in that camp, we are going to hear from very bad things in the next one to three years. The international community really needs to look at the demands of the refugees.”

Liberian census gets underway

Today, the Liberian government will begin its first census of the country in more than a quarter century. It's an effort to better serve the population, government leaders say. "Without data, there is no way to target your resources properly," Edward Liberty, who heads the agency charged with carrying out the census, told the Associated Press.

From that story:

For more than a year, over 9,000 census-takers have combed the densely forested nation mapping every structure. For three days starting Friday, they will revisit each dwelling and count the inhabitants.

The preparations, including the marking of dwellings, have given birth to rumors. Some wonder if its part of a military recruitment drive, a potent fear in a country where boys as young as 5 were handed machine guns and forced to fight. Others believe it's in preparation for new taxes.

To try to dispel these and other rumors, the government commissioned a pop star to compose a catchy tune about the census. It's been translated into Liberia's 16 languages and is playing daily on the radio, urging Liberians to "stand up and be counted."

Throughout the country's interior, billboards have been erected reminding villagers to stay home for three days starting Friday to properly be counted. Schools are closed through the end of the census.

Should I stay or should I go: The question facing Liberian refugees in Ghana

A friend who was in Ghana last week asked me “do you know why the Liberian refugees are protesting in Accra?” I had heard nothing about it, but apparently the people of Accra have heard plenty.

A group of refugees demonstrating at the Buduburan camp claim they are dead set against integrating into Ghanaian society and would like to be resettled somewhere else, preferably a western country. For those refugees willing to voluntarily return to Liberia, they demand to receive $1000 to do so. The Ghanaian government issued a statement condemning the demonstration, which according to Vibe Ghana, has closed all schools in the camp and halted food distribution for neglected populations. (I can’t confirm this.)

Liberian refugees have lived in Ghana since 1990. Today, Buduburan, just outside the metropolis of Accra, is home to some 24,000 Liberian refuges spread out over 141 acres. As of December 2007, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, admitted it is promoting the idea that the Liberians may be better off remaining in Ghana and integrating into the community. (Ghana hosts the largest refugee population in West Africa, mostly Liberians and Togolese.)

Voluntary repatriation
UNHCR did launch a voluntary repatriation program in 2004, but it has been fraught with problems. Geography, for one. Ghana and Liberia are separated by Cote d’Ivoire (and Guinea, for those returning to the North West part of the country), making it complicated to for refugees to return home. (A group of refugees returning to Liberia by a convoy of vehicles were stranded at the border between Mali and Guinea because the Guinean government – themselves a host of many refugees – refused the group entrance into the country.) This forced the UNHCR to consider returning Liberian refuges by plane or by boat, which they began late in 2004.

According to a 2007 story in the Vision, a newspaper printed in Buduburan refugee camp, the simple truth is that some refugees don’t want to return to Liberia.

“How do you expect me to go back to a country where I have nobody alive, no place to stay, and no basic skills to improve my life?” wondered a 20-year-old Charles Willie who said his parents were killed in 1996 during a factional battle for control of Monrovia city center.

“I will never go back to Liberia and if the Government of Ghana and the UNHCR won’t support me [I have been here for the past 10 years without support from any of them] here once there is life, there is hope,” he added.

For some refugees, they have been surviving in a delicate limbo. This is from a story originally published in the NYU (New York University) Livewire, and reprinted in the Vision:

For many, Liberia is by now a distant, wild unknown. Others are spooked by rumors, memories and failed attempts to repatriate.

Christian Doebo, Jr., a 28-year-old orphan who fled Liberia alone and on foot when he was 12, said he’ll never go back.

“The only thing I remember about Liberia is rebels burning down our house and abducting my parents,” he said. But he scoffed at the idea of settling in Ghana. “If you don’t speak [the local language] Twi, you don’t move, you don’t have work, you are not in their society.”

Edison Padjibo, a Research Fellow at the University of Education in Central Ghana at Winneba, himself a refugee in Buduburam since 1990, told the Vision that the UNHCR helped create this problem with its policies of double-standards: While the UNHCR urged Liberians to return, at the same the UN body encouraged resettlement to third countries of asylum, notably to the United States of America and Canada.

Liberia: Journalist detained by police and beaten

From the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building in Monrovia:

Officers of the Liberia National Police assigned to the provincial city of Tubmanburg in Bomi county on 1 March 2008 flogged and briefly detained journalist Edwin Clarke of Truth FM Radio, located in Liberia's capital Monrovia.

Journalist Clarke, who had gone to Tubmanburg to follow-up on a news story regarding a stolen child, was ordered beaten by the Commander of the Women and Child Protection unit of the Liberian National Police in Bomi county.

Clarke told CEMESP that he was beaten by five plainclothes Police offficers following a directive by the Police commander.

As a result of the flogging, journalist Clarke sustained injuries on his left hand and parts of his body.

Liberia's profits grow from its flag of convenience registry

Liberia is expected to ring up $19 million in profits from ships flying its flag of convenience in 2008, according to Reuters.

With a total of nearly 2,600 ships, representing 82-million tons, the West African nation enjoys the second largest active flag of convenience registry, after Panama. The government claims it will continue to use this loophole in seafaring law to collect revenue, which is administered out of an office in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Flags of Convenience in general, and Liberia’s in particular, have enjoyed a tumultuous history. The flag of convenience designation allows a ship to fly the flag of a country other than its country of ownership. According to the International Transport Workers’ Federation, a group working to eliminate this special status, the FOC allows ship owners to circumvent taxes, labor laws and the ability of countries to enforce minimum standards on sea vessels. There are presently 32 countries allowing the flag of convenience designation, and the ITWF claims (.pdf, page 10) Liberia’s ships average 12 years of age, which is on the low end of all ship registries. (The average for the U.S. is 23 years; Japan is 13 years and 17 years for Panama.)

During the Liberian civil war, the government of Charles Taylor was under sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. However, a report from Global Witness and the International Transport Workers Federation found that the government was using the flag of convenience status to illegally make money for the government by registering ships and hiring some of those ships to illegally transport diamonds and, more commonly, wood out of the country. (Logging was an important source of illicit revenue for the Taylor government.)

Here’s a short introduction to Liberia’s flag of convenience, from William Langewiesche, formally of the Atlantic, where the article appeared in Sept. 2003

No one pretends that a ship comes from the home port painted on its stern, or that it has ever been anywhere near. Panama is the largest maritime nation on earth, and is followed by bloody Liberia, which hardly exists. No coastline is required either. There are ships that hail from La Paz, in landlocked Bolivia. There are ships that hail from the Mongolian desert. The registries themselves are rarely based in the countries whose name they carry: Panama is considered to be an old-fashioned "flag," because its consulates collect the registration fees, but "Liberia" is run by a company in Virginia, "Cambodia" by another in South Korea, and the proud "Bahamas" by a group in the City of London. The system, generally known as "flags of convenience," began around World War II, but its big expansion occurred only in the 1990s - and in direct reaction to an international attempt to impose controls. By shopping globally, shipowners found that they could choose the laws that were applied to them rather than haplessly submitting as ordinary citizens must to the arbitrary jurisdictions of their native states. The effect was to lower operating costs - for crews and upkeep - and to limit the financial consequences of the occasional foundering or loss of a ship. The advantages were so great that even the most conservative and well-established shipowners, who were perhaps not naturally inclined to play along, found that they had no choice but to do so. What's more, because of the registration fees that the shipowners could offer to cash-strapped governments, the various flags competed for the business, and the deals kept getting better.

Should Liberia set aside important business sectors exclusively for Liberians?

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recently withdrew a bill before the House of Representatives that would sets aside 26 business sectors exclusively for Liberians. In a statement, the President said she would like to consult members of the business community, civil society and citizens before going ahead with the proposed law. In 1988, the National Legislature passed a similar law, which set aside businesses in the sectors of gas stations, travel agencies and advertising agencies.

From Liberia Journal:

The Liberian business community, along with some whitewash politicians in Monrovia are accusing the President of pandering to foreigners, and that her bill is only meant to satisfy the international community who are interested in foreigners taking over the country’s business climate. They maintained that the government’s poverty reduction strategy will be meaningless if the government fails to protect the ‘Liberianization’ policy.

i am not against the Liberianization act, and the protection of Liberian businesses, however i would like to see some flexibility, these businesses can be set aside for Liberians, but there should be some criteria also set, that when met, by foreigners, they should be able to invest in those businesses. Take Ghana for instance, you cannot own a trading business in that country without investing at least US$300,000 dollars and employing a minimum of ten Ghanaians. That could be an example of a criteria that could be met, if foreigners want to engage in business set aside for only nationals of Liberia.

Simply put, some of the laws we have on the books, are out of dates, and just not Pratical for our times, take for instance again, the question of giving citizenship to people who are not of negro decent, Article 27 B of the the Liberian constitution reads in order to preserve, foster and maintain the positive Liberian culture, values and character, only people of negroes or of negro descent, shall qualify by birth or by naturalization to be citizens of Liberia.

I have always said the question of giving citizenship to other people who are not of negro descent is not only the right thing to do, but in terms of material and human development it also the sound thing to do.

UNMIL, please don't leave Liberia

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf pleaded with U.S. President George Bush not to further dismantle the UN peace keeping force in her country.

From AllAfrica.com

Recently, UNMIL announced it will be maintaining more than 11,000 troops in Liberia after the troops draw-down in September 2008.

Additionally, the UN Mission in Liberia pointed out that the drawdown plan had already commenced in Grand Cape Mount County since October 2007 with the departure of the Namibian battalion.

The release noted that the remaining troops numbering more than 11,000 will stay in Liberia to continue their duties until otherwise mandated by the Security Council.

Goodfellas redux: 2.5 tons of cocaine seized off Liberia

From United Press International:

Liberian authorities have seized nearly 2.5 tons of cocaine, a record seizure for the country, from a ship off the African country's coast, officials said.

Maritime officials in Monrovia said the ship, the Blue Atlantic, was intercepted this week off the Liberian coast and the large drug shipment was allegedly found inside several barrels on board, the BBC reported Saturday.

"It is huge; if this had hit the Liberian market, it would have destroyed the entire country," Monrovia Port Security head Ashford Pearl said of Thursday's record discovery.

South American drug cartels are thought to routinely travel along the African coast in their attempts to transport illegal drugs to Europe.

Pearl said the vessel's crew members were all from Uganda and the ship was intercepted in cooperation with a French military vessel.

I stand corrected: As tyronebcookin correctly points out in a comment below, the nine crew members of the "Blue Atlantic Monrovia" were all Ghanaians.

Here's a little more on what is a strangely fascinating story from AllAfrica.com:

According to the Captain of the French navy, a specially designed instrument was used to determine the ship's position. He said the Blue Atlantic had nine crewmembers that are all Ghanaians with the 90 barrels of cocaine on board. Each of the 90 barrels contained 18-19 parcels and each parcel is valued at 17,000 Euro.

Speaking shortly following the turning over ceremony, Justice Minister Philip A.Z. Banks said the ship might have been heading for Liberia, as a communication was received from the ship previously and wanted an emergency docking at the Liberian Port in early January but that was not done. Experts say the cocaine is about 2.4 tons and valued half a Billion United States Dollars.

...

Following hours of elongated debate on how sure the cocaine would be annihilated, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advised that the drug be dumped into the ocean.

Prior to the EPA advise, security officials argued that the drug be burnt but EPA staff present at the Freeport vehemently resisted the suggestion.

Meanwhile latest report reaching this paper says the cocaine burnt at the Freeport of Monrovia following series of consultations by stakeholders does not augur well with the EPA and has therefore denounced the flagrant act, terming it 'non-environmental friendly.'

World Bank’s plan for post-conflict states discussed in Liberia

In the second leg of his week-long African tour, World Bank President Robert Zoellick flew to Liberia to meet with officials from the Liberian government, international development agencies and the private sector to search solutions to help rebuild the country.

The Bank president said it was imperative to bring in the private sector to help create jobs and rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

From Reuters:

…Zoellick met donors and U.N. officials to discuss how to fund Liberia's infrastructure needs, which the government puts at $700-800 million, mostly for roads. The Bank oversees a Liberia infrastructure trust fund which already has $90 million.

Liberia has struggled to attract private companies to build roads, mostly due to high costs importing equipment. Chinese firms have expressed interest but want to be sure they can get contracts if they spend the money bringing in the equipment.

Zoellick said post-conflict governments faced a shortage of skill-led workers, with many professionals having left the country and living abroad. The challenge was to either quickly train new professionals or compensate and attract back those who had left.

During his two-day trip Zoellick also meet with finance ministers of four other West African post-conflict countries – Guinea, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Liberia – to seek advice how to provide financial support to speed the recovery of these states. Other than providing monetary aid in a timely manner, I could not find any other concrete suggestions solicited from the group. More later, I hope.

How to prosecute the past in Liberia and Sierra Leone

IRIN recently published a short series on Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has entered its final stage of public hearings that will run until July. The two-year lifespan of the commission will help the country sort out the individuals and institutions responsible for human rights violations and war crimes that took place during nearly thirty years of instability and civil war, beginning with Samuel Doe’s power-seizing coup d’etat in 1979 and ending with the cessation of hostilities in 2003.

IRIN’s update comes in the wake of stories regarding the resumption of former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s trial is purely coincidental, but telling, for it illustrates the difference between the two methods in dealing with the past. Truth commissions concern themselves with resolution and forgiveness while tribunals pertain mostly to prosecution and punishment.

The tribunal at the Hague is focused in the actions of Charles Taylor during Sierra Leone’s civil war, and truth and reconciliation commissions are interested primarily in giving voice to victims and uncovering facts. As the journalist Richard Carver points out the search for knowledge is the most important aspect of these commissions because a human rights violation by its very nature is an attempt by someone in power to conceal that any wrongdoing had taken place. Once these dark crimes are brought to light, a certain cataloging of facts can be undertaken for the benefit of society.

Carver stops short of claiming that these facts are the same as proscribing the truth. In a country recovering from civil war like Liberia, a single version of the truth remains awkward and nearly impossible to create. For example, perhaps certain militias in Liberia felt they had to commit human rights violations to better “secure” populations or to keep themselves safe. (Think of the debate in the U.S. that claims torture – definite a human rights violation – is permissible under certain conditions.)

In countries like Liberia, the commission’s public hearings are important because many of the victims were not combatants, but civilians unwillingly drawn into the fighting. The expectations of these innocent bystanders, however, create many problems associated with different Truth and Reconciliation commissions around the world. Victims obviously want to bring their culprits to justice, which is usually outside the jurisdiction of these commissions. In Liberia, which does not have an amnesty law for former combatants, the commission could propose to prosecute certain individuals, IRIN says. But that won’t come until sometime down the road.

It’s a point of contention for some of the people IRIN spoke to.

“It is difficult for me to accept an apology from someone who brutally killed five of my family members – my mother, father and three sisters - before my very eyes in 1991. I want this person who committed the acts to be put on trial for atrocities because of the trauma he has caused in my life.

“The rebel fighter who did the killings still moves freely in Monrovia as if he has not committed any atrocity. I do not believe the TRC public hearing of my testimony will solve the pain and trauma I have been going through.”

- Abu Dorley, victim

A different form of forgiveness
In a piece written by a member of the selection committee for South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, these hearings where victims are taught to speak out somehow reach beyond the limit of secular law, moving the country into a spiritual realm of forgiveness. (One other difference between the two forms of justice is that truth and reconciliations search out the victims and hold hearings on their territory; alleged criminals must go to court.)

Once the victims’ suffering has been aired and acknowledged, argues Peter Storey, a national grieving process can begin, allowing the country to move on. In a hearing atmosphere committee members can be more humane and spiritual (like Bishop Desmond Tutu, who ran South Africa’s commission), and do not have to act so emotionally detached and objective like jurists. (He tells stories of Tutu weeping at the plight of a victim or him leading the audience in hymn when a victim had problems recounting a story of abuse while on the stand.)

However, this drive for forgiveness in South Africa brought the commission criticism. Some victims felt their right for abusers to be punished was disregarded by the overriding desire of a government to “move on” and forgive. The family of Steven Biko, the slain antiapartheid activist who was tortured during questioning by police and refused medical care, filed suit questioning the constitutionality of South Africa’s TRC because it deprived them of their right to justice.

In South Africa, perpetrators were given amnesty to admit their past crimes. Storey argues that this in itself is a form of punishment, a sort of public shaming. The limited scope of truth and reconciliation commissions often balances the need for a weak government to attempt to make peace by bringing former enemies together. This is true in Liberia as well as it was for South Africa. At some point, you must draw a line under the past, as Robert Mugabe said to his former tormentors who ran Rhodesia.

So far, according to IRIN, nearly 24,000 written testimonies have been collected from both victims and perpetrators. Once the public testimony phase has been completed in July, the committee will prepare a report with recommendations to help move the country past its chaotic and turbulent history.

Monrovia attempts deed restrictions

My in-laws live in Houston, TX, celebrated practitioner of the deed restriction – where committees set up rules for homemakers to place limitations on the property, usually to “maintain a desired look in a neighborhood.”

It seems that Monrovia, Liberia is attempting the same thing.

Per the Inquirer:

The Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), has asked residents of the city and all business entities to paint their houses.

The city government said such an exercise should have been carried out on or December 15, 2007 in accordance with City Ordinance Number one.

According to a release from the office of the Director of Information and Research at the MCC, violation fees will be imposed on anyone or business entity that will fail to comply.

Six journalists sued under Liberia’s ‘strict’ libel laws

Six Liberian journalists called for the investigation of Ambrose Nmah, general manager of a media group and radio personality, for comments he allegedly made during a program on Truth FM, “justifying attacks on some journalists for their breach of security protocol according to state authorities, during the visit to Liberia of Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma [last September],” the International Federation of Journalists said.

Nmah is using what the Freedom House calls “strict” Liberian libel laws to sue the journalists for publishing their investigation statement.

The plaintiff is claiming $10,000 in damages. He also named the Public Agenda newspaper for allegedly printing defamatory articles. A trial date was set for Monday, but was postponed. No new date has been set.

BBC Stringer Jonathan Paye-Layleh was brutally assaulted while covering President Koroma’s visit. “[Nmah said] on his show that I would have been responsible for my own death if I had been killed,” Paye-Layleh, who is not involved in the libel suit, said.

This is not the first libel suit Nmah has filed. In October, he filed suit against six other journalists.

The International Federation of Journalists feels that the plaintiff and defendants can mediate this conflict through the Press Union of Liberia and not through the country’s court system.

The post-conflict waltz: Just how free is Liberia?

The Liberian Ministry of Justice unlawfully shut down Stone FM, a community radio station located in Harbel, approximately 35 miles from Liberia’s capital.

From IFEX, International Freedom of Expression eXchange in Toronto.

The premises of the radio station were sealed by a squad of officers of the Liberian National Police led by Captain Suzanna Blackie, commander of the Margibi county police detachment.

Stone FM station manager James King told CEMESP that the uniformed police officers, some of whom were armed with pistols, stormed the radio station and ordered the reporters to leave.

He said the police action traumatised a child broadcaster who was on-air at the time.

The station was accused of broadcasting "hit messages" against the government of Liberia and authorities of the Firestone Rubber Plantation in the wake of a strike action by employees of Firestone.

The employees' spokesperson, Eripmah Caesar, allegedly used the radio station to incite his fellow workmates to stay away from work until the management of Firestone recognizes their new leadership.

Let's not bicker and argue
For all the nominally positive talk about Liberia’s future we publish here at Africa Flak, we have yet to dip into the murkier side of the country’s present reputation with human rights. It’s an important issue. Not to get too academic here, but researchers have found that all aspects of life in post-conflict states can be best described by a “certain amount of uncertainty, insecurity and volatility, a fluidity of rules, a fragility of institutions, and problems of legitimacy for the actors involved,” says the now defunct Post-Conflict Transition team at the Nordic Africa Institute. Human rights and civil rights are no different.

The media, in such situations, present a complicated issue. When institutions are fragile and leaders lack much legitimacy and the people appear to be completely fragmented, any criticism may be taken as a threat against an insecure state. The media in these cases is fueled by the power of ideas. Journalists may not be well trained or even sympathetic to general ideas of fair-mindedness, and may use their power to deceitfully push political agendas. The same goes for political actors in control of organs of the press. Finally, in countries being rebuilt from the ground up, one can imagine new governments are presented with many obstacles and dealing with media issues may fall by the wayside.

That being said, the idea of ranking countries – of whatever political persuasion – on the freedom of their media systems should be regarded as an art form and not a science. In a post-conflict country like Liberia, the question remains how should its commitment to rights be graded? Can we rank Liberia along with the diverse body of states resurfacing after conflicts or should the country be specially weighted among other more stable, and presumably politically healthier, nations?

To make up for this, the Freedom House rating systems are very straightforward, offering up only three categories, which resemble a stoplight: Free, Partly Free and Not Free. For rights across the board, Liberia receives a Partly Free rating, but in realm of press freedom, the country is Not Free.

One big problem, according to Freedom House, is that the Johnson-Sirleaf administration has yet to establish an independent body to regulate journalists and the press and create a more “progressive freedom of information legislation.” (However a bill is currently being drafted in the legislature.) “Nonetheless, access to government information, particularly budget and financial issues, remains difficult owing in large part to the persistence of a disorganized government infrastructure,” the report pointed out. Another negative is that a wide interpretation of libel remains a fear for working journalists.

However, the group pointed out that call-in radio shows are popular and frequently feature viewpoints from the opposition and the government.

Here’s more.

Independent print media have grown significantly since the removal of [Charles] Taylor, and there are now more than 30 newspapers operating in Monrovia that publish with varying degrees of regularity and provide diverse political perspectives. A handful of private printing presses opened for the first time in 2005, but owing to the lack of significant private funding, most print media still publish through the state-owned and operated printing facility in Monrovia. Most Liberians rely on radio broadcasts to receive news, and radio currently plays an important role in promoting and consolidating a culture of participation in political life. Over 33 community radio stations now operate throughout the country without government interference, in addition to 1 government-owned station, but most are still hindered by the irregular power supply. Access to foreign broadcasts and the internet is unrestricted by the government but is severely limited by the dire financial situation of most Liberians.

Africa Flak give the country something of a “free pass” in other aspects of its renewal from failed state, but we very much prescribe to the idea that any human rights violations in this period will only make matters worse down the road when institutions are stronger and the government more confident. It may be obvious to some, but just because some people learned things when Charles Taylor ran the country doesn’t make it right.