The Inquirer
Monrovia, Liberia

Distributed by

The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia

Posted May 19, 2004

The ‘Iron Lady’ of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), Mrs. Aicha Keita Conneh has vehemently denied recent news report that LURD was transporting heavy war-making weaponry across the border into Guinea.

Mrs. Conneh described the story as not true. She said, the story has no basis whatsoever but fabricated to discourage her good intention and efforts in the interest of peace relative to the on-going DDRR program.

Madam Conneh who was recently awarded a Medal for her role towards the attainment of peace in the country, said she would rather be in the vanguard of encouraging all Liberians to follow her footstep in seeing to it that genuine peace returns to the country.

In an exclusive interview with this paper late Monday evening, Mrs. Conneh called on Liberians to focus their action to work rather than creating or telling lies that have the propensity to creating chaos and disunity among the nations and people.

She however, cautioned the writer of such a ‘falsehood’ to redirect his thinking on positive developments rather than writing a mere story based on speculative propaganda that would not augur well for the process. “This is why when I am on tour, telling the ex-combatants(LURD, Model, and ex-GOL ) to disarm for the good of the society, I always carry with me UNMIL peacekeepers so as to ensure transparency in my efforts and the process as a whole,” Mrs. Conneh disclosed.

“I’m the mother of peace, the mother of all children especially those who took up arms in this country. So I’ll do all to discouraging them from taking up arms again,” Mrs. Conneh reiterated.

She said her peace mission will not only stop in Liberia, but will go farther in the sub-region and yea the continent of Africa as a whole, and as such she was reechoing her call for Liberians to hurry up with the DDRR process so as to signal to the International Community our own preparedness for the peace in the country,”Mrs. Conneh stated

Recently, a local daily reported in its lead story that LURD through their Iron Lady Aisha Conneh have reportedly ordered the transportation back into Guinea all artillery pieces including launchers and mortar guns for safe-keeping. But in her reaction, she said all mortars and artillery pieces belonging to LURD have already been turned over to the UNMIL peace-keepers in Tubmanburg, and that there was no more heavy weapons left to be ordered transported into Guinea as reported by the paper.