Civil Society: Our Time Has Come, October 2003!


John Nimly Brownell


The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia

October 6, 2003

The ongoing sporadic rival fighting in Liberia is yet another “Operation Pay Yourself” reminiscent of the April 6, 1996 fighting in Monrovia. The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels looted Bushrod Island and its suburbs while the government militia looted central Monrovia and surrounding areas. Also, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) is on the rampage in cities of Harper, Greenville and Buchanan.

During the April 6, 1996 saga, it was the opposite. The then Liberian National Transitional Government forces comprising of Charles Taylor’s NPFL and Alhaji G. V. Kromah’s ULIMO-K criminals had the Bushrod Island and its suburbs to loot while the George Boley’s LPC and Roosevelt Johnson’s ULIMO-J criminals looted central Monrovia. It is like trading places.

Taylor’s militia now called the government forces has participated in the looting and destruction of every corner and sector of Liberia since 1989. You name a town or village; they have been there with vivid marks. There is nowhere in Liberia remaining for these marauding bandits to loot and thus Taylor took his exit on August 11, 2003.

The next scenario will be the creation of another “Buy Your Own Things Market” in the city and its environs. We bought our own things in 1996 and God help the people of Liberia, we should not allow that to happen again in 2003. These bandits and their bosses should be arrested and the sale of looted goods discouraged in Liberia.

Looking at the command structures of the Liberian rebel groups, we see that they are the same players in the war from 1989 – 1996. They are the same “old palm oil in new bottles”. They are the same corrupt thieves that brought misery and destruction to mother, Liberia.

A typical case in point is Mr. George Dweh, a notorious Death Squad commander under the Late Samuel Doe regime is back again under the acronym of LURD demanding jobs for killing our people. He told the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) on July 22, 2003 “we have no desire to sign the peace agreement as it is. The document as it stands seeks to leave out the main players who can bring peace to Liberia. The politicians cannot disarm the fighters.”

The fact of the matter remains that it was not the politicians who armed and drugged our children. So, why must Liberians pay you and your gang with jobs to take away the weapons from our children? These gangsters take us to be fools and say rubbish that a lot of people take for granted. Such absurdity would only come from self-centered elements with one objective: personal aggrandizement!!! We all know that the war against their fellow gangster Taylor was not about liberation but rather getting jobs for a few crooks whose looted wealth have been diminished by lavish lifestyles outside of Liberia.

Let us try to understand why these so called liberators want to hijack our country. The reason is simple; they have no constituencies and lack the basic credentials to compete in a normal democratic arena. Many of them would not even be qualified to get cleaners jobs. These people are all failures bent on keeping our country backward. We need to expose these people for who they really are and the place where they are most needed is at the War Crimes Tribunal

http://www.saharavillage.com/articles/jbrownell/jbc010603.htm A few talkative and propaganda experts of LURD should have their files examined:

SEKOU DAMATE CONNEH: No record of his involvement in any of Liberia’s socio-economic or political arena. There are reports of him being a petty gasoline trader, tax collector and also a used vehicles dealer. Information on his education and actual profession or career is scanty. Pray tell me fellow Liberians, where can this man lead Liberia? He does not have the least capability to lead a stable of horses, let alone over three million traumatized masses. Any arrangement with this man playing a key role will be no different from Taylor’s despotic and corrupt regime. Listening to this rascal on the BBC Focus on Africa program indicates that he cannot express himself properly and makes us wonder how such a man became leader of LURD.

We should never take proud in appeasing a leader and his stooges that supports cannibalism to be a part of our young democratic arrangement. The BBC website aired footages of Camarapix TV presenter James Brabazon’s journey into Liberia with LURD. Dramatic footages include executions and disturbing scenes of torture and even CANNIBALISM can be seen at: news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/38733000/rm/_38733219_liberia22_newsnight_vi.ram


Counsellor KABINEH JA’NEH: Supposedly a Counsellor at Law who should be actively working with the Liberian Bar Association to create an independent Judiciary Branch of government found himself as Port Manager at the Free Port of Monrovia during the Transitional Government era in Liberia as a representative of ULIMO-K. Too much “gravy” (Liberian jargon for lots of money) was at the Free Port. Unfortunately, after Taylor took over government, Ja’neh soon found out that the new gang were more devious and scheming crooks than he was and so he had to get out. Thus, the only way back on the “gravy” train again is through the barrel of the gun killing innocent Liberians, raping women, and giving kids drugs to fight a war they don’t understand. The jobs have been divided again among the warring parties and LURD has the Free Port of Monrovia. My prediction is that Jan’eh will be the next Managing Director in the Transition on October 15, 2003.

Joe Wylie: All the trouble and coups and counter coups in Liberia have had the signature of this man as far back as I can recall the November 12, 1985 Abortive Invasion led by the late General Thomas Quiwonkpa up to the September 18, 2003 Camp Johnson Road fighting with Roosevelt Johnson. This individual is a snake in the green grass and the interesting thing to note about his alliances/adventures is that none of his rebellions yield good results. Always, innocent Liberians will die and he will miraculously surface in the United States of America unscathed.
He is one of the biggest chameleons that the Liberian Crisis can boast of. He was on the airwaves blasting Sekou Conneh on the issue of the raping of the Aid Agency MERCI nurses and threatened to remove Conneh as leader of LURD. Now, he is so quiet as if nothing has happened and awaiting his rewards… some big position in the new interim government.

TARTY TEH: This man is one of the biggest educated fools that surfaced since the onset of the crisis. His analysis of the crisis is so skewed that only a blind man cannot see what a fairy tale liar he is. He has been out of his village in southeastern Liberia for so long and the urge to go back to climb coconut trees and hunt for opossums is too great that warrant him to join any Tom, Dick, and Harry ideology of going back to Liberia even if it costs the death of our people. This man, like Joe Wylie has no principles and sits in the comfort of the United States causing the deaths of thousands of Liberians in their quest for state power.
He recently published on the Sahara Village website a paper “Targeting Monrovia” http://www.saharavillage.com/articles/tteh/ttc072803.htm in which he tried to exonerate LURD indiscipline, drugged and untrained rebels from the death of over 2000 Liberians during their siege of Monrovia. He admitted that LURD has 81mm mortar launchers and shells. He explained, “A mortar shell looking for the U.S. Embassy has to make a lateral course correction while in flight…”

What comes to my mind is that Tarteh Teh is a pathological liar who drunk under the influence of the same kind of drugs his commanders give our children to fight their cause. This man does not even have the slightest idea of was a 81mm mortar is and what principles are involved in firing said weapon. This mortar shells DO NOT travel laterally unless tilted at some angle. The basic principle involved is from elementary Physics concept of Projectile Motion of which simple examples include kicking a soccer ball and a water fountain. There is a vertical motion caused by the force of gravity that tends to pull the object downward and also there is a horizontal motion that is uniform and constant. The interaction between these two independent motions creates a curve path that is parabolic. (Hence, a 81mm mortar fired either from LURD’s position either in Vai Town or the Freeport area is like a goalie kicking a football from his six-yard box to his striker deep in the opposing team’s half of the field. In simple English, that ball will travel up before descending and NEVER make a lateral course correction).

Coming back to his argument exonerating LURD from the death of 2000 Liberians, you should be ashamed of yourself to publish such falsehood and garbage. You armed and drugged our children; ill-trained militia under the command of a notorious killer on Bushrod Island nicked named “More Mortar” shelled Monrovia indiscriminately. Everybody on Bushrod Island knew this man including my 12 year old daughter, Johnette who just escaped fighting to join me in England explained how he use to order how many mortar shells should he send into the central Monrovia city for breakfast, lunch and supper. His own militiamen killed “More Mortar” while they were looting the Freeport few days before ECOMIL took over. My daughter tells me that he was buried in New Kru Town in front of the Police Station. These killers have nicknamed all other Liberians who are not members of their gang as “Monkeys”. What an irony!!! It is unbelievable that people from the jungle see themselves as better Liberians compared to the rest of their compatriots. We are giving them jobs as reward and they feel we are the biggest fools on planet earth. Thus we are called “Monkeys” so as to classify us a lower class of humans who have no sense of directions. Liberia will need a vast complex for the mentally derange as Catherine Mills Rehab Center cannot cope with these groups soon to be demobilized and disarmed. The day is nearing for the same “Monkeys” to arraign you war criminals before a court of competent jurisdiction to answer your crimes.

I had predicted a little over a year ago that these bandits under the acronym LURD are heartless people without an ounce of shame or sanity in an article “Stop this Madness” published on (http://jnbrownell2.tripod.com/johnnimlybrownell/id20.html) and many other Liberian websites. Eye witnesses account from the Bushrod Island speak of vast looting by LURD militiamen and if they were not able to take a vehicle away to their enclave in Bomi Hills, all parts were removed like professional mechanics at work… Most abandoned vehicles on the Island are only frames. Liberians should know the calibre of people who can tear a vehicle to pieces without a bolt remaining for their various garages. I am sure that after this war, we will find a big mechanical garage in Tubmanburg owned by Sekou Konneh and his lieutenants with car parts because sale in used vehicles and its parts were what he did for a living. Mark my word!!!

Now making matters worse, the so-called spokesman sitting in the comfort of America with his family without any knowledge of even exploding fire works (Liberians say fire-crackers) comes to the defence of his fellow war criminals. These are the calibre of people demanding jobs, nothing but a bunch of liars, murderers and corrupt criminals. That job that you all are currently scrambling for all over America, Europe and Africa will be open and transparent and we will be looking keenly and expose any inefficiencies or misappropriations. The big elephant meat you all are hastily planning to chop again met its demise with the end of the Taylor era.
This time around, the job seat will be so hot that if you don’t have the requisite credentials, no one will force you to resign, but yourself. We shall not adhere to the first interim government slogan “ Amos C. Sawyerism” (Corruption as a trade off to peace.)

The good news is that the United States and the United Nations in particular have committed resources to ending the Liberian crisis and with the no nonsense retired U.S. Air Force Major General Jacques Paul Klein, serving as chief U.N. envoy to Liberia. More recently, after the September 30, 2003 shooting incident in Paynesville area, Mr. Jacques Paul Klein warned violators of the recently signed comprehensive Accra Peace Accord on Liberia that "time is running out for them". The outspoken UN envoy without mincing words stressed that justice will definitely prevail in Liberia, and reiterated that, "no violators of the peace agreement will go unpunished". We in the civil society are grateful to God firstly for this man who knows the Liberian situation so well that he knows exactly who the troublemakers are and is prepared to deal with their intransigence without fear or favour.

More good news for the people of Liberia is that preliminary contacts with the International Criminal Courts (ICC) suggests that the civil society can take these people before said court even in the event that the new interim chairman is promising blanket amnesty: Some information that has been posted on the Office of the Prosecutor section of the ICC web site (www.icc-cpi.int) on referrals of situations to the Court. “The Chief Prosecutor may start an investigation upon referral of situations in which there is a reasonable basis to believe that crimes have been or are being committed. Such referrals must be made by a State Party or the Security Council of the United Nations, acting to address a threat to international peace and security. In accordance with the Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Chief Prosecutor has to evaluate the material submitted to him before making the decision on whether to proceed.
In addition to State Party and Security Council referrals, the Chief Prosecutor may also receive information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court provided by other sources, such as individuals or non-governmental organisations. The Chief Prosecutor will conduct a preliminary examination of this information in every case. If the Chief Prosecutor then decides that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, he will request the Pre-Trial Chamber to authorise an investigation”

Hopefully, we all should start to go back home after October 2003, when the interim government is installed. At full strength the UNMIL force will have 15,000 troops, 1,115 police, 250 military observers and 160 staff officers. Some of us will be very comfortable sitting anywhere at anytime in the social or political arena of Liberia, because we are very confident that no stains of blood are on our hands. Many of you LURD and MODEL and remnants of the Taylor criminal enterprise will not be able to walk the streets of Monrovia. After the disarmament, we shall all be equals again and that’s the time we will deal with you criminals if the United Nations fail to set up a War Criminal Court in Liberia. We, the unarmed civil society time has come and we will use it properly.

The attitude of becoming “big shots” overnight by killing the innocent people wont go unpunished. Going back to Monrovia with the impression that you are a saviour and need to be praised for your actions as a necessary justification to the resolution of our problems should be the least on you warlords’ minds. The friends, and family and loved ones of the people you sent to the early grave by your actions whether directly or indirectly will hunt you all to give answers. I am sure that many of you will opt for going to the war crimes tribunal to clear your names, than face and angry mob of Liberians at home. The days for “Baboon to divide kola nuts” is fast approaching and in the words of your comrade in killing Charles Taylor, “we will see who born dog”. This is not a threat to anybody, but the reality is that the people of Liberia are furious, and we are a million miles away from reconciliation. Whether these criminals like it or not they have to pay for there crimes. If they hide from justice, their family and generation unborn will bear the weight.

We must set precedent against would be troublemakers so as to keep our country on a path of perpetual peace and prosperity. No one is more Liberian than the other and as we all are about put down the cyber warfare to participate in the new democratic process, let us put our nation first above all else.

Monrovia here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!