Global war on terror: Is Liberia re-emerging as a U.S. strategic partner?
By Gabriel Williams
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
February 24, 2004
The Associated Press and other news organs reported on February 13
that U.S. Navy sailors may board thousands of commercial ships in international
waters to search for weapons of mass destruction under a landmark pact
between the United States and Liberia, the world’s No. 2 shipping
registry.
According to the reports, the accord - expected to become a model as
Washington seeks other two-country deals authorizing searches on the
high seas - comes amid fears that terror networks would use ships for
attacks, taking advantage of comparatively lax security on the seas
after crackdowns in the skies.
Liberia, an American-founded West African nation emerging from nearly
15 years of civil war, has held a U.S.-based shipping registry since
1949 and hosts more than 2,000 foreign vessels. The country ranks second
only to Panama in total shipping tonnage in U.S. ports, under so-called
flags of convenience that offer cheap fees and easy rules. One-third
of America’s imported oil arrives in the U.S. on Liberian-flagged
vessels, it is reported.
The significance of this development is that Liberia, America’s
most reliable ally in Africa, abandoned when the country was no longer
deemed of any geo-political significance to U.S. strategic interests
following the end of the Cold War, has been generating renewed interest
in Washington lately culminating to the signing of this landmark agreement.
The agreement was signed a few days after the U.S., UN and the World
Bank co-sponsored a high profile donors conference attended by more
than 90 countries and 40 aid groups on February 5-6, which raised over
$520 million for Liberia’s reconstruction for the next two years.
In addition to bilateral aid, the U.S. pledged $200 million at the conference,
co-chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan.
Liberia’s transitional leader Charles Gyude Bryant was well received
in the U.S. during the conference, and he met with President George
Bush before his return to Liberia. Bryant took over from Liberia’s
evil ruler Charles Taylor, who was forced to relinquish power last August
and go into exile in Nigeria. It was impossible that the U.S. could
have reached such agreement with Liberia during the reign of Taylor,
who reportedly became a billionaire by plundering resources in Liberia
and other West African countries. A brutal rebel leader turned president
of Liberia, Taylor was backed by Libyan dictator Muammer Gaddafi, a
leading sponsor of global terrorism, who is now trying to improve relations
with the U.S.
The signing of the agreement reflects the historical pattern of how
that country has been a place of convenience in the projection of America’s
security, economic and diplomatic influence in the world. Here are a
few examples of how Liberia, founded in 1822 by freed men and women
of color from American, has been a U.S. ally.
During the Cold War era, Liberia allowed for the U.S. to build the Voice
of America relay station for broadcast throughout Africa and the Omega
Navigation Tower to track the movement of ships along the Atlantic Coast
and the Mediterranean. The country also served as the main Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) base in Africa, while U.S. military planes were granted
landing and refueling rights on twenty-four hours’ notice at
Roberts International Airport near Monrovia, which was built as a staging
ground during World War II. The airport, which became a vital link in
the air route across the South Atlantic to the Near and the Far East,
was once managed by Pan American Airways.
To counter the high price of rubber imposed by the British - who controlled
80 percent of the world’s rubber production - to pay their war
debts following World War I, the United States, which at the time consumed
75 percent of rubber for its expanding automobile industry, turned to
Liberia for relief. In 1926 the Firestone Rubber and Tire Company in
Akron, Ohio reached an agreement with the Liberian government for the
establishment of the world’s largest rubber plantation. Firestone
signed a 99-year lease on one million acres of land at a price of six
cents an acre.
The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who paid a brief
visit to Liberia during WW II, encountered opposition to the use of
American ships to transport arms and other goods to help Britain because
the U.S. was neutral during the early stage of the war. Such foreign
policy developments led to the creation of the Liberian Ship Registry,
which has operated under the administration of a U.S. corporation. The
creation of Liberia’ registry evoked hostilities from Europeans
maritime nations and international maritime unions, which were in competition
with the U.S. in the maritime industry. With the establishment of its
American-operated ship registry, Liberia became known as a country with
the "Flag of Convenience" or free flag.
Another manifestation of Liberia’s unwavering support for U.S.
foreign policy was that the country cast the historic tie-breaking vote
at the United Nations in favor of the creation of the State of Israel
in 1948, amid tense international controversy.
These developments are cited as examples of the long and close historical
relationship between the two countries, even though U.S. government
officials dismissed said relationship as non-existent at the end of
the Cold War to justify their policy of non-intervention as Liberia
degenerated into an unspeakable degree of death and destruction. An
estimated 300,000 Liberians were killed and the entire country is almost
completely destroyed. While evil warlords and their collaborators enrich
themselves from the indiscriminate plunder of the country’s abundant
resources, the Liberian masses are reduced to a state of abject poverty
and destitution.
The U.S. is seen as a part of Liberia’s unresolved past by supporting
pro-American dictatorships, among other failed policy measures. And
there have been arguments that America’s policy of non-intervention
in the Liberian crisis was underlined by factor of racism. Nevertheless,
the Bush administration deserves high commendation for getting actively
involved in Liberia’s stabilization and reconstruction under
the auspices of the UN. More commendable are American organizations
and churches connected with the country, which have identified with
the plight of the Liberian people and have been leading a pro-Liberia
crusade for U.S. government intervention.
The reality now is that failed states like Liberia and Afghanistan are
breeding grounds for terrorists capable of wreaking havoc on a global
scale. Afghanistan, which was also used by the U.S. to contain Soviet
expansionism, equally vanished from America’s radar of strategic
importance following the end of the Cold War. The Afghan people, like
the people of Liberia, were abandoned to self-destruction. The abandonment
of those countries not only enables some of the world’s most
brutal regimes to emerge and thrive, but terrorists and the criminal
underworld found a haven from which to operate.
Since 9/11, three of the world’s most brutal and barbaric regimes
in Afghanistan, Iraq and Liberia have fallen, and Washington is heavily
investing and maintaining a very strong presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While some have argued that the money pledged for Liberia pales in comparison
to the billions being spent for Iraq and Afghanistan, Liberians are
grateful for the generous support. It is hoped that the U.S. would continue
to lead international efforts for Liberia’s recovery. In so doing,
Washington would not only be compensating for what it should have done
to help stop Liberia’s civil war from the beginning, but that
it would be manifesting its self-interest.
As Liberia embarks upon a course of rebuilding and a renewed relationship
with the U.S., there are several grave mistakes of the past that must
not be repeated.
The United States and the international community should help the Liberian
people build and sustain democratic institutions. Washington should
lead international effort aimed at the empowerment of the Liberian people,
rather than support corrupt and incompetent dictatorial regimes that
lack transparency and accountability. Independent since 1847 as Africa’s
oldest republic, Liberia’s prolonged history of bad governance
is the primary reason for the once promising country to now become a
failed state.
There is a very serious need to support and strengthen Liberia’s
civil society, which includes the media, the legal system, and rights
advocacy groups - in order to check on the activities of public officials
and the government. A viable free press and the rule of law, which are
key pillars of a peaceful democratic society, must be vigorously supported
if the country is to depart from the past, where individuals who are
aggrieved by acts of the government resort to violence or armed insurgency
as a logical course of redress. Liberia’s once progressive independent
media, mostly destroyed during Taylor’s campaign of extermination,
urgently need resources for training and infrastructure rebuilding.
Indications are that most of the trained and experienced journalists
who fled the country are prepared to return and get involved in the
process of rebuilding as soon as they have the means to sustain their
families while they get readjusted in Liberia. But with so much areas
of priority, it remains to be seen how much the international community
would help in the revitalization of Liberia’s media. Some of
us have been in contact with individuals at relevant U.S. government
agencies and international organizations in hopes of getting timely
assistance for Liberia’s media.
The U.S. and the international community should immediately begin to
focus on capacity building in Liberia, so as to eliminate the dependency
syndrome and its attending consequences of poverty. There is a very
serious need to do away with the policies of the past, where the natural
resources of the country were exploited and exported abroad with little
or no benefit in return for the Liberian people. Firestone is an example
of the kind of exploitation in question. Even though it operated the
world’s largest rubber plantation that had a major impact on
America’s industrialization, not a single rubber processing plant
was built in Liberia to help develop the skills of the people. Over
the years, thousands of laborers - rubber tapers on the Firestone Plantation
- were housed in shack-like quarters, most of which lacked electricity
and indoor plumbing and seemed cramped and poorly ventilated.
After serving for years as one of the world’s major exporters
of iron ore, what is left in Liberia now are the deep empty holes in
the mines from where the ores were extracted. Also endowed with a large
portion of Africa’s remaining rain forests, Liberia is a major
exporter of tropical timber. But there are no timber processing plants
for employment, not to mention other needed incentives to help improve
the lot of local people in the areas where the logging companies operate.
The conditions are even worse for people in diamond mining areas.
In light of the numerous disparities evident in Liberia’s economic
relationship with the world community, we appeal to the U.S. and the
international community to seriously consider giving Liberia a fresh
start by taking steps to forgive the country’s estimated $3 billion
debts. To restore immediate confidence in the Liberian economy, the
U.S. and the international community must also act to prevent the country
from being used by the criminal underworld as a major center for money
laundering. The use of the U.S. dollar as legal tender in Liberia -
once a middle income country in the 1970s - has caused international
criminal activities to thrive since the country became a rogue state.
I have learned from well-placed sources that the technology has been
developed to exploit oil, which was discovered off the coast of Liberia
years ago. Whether this is partly responsible for the renewed interest
the war-ravished country is generating remains to be seen. Nevertheless,
it is important to underscore that agreements to exploit Liberia’s
reported oil deposits should include safeguards that would ensure that
the country’s share of the oil revenues best serve the interest
of the country and its people. We do not wish for the kinds of situation
in other parts of Africa like Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, where oil
revenues are known to largely end up in the foreign bank accounts of
a few fat cats and their cohorts, while basic public services remain
deplorable or non-existent.
It is also important to note that we Africans, particularly Liberians,
must now begin to take responsibility for our own rampant corruption
and gross abuses that have brought disastrous consequences upon us.
We have to stand up for ourselves. Jack Welsh, a great American business
leader once said: "Control your own destiny or somebody else will."
Greed, selfishness and narrow mindedness have been like cancer eating
the vitals of Africans, often preventing us from seeing the bigger picture
or to do what is in the interest of general society. We’re just
a sick people as that.
This is why I wish to appeal to the UN, U.S. and the international
community in general to put into place a mechanism that would ensure
strong oversight of the $520 million and other resources being generously
provided by the international community for Liberia’s reconstruction.
If not, a large portion of the funds would end up in foreign bank accounts
of those criminals masquerading as Liberian government officials and
their collaborators. The current government is dominated by rebels,
who are murderous criminals and elements that have committed grievous
economic crimes for which they should be prosecuted. The governor of
the Central Bank is a left over crony of now indicted war criminal Taylor,
who stands accused of grievous economic crimes. Vital government ministries
like Finance, Commerce, Justice and Foreign Affairs are being controlled
by rebels, while the Speaker of the legislature is known to have murdered
many people during the war. These, along with other warlords before
them, are rebels without a cause but to loot resources and enrich themselves.
That many of the advisors surrounding interim leader Gyude Bryant are
former officials from Taylor’s regime, may provide some indications
as to why Bryant opposed the setting up of a truth and reconciliation
commission (TRC) or a war crimes court to hold those criminals accountable.
Bryant recently bowed to public pressure by announcing the creation
of the TRC, but he conveniently said that Taylor’s prosecution
or the setting up of a court would now be left to an elected government,
which is expected to come to power in 2006. We urge the international
community to be actively involved to ensure that the functions of the
TRC are not compromised, and also for the establishment of a war crimes
court.
The tragic developments unfolding in Haiti are ominous signs of what could occur in Liberia if the UN mandate expires without putting into place the legal mechanism to hold accountable those criminals who have wreaked havoc on the country over the past 14 years, and also to deter overzealous politicians bent on sponsoring violence to manifest political control. The culture of impunity must be ended.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gabriel Williams is a journalist and author of the book, "Liberia: The Heart of Darkness," which provides extensive accounts of Liberia’s civil war and its destabilizing effects in West Africa. He can be reached at gbor@pacbell.net.
