Former Warlord Kromah Declares War on The Perspective

From: "manyuan"
To: <editor@theperspective.org>
Subject:
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 12:15:45 -0400
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400

George Nubo, Managing Editor, The Perspecitive (sic)

As you have no hesitation in continuing your campaign of character assassination (sic) against me, I hope you will find it fair to have my rejoinder published unedited and without undue accompanying notes to "guide" the reader. Thank you.

Alhaji G.V.Kromah

From: "George H. Nubo" <editor@theperspective.org>
To: "manyuan"
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 9:11 AM

Subject: Re:

This is to acknowledge receipt of your article. It will be reviewed by the Editorial Board for publication.

George

From: "manyuan"
To: "George H. Nubo" <editor@theperspective.org>

Subject: Re:

Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 09:16:10 -0400
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400

I don't think my article needs review. If it will be editorialized or mutilated to suit your desire, you may as well disregard it. You freely publish your character assasination (sic) pieces, which I am not sure go through serious review by your editorial board.

To: "manyuan"
From: "George H. Nubo" <editor@theperspective.org>

Subject: Re:

Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 09:22:11 -0400

The Perspective is not ULIMO-K or the Liberian Orbit. You don't not tell us what to do. I can say this much - your article will be carried, but it has to go through our normal procedure.

Now The Rejoinder:

The age of cybernetics has well served all and sundry, but not without cost. Just as we are subject to environmental impurities, the medium of the Internet has cracked opened multiple outlets for social and political pollution as well.

Kromah - One of Liberia's Brutal Warlords

Former warlord Kromah

The joyless schematic about the invention is that certain web barnyards have become the breeding ground for ninnies entrapped in primitive ignorance, posing as intellectuals. They are not only psychologically imprisoned, but they convince themselves that their waste pasted on the web hurts their intended victims, and is worth the miserly coppers given them by their remote controller in Abidjan. All they can achieve actually is an imagination of success, for their key targets are more focused on how to hasten the apocalyptic sojourn of the pariah regime back in Liberia, and do not have time for jazzercise. That too is a choice in the democratic debate.

But it is necessary once in a while to demonstrate the emptiness of the rambling claims of these hyenas posing as web journalists in Liberian affairs. It is necessary at crucial times, even if Charles Taylor and his Ministry of Information collaterally benefit from the exercise, that innocent readers know that these writings are nothing but horse hockey. Even if our dignity is slightly bruised momentarily going down with them into the trash and dross, it is useful to establish that the corrugating of the facts by hustlers is a violation of decent people's right to know the truth about a traumatized society.

This is the sour story of what has now become of the Perspective magazine and its faceless, cowardly and hired political surrogates like Managing Editor George Nubo and a couple of his staff writers. They hide behind the good invention of the motherboard to throw stones as crippled puppets stringed to their West African paymaster. They hide behind a web barricade that is abusing and squandering the opportunity of being further hosted by the important AllAfrica.com organization. It is sorrowful that noble brothers like Publisher Siahyonkron Nyanseor and the others have left Nubo and his fellow petty mongers and blackmailers to corrupt the original good intent in the launching of the magazine, now being reduced to an online “dogafleh” gossip café.

Nyanseor and the others should ensure that Nubo and his writers adhere to the mission statement of the Perspective, which says, “The Perspective will not allow itself to be used by those who will try to operate outside the bounds of civil discourse. In other words, innuendoes, character assassinations, sheer propaganda and articles riddled with profanities will not be published.” The Perspective conducted a lengthy interview with me two years ago and published it. Nevertheless, it has allowed its staff writers to sidestep the comments made in that interview, pretending nothing ever happened. If their stream of articles specializing in pointless slurring is journalism, we certainly would not like to see their “sheer propaganda,” not to speak of “character assassination.”

Nubo, some time back, called me occasionally, politely cheerfully discussing things, and I responded believing he was honest. He was neither a journalist nor a writer, that much I learned from him, but just someone who knew some things about computer and could upload stories on the Internet. From him and from others he talks with, I concluded he and his mates are in the business of suppressing critical comments from their readers, and then go on to serve as a transatlantic political transmitter for the Madame. They on other occasions give mean introductions to articles of their dislike, thereby unduly prejudicing the reader’s perspective even before the article is read. He denied that, but the dismal performance of his site to that effect makes cooperation with his esophagus strenuous.

Blackmailing and Ethnic Demagoguery

Nubo and his little misfits plot and actually call people in the community blackmailing that they are about to publish something dirty about this person or that group. They are on an architectural board inspecting who in their estimation is making a political inroad. It has often proven they may actually be witnessing solidarity in progress among the opposition. But that would put them out of work. They have to have a target to survive. So they throw in the monkey wrench. That has been the callous basis for their articles, which start with an illusion of a comprehensive analysis, and then it soon betrays its purpose of zeroing in on a particular target. Carefully read the articles, you will notice the pattern with ease.

Applying methods of media content analysis, I deduced that that Nubo and his associates were allergic to Liberian public figures who were not of the Kwa-speaking ethnic grouping of Liberia, particularly Mandingoes and Muslims (Their paymaster has some maternal Kru connection.) If they ever say anything negative about people from their own background, it would just be in passing, not to talk about their old MOJA connections, an organization I have no ax to grind with now anyway. Even in the case of Hassan Bility in the past, their web page has been cold feet in exposing the brutality meted out to the young man. There is some improvement now; at least they find the opportunity to make mockery of the man’s plight in Taylor’s dungeons.

It is professional fakery to obligate oneself in engaging what one promises by in a headline, and then detour in tracks. Our knurly journalists are so eager to get to the theme of their calumny that the intellectual mimicry soon fizzles into a noisy expression of hate and inanity. They have not been able to decipher the dynamics of the Liberian war and how unarmed people under bloody persecution were able to turn around, defy all odds to dismount Taylor’s military wherewithal, accumulated and prepared well before his invasion of the country in 1989.

If you read articles in and out on the Perspective, particularly those written by their staff, you would think that ULIMO-J and LPC or even the AFL warring factions, all led by Krahns, were the messiahs in the war. These groups are given underdog positions, when the war actually began between the NPFL and the AFL. Of course, targeting a Mende speaking ethnic group like the Mandingoes is solely intended to inflame relations between the Krahns and Mandingoes, a mire that would work in the interest of the political sponsors of the Web site. Of course Nubo denies all of this.

But what this miscreant and his phonies don’t realize as they talk about Mandingoes against Krahns, Gios against Krahn, etc., and now making caricature of our brothers languishing in Taylor’s jails, is that there were successful core reconciliation activities, which allowed for the formation of political parties across ethnic lines. We did not need lectures and exposés from the Perspective in 1997.

What was a Bassa man doing being Chairman of a Party whose Standard Bearer was a Mandingo, and what was a Mano man, Chairman of the Nimba County Association, doing serving as the 1st National Vice Chairman of the same Party? And what were two prominent Krahn rivals associated with key aspects of the wartime split within ULIMO doing serving as Senior Executives of the same party carrying the Mandingo man as Standard Bearer?

What was a prominent Lorma man doing serving as a national Vice Chairman of the party? And the same question could be asked of the former Kpelle and Vai Superintendents of Bong and Capemount Counties respectfully working in the party as senior executives, as well as Greboes from Maryland serving as the Secretary General and the National Treasurer of the same party? Were all these illuminaries fools or afraid of Kromah, when ECOMOG was actually more favorable at the time to Charles Taylor? You at the Perspective wouldn’t know that a Paramount Chief in Sinoe County actually sent a gift of a live domesticated animal to me in Monrovia, several hundreds miles away, pledging the support of his people during the elections. He said that was the decision of his dead ancestors. Ask the Sinoe ALCOP citizens, and they will tell you.

Of course, you fellows at the Perspective and others equally consumed by avarice and bigotry have got this whole ethnic thing backward. Where do you think I got the name Dehkontee Kromah, assuming you have ever heard of that? Our vehicles could not enter the Borough of New Kru Town near Monrovia during the election campaign. The entire street leading to the D. Twe High School was virtually impenetrable. The Kru women culturally had lapas laid out on the walkway into the Hall. The Small Town Boys Singers and the famous Tejajulu Cultural dancers and singers, all of the Kru tribe, were the official performers for my party, ALCOP. Didn’t they know about the atrocities you always talk about?

Where do you people get the idea that up to 1997, the ethnic groups were still locked into fistfights? No, your stories and information are not outdated. I am convinced they are lies calculated to eliminate the rivals of your political employers, and exacerbate the delicate process of reversing the national malfeasance and misfeasance that have become the order in Monrovia. Otherwise, you would not waste so much time uselessly saying the same thing over and over.

In our various ethnic reconciliation meetings over the 1995-1997 period, people performed the traditional libation of spilling water or liquor and invoking the names of the ancestors as well as long-existing oaths that had been violated. People hugged, and cows were slaughtered to mark the occasions. I assume one or two of your writers, evidently suffering from amnesia, were there.

The Sinje Incident

The incident in Sinje, Capemount County is your new hyperbole. And I would not be surprised that you did not even know that the ULIMO-J in the county at the time was actually an extension of Taylor’s NPFL and that Roosevelt Johnson had lost control. You would not know that the commander of ULIMO-J in Capemount, Manna Zagley, had just joined the faction directly from the NPFL, where he was a key commander. As part of his tactics of divide and destroy, Taylor arranged the entry of Zagley into Johnson’s group, knowing that it had become difficult, if not impossible, for Johnson to maintain physical control of the troops.

You will not know either that like the Germans in World War II, the mainstream ULIMO I led actually used the Vai script in transmitting information on movements not only in Capemount but also in other parts where Vai people could be found. The details of the Sinje Massacre were written in Vai by a survivor and smuggled to me in Monrovia. My late Uncle, Malike Siryon, read it, and nothing else could have made us angrier.

Manna Zagley, hearing that mainstream ULIMO was approaching, hurled the townspeople together, gunned many of them down and had the survivors bury their relatives. Zagley and his men then left the town and returned three hours later, claiming that we had entered the town. Rocket speed for such an enemy attack and exit, eh?

This story was confirmed by a medical doctor who indicated in his report that eyewitnesses present during the UN preliminary investigation could not confess the actual story as Zagley and his men were still in charge of the town, and would definitely harm anyone reporting against his group as soon as the UN team left. We have all of these documents for our publication. You guys may therefore continue your Capemount propaganda, believing you will accrue votes for your master. Our 1997 campaign swept Capemount in reality, for people knew the truth, no matter what you secrete repeatedly on the web.

Failed Strategy

Despite what we have explained in our lengthy November 2000 interview with your web site giving evidentiary illustrations and citing live witnesses, you habitually go back to your chorus, as if though you haven’t realized that it has degenerated into a ho-hum.

Look, fellows. Your strategy is not working. While we have constituents in America and the subregion who are tempted to get angry with your infected harangue, the thousands in the silent majority do not have access to the Internet to be bothered by your puerile and monotonous propaganda.

Whenever you talk about people going to the tribunal for atrocities, you leave out your patrons who found the seed money for the destructive hoax now sitting in Monrovia. Are you betraying your devilish motives? Don’t be surprised that some of you may end up at that tribunal for you may well be accomplices hiding behind the pretext of journalism.

Where were you in 1997 when for three months I was virtually blasting Charles Taylor on radio in Monrovia and challenging anyone to present real proof of atrocities or business dealings that ULIMO under my control carried out during the war? Where were you when I volunteered to be the first to face any international tribunal if such evidence could be submitted, even though the Cotonou and other ECOWAS agreements had given immunity to all factions?

Don’t tell me people were afraid of me. I was disarmed and ECOMOG was in control. For your information, ALCOP was one of the few parties in the country that visited the provincial headquarters of every County in the Country, including my spending the night in Ganta, Nimba, a Taylor stronghold he never one day slept at during the entire course of the war. You will not know that NPFL Gio and Mano ex-fighters presented a statement of support to ALCOP within 24 hours of our interaction with them. You will not know that at Taylor’s headquarters in Gbarnga, Bong County, injured ex-fighters presented another statement complaining how Taylor had abandoned them.

You will not know that the Kpelles you claimed somewhere were massacred by ULIMO poured into the compound of one of their prominent leaders in Gbarnga hosting my entourage. They should have been running away if we go by your asinine expressions. By the way, Charles Taylor was present in Gbarnga that day but had reportedly spent the night at the ECOMOG headquarters, fearing we would have attacked him even without arms. Where were you when all these things were happening, and today you have become a bogus narrator of events in Liberia?

Judging from your calculated behavior, I am even tempted to assume that you prefer to have Charles Taylor remain as Destroyer-in-Chief of Liberia. For every time the heat is turned up on him, you guys intervene by sowing a discordant seed among the opposition. You hypocritically condemn the opposition for not uniting, while at the same time doing everything to keep them from doing so, particularly when it looks like the result may not necessarily be monopolized by your Abidjan provider. We are watching you. It hurts to take time off in directly commenting on your garbage, for it tends to draw one into the grime, and reduces one’s national and international status. But as I said, it can sometimes be sighing to just say a few things and let you people go on with your regular mess unanswered.

Oh, before I forget, I meant to say something about your constant blabbing about the fact that I appointed the Minister of Finance during the transitional government. Here too, you’ve got no fuel. Do you really believe Charles Taylor, who actually had to sign an executive warrant for any amount more than five thousand dollars as the Councilman with oversight responsibility for Finance, would ever let a penny out of his sight? Besides, you must know but fail to say that he also had a Deputy Minister appointed there just as the LPC under George Boley, in addition to assistant ministers equitably distributed among the six competing council members for appointment. Rational people can draw their conclusions here.

Holding You Accountable

Let me leave you with this. War is not some garden tea party. Some of us knew we could have been killed when we rose up against Taylor and his invading forces. Thousands of relatives, friends and Liberians in general were saved, though many died. We in ULIMO and the other factions had more stakes in the war. Taylor had no natural constituency in the country. He caused the training of a few Gio and Mano fellows who felt aggrieved, and then they in turn assembled and continuously drugged hundreds of young Gios and Manos to carry on their dirty work, still the case with Taylor as President today. We realized that going on an all-out war with Taylor at all fronts would have only provided for indigenous people to kill each other in even more devastating numbers. No one from his hometown, Arthington, was on the battlefront with Taylor. None of his young people were available.

I told our military to be tactical, sending out messages to enemy command posts to see whether we could find commanders who were relatives to us. Many times this worked, and that led to the wholesale defection of NPFL soldiers to our side along with their arms and ammunitions. If you heard Taylor was executing people for betraying him, it was because of his people disappearing from him en masse. Otherwise, we would have been engaged many times in battles that could have led to the annihilation of almost all of our indigenous people. On other occasions, fighters just did not want to fight anymore. NPFL fighters alive today will tell you how often I broke their communication code, appealing to them not to fight anymore.

And quite frankly, even the Krahn people will tell you that they and the Mandingoes lost more prominent fighters in the war between them than against the NPFL, an organization which, I must submit, was and continues to be superior in sowing seeds of discord among friends and within heritage. This is what they are feeding on now in Liberia, and some of you at the Perspective have fallen prey to it so pitifully.

As I have said, all along the way, there were reconciliation meetings every time something serious went wrong. The events in Lofa, where the NPFL trained 2000 people in less than a year following their invasion of the county in 1990, have been twisted. No matter what we say, political rivals and their surrogates paste the demise of some of those two thousand NPFL fighters as ULIMO atrocities. Certainly many of our civilians lost their lives, as I have said on many occasions, including our own relatives. But to describe Lofa or other county fighters from the NPFL who died in battle as atrocities is the kind of working that satisfies Taylor, who wants all of his wartime military rivals to be painted in his image.

I suggest you stop playing with fire. Some of us have decided to pursue the peaceful approach to the ongoing debacle, though even that makes you angry, and yet you can’t do a darned thing about what is going on in Monrovia. You will be held accountable for diluting the pressure so many forces have labored to build upon the Monrovia regime.

Tell the lady. Lets try to put the fire off the roof first, then we can see about the furniture. Otherwise, you can look forward to spending another decade or more here in America, eating “dead” chicken and raw leaves called vegetable salad.

By the way, read the Taylor AllaboutLiberia.Com site after the publication of this article. They will be celebrating that you have said something bad about me and I have responded. Enjoy it.