Damate Barks Again!
By Woplah Kambor
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
November 11, 2003
The big kahuna of warlords in the Liberian political jungle, Damante
Conneh, has fired another salvo at the tenuous peace arrangements.
Conneh’s beef: additional government slots for the LURD.
Behind this not unexpected power grab, falsely cloaked as reason
and legitimacy, is a cruel threat to checkmate the fragile peace.
The big kahuna wants his palms greased some more in exchange for
the slow chariot of peace to retain its lease on life, and for
Liberians to be spared another horrible dimension of bloodletting
that, in some spheres of informed opinion, approaches Rwanda.
Already in its account, because of the Faustian bargain cobbled
in Ghana, LURD has key government functions that render it disproportionately
influential, based on the political arithmetic. Perhaps it is
this calculus that drives Conneh’s invariable assault on
peace. Or is it an attempt to dampen the heat on Conneh from LURD
mercenaries eager to cash in the notes earned in the slaughterhouses
and killing fields, where productivity is reportedly quantified
by the extermination of defenseless civilians? In the main, women,
children, the elderly, and sometimes aid workers and religious
missionaries. Under the frightening logic of this compensation
scheme, the accepted military doctrine of minimal civilian deaths
was overthrown by a macabre operating principle: a massacre, a
better payday.
When asked if he had any moral compunctions about
the carnage he spearheaded, Conneh replied he had none and that
he was “entitled” to a government job. The premise
of this “right” to a government job must be exclusive,
since no Liberian enjoys it. Conneh’s privilege to serve
in future governments is perhaps legitimate if the court of public
opinion does not look askance at such appointment. If the reception
received when he last publicly visited Monrovia is an indicator
, the big kahuna should consult the gods again.
Some LURD benefactors are finding Chairman Conneh’s public
ranting distasteful, to say the least. An ongoing internecine
conflict in the Liberia strains meager regional resources, weakens
governments and bodes larger hazards for the West African security
system. Just ask the Ivorians. The tyranny in Conakry aspires
political pulchritude to woo foreign investment and drink copiously
from the aid spigot. To be perceived as working cheek by jowl
with LURD in stonewalling a laudable UN enterprise in Liberia
is the moral and political equivalent of biting the hand that
feeds you. Being seen as an ugly duckling to the global investor
class is a portrait Guinea does not crave.
LURD’s post-Taylor jihad and Guinea’s strategic ambitions
may be mutually exclusive.
Before Conneh’s very eyes, the contest for
power has changed. The competition must now be won in the theater
of ideas with a large serving of compromise. Conteh of Guinea
knows this. Will Conneh of Liberia embrace this inevitable and
win/win alternative? Will the big kahuna resist the instinct of
viewing politics through the parochial lens of tribe and a culture
of terror? Can Damante successfully reinvent himself ?
How Damante balances his quest for power against the noble interest
of lasting peace will largely determine whether or not he joins
Taylor in the trash can of history. Damante Conneh will do well
to heed Santayanna . Those who fail to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it.
