The Liberian Democratic Future Responds to the Executive Mansion

This is our passing response to the simplistic propaganda manuevers of an otherwise confused establishment that calls itself the Government of Liberia. It can be recalled that in a recent statement of solidarity with the people of Sierra Leone, the LDF declared that :

1. The madness of the Sierra Leonean war is an extension and product of the Liberian tragedy; that without the present political arrangement in Liberia, half of Sierra Leone's population would not be displaced. Over 20,000 killed, including 5,000 butchered in January in the capital, Freetown, when Taylor-backed forces invaded the peace of the city. We further noted, and rightly so too, that without Mr. Taylor's backing and active participation, Foday Sankoh and his so-called Revolutionary United Front rebels would not be amputating children, butchering their parents and using their sisters as sex objects in an orgy of madness called war; all for the sole purpose of sitting in the State House and solidifying their bloody mass theft in imitation of their chief, Taylor. We further stated that unless all of West Africa came to grip with the horror at our doors-horror planted by Taylor with the support of Libya's Gaddafi, and Burkina Faso's Blaise Campoare, as well as Ivorian blessing, our dreams of ressurecting paralyzed economies and social infrastructure will turn into a mirage and fade into oblivion.

2. We expressed our dismay at the bigotry of past West African leaders for ensuring that such mayhem continues by conspiring to implant a regime in Liberia that now serves as the primary launching pad for destabilization throughout the sub-region.

3. That to expect peace in Sierra Leone while the supply line of support remains wide open in Monrovia, Tripoli and Burkina Faso with an Ivorian nod was a worthless dream to conceive.

The Liberian Government has decided to do what it does best: twists facts, issues lies, subterfuge and denials colored with insults. Thus, in their vituperations from their ivory tower in the Executive Mansion, they proclaim that they "KNOW US WELL". Indeed, they know us. How well, we do not know. But nothing could be so truthful. How can a tyrannical regime that is swallowed by paranoid and maintains a TARGET LIST for elimination of imaginary enemies not know us? But one thing is clear. They do not know themselves, and need to be reminded of their true identity. We will now list the main points of the Liberian Government's statement in order to provide readers with the facts. The Executive Mansion stated the following:

1. All Liberians in America who protest Taylor's inhumanity want Green Cards.

It is interesting to note that Mr. Taylor is among the many gangsters and nonentities who perambulated the United States until Samuel Doe turned him into a somebody. Despite the many opportunities available in America for disciplined and honest people, men like Taylor and the cronies parading behind him opted for the back streets and shadowy world of Al Capone America. They became petty criminals and later unleashed their criminality on poor Africa years after failing in America. One would imagine that even by his limited education, Taylor would know what even the flunkies know best- Green Cards are not obtained through protests. A number of his fellow thieves and bandits in Monrovia are Green Card holders, if not naturalized citizens. You have the Tom Woewiyus and the Johnson Gwaikolos, now head of the Investment Commission (one wonders what are they investing), to name a few. Furthermore, if the American angle is to be used to render judgment in the Liberian tragedy, it is Taylor and his fellow bandits who have benefited and are benefiting more while the nation lies in ruins.

Forever believing that lies, deceit and propaganda will win the day, Taylor has just hired an American Former Assistant Secretary of State, Herman Cohen, as his special Advisor. This was done with substantial sum of meager dollars in the six digits. Before then, he had Jesse Jackson, whose responsibility was to deceive West African leaders and the American establishment that Taylor wanted peace while the terrorist was all along preparing for war as we saw in Sierra Leone in late 1998. Immediately after Jesse Jackson influenced the signing of the non-aggression Pact in Conakry, Guinea in October, 1998, Taylor armed the RUF and invaded Freetown. Everyone now agrees that the slaughter that ensued is unprecedented. You also have the former US President , Jimmy Carter, who urged ECOMOG in 1995 to remove heavy weapons from Liberia while Taylor was putting the finishing touches to his terrorist invasion of Monrovia, code named "OPERATION OCTOPUS". But with Taylor's limitation even in matters like the procedures involved in acquiring political asylum in today's world, one can readily understand the misconception and glaring stupidity.

2. The Executive Mansion maintains that by the time of the July elections, all warlords were toothless Bulldogs; and it is not true that Liberians voted for Taylor as their insurance to live another day.

There is no doubt that the overwhelming verdict of foreigners who observed the elections (if we can call it that) is that Liberians chose Taylor because he had more people prepared to kill, loot and maim if he lost. Human Rights Watch/Africa, the Carter Center, Africa Justice And Faith Network, all came to the same conclusion. Abacha knew exactly what he was doing, having received the instruction from Ghadaffi, his dear friend and brother, who recruited him into the campaign of terrorizing and eliminating political opponents. True both Abacha and Gadafi were dying to teach Washington a lesson. "We know you don't want Taylor, but Taylor you will have", they reasoned. So we had the result of our elections in which out of a population of 2.8 million (that is less 300,00 killed) Human Rights Watch tells us 473,000 persons voted, representing about 22.90 percent. Many voters, about 500,000 according to the US State Department, were either in refugee camps afraid to return or had no means of returning to vote. By then, Taylor had thoroughly looted establishments like LAMCO, Bong Mines, Firestone, etc. He had sold everything to the Burkinabes and Ivorians in exchange for arms. With his rapproachment with Abacha arranged by Gaddaffi, this terrorist was ready for elections by July 1997, knowing that a fait acompli lied in store. Gen Victor Malu saw reason in thoroughly disarming other warlords while leaving Taylor's arsenal intact based on instructions from Abacha. Malu was later to regret this callous crime when he and the bandit fell off. Today, all arms collected are in the possession of Mr. Taylor, who is staging a publicity blitz by showcasing the "destruction" of the token ones he doesn't intend to keep. So what the Abacha Foreign policy and security team did in Liberia was to simply prolong our misery and leave us with a situation that would have prevailed perhaps in more humane form without their intervention. They have solidified Taylor's base for sub-regional destabilization and made our socioeconomic reorganization impossible. This is our African solution to African problems for which we expect the world to have respect. How can we expect the world to have respect for a solution that crowns and glorifies madness continues to pose serious obstacles to sub-regional peace and causes the killing of innocent Nigerian soldiers in Sierra Leone?

By elections day, Taylor's hoodlums were in preparedness. They became voter registrars, polling agents, etc. ECOMOG soldiers participated in marking ballots for Taylor, not taking chances with the stuffed ballot boxes for their anointed one. This is your democratic election and free choice exercised by Liberians for which the killing and mayhem must continue in the name of democracy.

Shamelessly, Taylor and his praise singers beat their chest for their democratic values because they are not chasing any one out of the country. Yeah, right. Ask Senator Charles Brumskine, former President Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate. He tried to disagree with Taylor on a number of issues and wanted an investigation into Liberian involvement in Sierra Leone. He was recently chased out of the country. One of Taylor's Human Rights Commissioners, Kormah Bryemah, has a story of his own to tell. He escaped from "democratic Liberia" after he was publicly flogged by Taylor's cousin and Police Director, Joe Tate, the hoodlum of all hoodlums. We wish Sam Dokie , Madam Nowai Flomo and countless others had escaped. But Taylor simply kills instead of chasing out. Incidents of arbitrary killings continue in Taylor's democracy as thousands of Liberians in Ivory Coast pray daily to be evacuated from that country, which for all practical purposes, has reconciled itself with Taylor's terror.

3. The Executive Mansion says it was Sierra Leone that invaded Liberia by allowing ULIMO to organize and launch their own operations.

We definitely fail to understand the issue of ULIMO in our statement. Or is it that the Executive Mansion cannot draft a simple response without taking a heavy dose of its usual diet, cocaine? We detest all armed factions because they are nothing but bandit organizations formed by individuals devoid of substance. We are not in doubt that ULIMO under Alhaji Kromah implemented a mindless orgy of looting and killing. But by the time ULIMO got into the looting game, Taylor had looted almost everything, including fleets of Mercedes of Bong Mines, personal clothing of Germans residing in Bong Mines, furniture, etc. It is a well known fact that Joe Tate left Bong Mines with not less than seven truckloads of booty stolen from German homes and businesses. Yes, Taylor is right. Only the zinc and doors were left for the Kromah bandits to steal and ship to Guinea. In April 1996, these two bandits, the worst ever produced in Liberia, teamed up to complete their looting spree in Monrovia.

The fact, however, is that Taylor was already active in Sierra Leone before the formation of ULIMO. He had Foday Sankoh with him from the very onset of his war with an agenda to destabilize Sierra Leone. It was simply a disaster waiting to be unleashed. It was only after Taylor's invasion of Sierra Leone that Krahns, Mamdingoes and other refugees, knowing they would go to the slaughter house if Taylor had captured their hiding place (in Sierra Leone) organized and brought the war to him. For the record, Taylor invaded Sierra Leone in 1991. ULIMO entered Liberia in 1992. The first group of terrorist that invaded Sierra Leone were all NPFL fighters sent by Taylor to start the war for Foday Sankoh. Even today the entire Liberian western border with Sierra Leone (From Foya to Kolahun ) is known by all to be an RUF operational base. We are afraid that events that led to the formation of rival groups now repeated by the Taylor gang are bound to be repeated at the detriment of the Liberian and Sierra Leonean People in view of recent developments. But there is something more revealing in the Executive Mansion's statement. That is, it has for once given the rationale for its current adventure in Sierra Leone.

4. The Mansion states that opponents of the Liberian tragedy are ill-educated flunkies roaming around America.

Hilarious indeed! This is one area where one would expect Taylor and his cronies not to touch. But foolhardiness often leads men to thread on grounds where angels dare not walk. Speaking of flunkies ? That is what Taylor's inner and outer circle is comprised of. There, flunkies and illiterate mass murderers abound. Our first challenge is for Taylor to produce his diploma or diplomas even from a course by correspondence. We know he has none. Then to members of his "THINK TANK", among them Reginald Goodridge et al. The mere fact that men like Goodridge and his kinds could dance in Doe's blood only to copy and perfect every buffoonery he performed, "benefit" from institutions he created is alarming. Or should it be? Goodridge and his kinds could not pass through the door of a run down American graduate school. But Goodridge and his kinds are thankful to Taylor for massacring of over 250,000 people and creating a collapsed economy and social infrastructure. They can now attend "graduate school" in ravaged Liberia. There they sit in a burnt down structure called Babangida School of International Relations, deceiving themselves by studying for graduate degrees that will not be honored even by Slip-way Elementary School. God bless Liberia.

If education were the criteria for ending the Liberian tragedy, then the story would be different. With a few notable exceptions, the bulk of Taylor's team is made of functional illiterates. Take Joe Tate, a high school dropout. He is the police chief. An evidence of the level of illiteracy prevailing in what they call government in Liberia is the recent dismissal of ministers who failed to pray with the chief illiterate. But sensible people know better. These clowns have simply made Doe look like John F Kennedy.

Was it not shameless for the Executive Mansion statement to say that Liberians protesting Taylor's thuggery lack the education to gain employment in Liberia? What education does one need to fit into Taylor's team? Yes the education in banditry and thuggery is lacking in well meaning Liberians. A cursory look at Taylor's team reveals the caricature of ill-educated bimbos, starting with the so-called Chief Executive. Furthermore, not many Liberians are prepared to join a team of thieves with an average salary of $20 monthly for Ministers which leaves them flocking caps in hands at the doors of Lebanese and East Indian merchants for weekends or simply steal tax payers money.

If Taylor had the minimum amount of education, he would have known that it did not make sense to promise the return of the US dollar as national currency in a wrecked economy. He would have known that it was simply silly to promise one computer, costing on the average US$1,500, for every child when there are no school buildings, electricity , or even teachers who can use a typewriter. But this is the mundane definition of politics, Taylor-style: pure deceit.

This buffoon should have known that to dynamite a hydro, blow up the city's water supply, steal radio and TV communications transmitters for Burkina Faso and La Cote D'Ivoire meant going back a hundred or more years because there is simply no capital to replace these valuable economic entities. Even his fellow rebels in Zaire had better sense when they protected electricity establishments around the country in the war to rid themselves of Mobotu. Now that Mobotu is dead and gone, fat belly Kabila has electricity.

Sadly, our "US trained" economist did not have the commonsense to know that there will be no foreign exchange after looting Bong Mines, pillaging LAMCO and vandalizing Firestone, etc. This is the extent of Taylor and his team's education, for which they are well paid in Liberia.

5. The Executive Mansion falsely believes that opponents of the Liberian tragedy are subjecting their people to suffering by campaigning against international help.

If men of conscience are determined to stop any flow of help to the current political team in the country, it's because the help will not only be squandered, but this will set a terrible example for future generations. No wonder why President Clinton is refusing to give Yugoslavia even a dime for development as long as Milosovich is in power. Help to Taylor means that an individual can kill, loot, lie and be rewarded. The fact remains that the government of Liberia is its own worst enemy.

Washington's 1998 Human Rights Report is self-evident of the falsity of the Liberian Government's hollow claim that the US Government is simply buying lies circulated by Liberians in America. Isn't it commonsense that the US Government is more capable of collecting facts than we are? The widespread extortion, high incidents of human rights abuses including dragging wounded Krahns from ambulances and shooting them during the September 18 fighting abound.

Those that have subjected the Liberian people to suffering are Taylor and his team who looted all economic entities to buy fast cars and arms. Those who are subjecting the people to hardship are those who lied about reverting to the US dollars and made barren campaign promises of spearheading a development program never before seen in this country. Yes, he promised sugar candy mountain, and deliver nothing but a cup of vinegar. Now, he spreads his thieving hands for the international community to give him money while keeping one eye on the Libyan petro-dollar.

We believe that Taylor and Company must come square and deal with the issues. But a regime that came to power through lies, deception, leaving killing fields in its wake is not capable of dealing with issues. The prime issue in today's Liberia is the character of men and the crimes committed against our people in the name of greed and graft. Maybe Taylor is right about one other thing. He says that Liberians opposed to his banditry are unpatriotic. But knowing what his National Patriotic Front of Liberia did to Liberians, shouldn't the word "Patriotic" be held suspect by decent Liberians? Patriotism in Taylor's parlance means presiding over killing fields, mass theft, while ruling by intimidation, lies and ineptitude. If so, then yes, we choose not to be patriotic. Woe unto them who are by Taylor's standard.

Siahyonkron J. K. Nyanseor
Chairman, Liberian Democratic Future

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