Charles G. Taylor and his cronies, LURD and Model are terrorist organizations. Like other terrorist organizations around the world, their victims are mostly innocent and defenseless people. Like Taylor and his gang of thugs, LURD and Model are not interested in peace and security for the Liberian people. During the past twenty-three years (since 1980), a combination of the three groups have terrorized the Liberian people and subjected them to untold sufferings.

Charles G. Taylor and his criminal gang have survived primarily by terrorizing the Liberian people. Without terror, Charles G. Taylor could never have become president of Liberia. The Liberian dictator and his surrogates prey on innocent Liberians to survive.

LURD and Model are extensions of the brutal Samuel Doe’s regime. The Liberian people and the international community need to understand that most of the people that participated in the murder of hundreds of innocent Liberians during the 1980s are members of LURD and Model. The LURD and Model memberships are replete with Samuel Doe’s death squad members who were responsible for the deaths of innocent Liberians in the 1980s.

The security of the Liberian people is not relevant to LURD and Model. LURD and Model are only interested in terrorizing the Liberians until they can achieve state power. They are killing hundreds of innocent people in Monrovia and around the country because things are not going their way at the peace conference in Ghana.

Their intent is to terrorize the Liberian people until they can achieve their goal. If the issue is squeezing Taylor to leave Monrovia, the ideal thing to do is to go after Taylor and his cronies, and their infrastructures. Why are they not doing that? Why are Taylor and his followers running around Monrovia untouched? Why are the rebels murdering innocent people at Greystone, NewPort Junior High School, the churches and many places around the country where civilians are seeking refuge?

Liberians must hold Taylor and his cronies, LURD and Model responsible for the atrocities they are committing in Liberia. Once a democratically elected government emerges in Liberia, Liberians need to establish a war crimes tribunal to prosecute all those that have committed atrocities in the country over the years.

As an alternative, Liberians could also petition the United Nations to expand the Sierra Leonean court to a regional war crimes court for the Mano River basin. Liberians have to understand that Taylor was not indicted for the atrocities he and his followers committed in Liberia, but the role he played in the killings of thousands of Sierra Leoneans. If Liberians do not establish any mechanism to hold Taylor and the other violators of human rights accountable, they may go unpunished.

Charles G. Taylor, Reginald Goodridge, Charles Bright, Bejamin Yeaten, Roland Duo and other surrogates of Taylor must be made to pay for their crimes in Liberia. The LURD and Model Leaderships, Alhaji Kromah, George Boley, Roosevelt Johnson, Prince Johnson and other agents of death in Liberia must also be held responsible. If these killers do not face justice, other Liberians will be encouraged to kill their fellow Liberians in the future. In fact, the current brutality in Liberia is partly due to the failure of the Liberian people to hold perpetrators of past violence liable for their crimes.

Liberians must never again sit silently while few unscrupulous individuals destroy the country. The future of Liberia is too important to leave it to few selfish people. Liberians must remember that no Liberian has more claims on Liberia than another Liberian.