The Liberian Mandingo Association of New York

THE AKOSOMBO TALKS – HOW LONG WILL THE CIRCUS CONTINUE?
By: James W. Harris
September 22, 2004

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I actually wrote the article that follows just before the conference in Ghana that eventually give birth to the now incumbent NTGL headed by Charles Gyude Bryant. I had first submitted it to a prominent Liberian-operated website but it was “killed” instantly and never made it to press. Now that I have the opportunity to publish again, I thought to present it here in its original form for the first time for the benefit of Limany’s vast reading public in view of what I had earlier predicted – that nothing would ever change in our now destroyed country (Liberia) as long as it remains in the ‘soiled’ hands of the same failed politicians and diehard opportunists who destroyed it in the first place. What baffles me though is that the same folks that were so shortsighted so much so that they tried to silence me are now themselves questioning the dismal performance of this so-called Interim Government. Did they not see the writings on the wall all along or were they just playing politics as usual? It’s definitely a little bit too late now, but I surely hope they’ve realized their mistake since. In trying times like these, Liberians must learn to put principles and morality over partisanship and opportunism if we want our country to survive in tact. Please enjoy it and send me your comments!

In the past few days, some weary Liberians, many of them ‘direct contributors’ to the present ongoing mess in our once relatively peaceful country, have been descending on the West African state of Ghana [Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana], in what many believe, is a last-ditch attempt to broker some sort of agreement with the help of regional and international facilitators, aimed at ‘finally’ bringing elusive peace to our now severely war-damaged nation.

Were Liberians like many other nationalities or peoples around the world that “truly” love their respective countries, there’s no telling that our war-torn nation would be enjoying some semblance of peace and stability by now as opposed to continually engaging in senseless wars that are subjecting our people to a life of despair, abject poverty, untold misery and hopelessness. But, I guess, we [Liberians] are just of a very different breed of humans or mankind!

Now, why do I say this? Because time and time again, these particular groups of Liberians that are busy assembling in Akosombo and other parts of Ghana, have proven that they would definitely stop at nothing short of completely destroying their “own” country just for the sake of attaining state power by whatever means in total disregard of the rights of the Liberian people to live in peace as they so desire. Instead of putting aside their personal egos and trying to save their now war-wrecked nation, all they seem to care about is to remove Charles Taylor from the Executive Mansion and reward themselves with the Liberian Presidency – something that many of us would dare to acknowledge simply for cowardly reasons. Yet, we talk deceitfully about bringing peace to Liberia. What a sham!

But what amazes me the most, though, in the ongoing mess that’s taking place in Liberia, is that these groups of Liberians, for some cynical reasons, really believe that they can fool the people “all the time”, even though it should be abundantly clear by now that they collectively have nothing NEW to offer the now war-crippled country. I mean NOTHING; ZIP! If they had anything good to offer Liberia, one would think that they would have done so when they held high government posts in previous Liberian administrations. Wouldn’t they! But they were completely satisfied at that time and too comfortable with their elegant life-styles [built usually on highly corrupt practices, such as, accepting “cold-water” (bribe) for performing a task related to their particular assignments] to care about anything that was going wrong with the country. And now, here they are again in 2003 holding the entire country hostage just because everyone wants to be President of Liberia with no real vision, goals, plan of action or the now more familiar term, “road map”.

How then can they save our country? You tell me! I mean, let’s be honest – just look at the public records of some of the so-called “stake-holders” that are presently in Akosombo unfortunately deciding the fate of our now war-scarred country. It’s all out there, but you would have to be interested enough in order to evaluate them on your personal standards. But just in case you don’t have any standards, then there are the widely acceptable standards of good governance, personal integrity, honesty [in terms of what the person may have done or did not do to promote the public good when he or she held a certain position in government], etc.

Sadly, the same people that have helped to wreck our country in one way or the other are in Ghana today deciding the future of our nation without us holding them sufficiently accountable for their past selfish deeds or misdeeds. For example, many Liberian can quickly point out what Charles Taylor is doing or has done to set Liberia and the entire West African sub-region on fire, but just ask them about, say, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Charles Brumskine, Cletus Wotorson or Dr. Marcus Dahn, amongst others, and their roles specifically in the Liberian mess. They become completely mute and defensive of these people, mainly due to their personal likeness for them. That’s why I always say that we’re not going anywhere until we can learn to be FAIR in examining past and recent events in Liberia in its totality.

Already, as it has become a common practice amongst Liberians, various individuals, interests groups, etc., or even the ruthless and lawless Taylor regime, for that matter, have issued statements [ridiculously “flowery”] registering, what I personally term, their ‘false hope’ about the outcome of this particular meeting that’s currently taking place in Akomsombo, Ghana. As if to suggest that Liberians have never met before to discuss the same burning issues that they’re engaging in today, everyone seems to be optimistic about the outcome of these talks, even though it’s very likely that one of these “career opportunists” could emerge from the talks to lead Liberia. Of course, we all know that they have met, not once, twice, three times, etc., but on countless occasions! And the result – very, very disappointing at best as the Liberian people continue to bear the heavy burdens of the senseless wars that are raging between rivals in this bitter conflict.

Except for the involvement of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former military Head of State of Nigeria, who admirably stopped his own country from plunging into chaos by handing over power to an elected civilian government headed by Olusegun Obansanjo (himself a former military ruler), that was designated to mediate these rounds of talks, the ICGL (International Contact Group on Liberia), the UN and a few other groups, very little has changed on the Liberian side. So, what’s the optimism about! More or less, we still have the same players – don’t we, although many of them have regrouped into different armed camps, like LURD, MODEL, GDF (Grebo Defense Force), etc. Let’s not be fooled, because they’re the ‘same old wine in new bottles’. Most of all, they’re not even interested in the general welfare of the severely impoverished Liberian people, but themselves and settling old scores at the detriment of our once respectable country.

And for this, we’ll always hold them responsible and accountable for the seemingly endless destruction and misery they’ve brought upon us regardless of whatever accord or agreement they reach in Akomsombo. While some people may become less vocal on issues pertaining to Liberia once the Taylor regime no longer holds power, I can assure you that many of us will still be around by God’s help to keep any succeeding government in check because it’s our sacred responsibility and we strongly believe in FAIRNESS and the rule of law.

Even with the participation of a credible statesman like Abubakar and others in trying to find a lasting solution to the nagging Liberian crisis, I can say with some degree of skepticism, based on the results of past conferences, meetings or what have you, and the records of the so-called “key players” involved, that the outcome of the Akosombo Talks could be no different from previous ones. And frankly, I’ll be very surprise if the talks actually achieve peace for Liberia!

But let’s say that the outcome of these talks is good – an agreement reached. What then? Well, the next phase logically would be to implement said agreement. Now, would the international community have the WILL POWER to ensure that whatever the participants had agreed upon is fulfilled? I guess, we’ll just have to wait and see, because, based on past experiences, the implementers of such agreements have not shown the courage to see them through for whatever reasons. Maybe it could be different this time around, but personally, I really don’t think that the international community is truly committed to resolving the Liberian crisis.

As far as I can see, there are two main impediments to resolving the ‘man-made’ Liberian problem. First and foremost is the inability of Liberians to be sincere, frank, honest, etc., in discussing issues relating to their now dead country, not to even mention issues pertaining to themselves. Secondly, from my perspective, is the lack of WILL on the part of the international community to follow up on such agreements to the “letter” once they are signed.

In the first instance, Liberians generally could be said to be very deceitful with each other. They tend to say one thing and do completely the opposite – something that seems to be ingrained in our national character. Take for instance the issue of the appalling human rights situation in the country. Many Liberians have come out to condemn the Taylor dictatorship, but remain silent when it comes to dealing with atrocities being committed by LURD, MODEL or the so-called warlords that are widely believed to have helped to ruin our country. Blaming one party to a conflict as delicate as ours, while ignoring crimes committed by the other, clearly is nothing but deceit. Why not hold everyone to the same standards? I mean, it’s only fair!

Another example would be that many Liberians find it convenient to talk about human rights by way of a press release, statement, etc., but unwilling to show up when a mass rally is called solely to highlight the problem in Liberia as demonstrated recently by the poor turn out for Aloysius Toe and others that are continually being held illegally by the brutal Taylor regime. I’m not even sure whether their names would even be mentioned in Akomsombo since their freedom does not seem to be a priority for our so-called “stakeholders” at the talks. That’s what I’d call hypocrisy; insincerity; deceit; dishonesty, indifference or whatever.

On the second count - the lack of WILL on the part of the international community - the ongoing Liberian carnage says it all. I mean, if the international community, say, the US, based not on it’s so-called “traditional relationship” with Liberia, but its professed role as a defender of democratic values, were to demand of the Taylor government to either straighten up or step down, I’m sure that our country would have been stable and peaceful by now.

As the matter of fact, I’ve always advocated the dire need for a stabilization force in Liberia, especially one that would be lead by the UN as compared to the ECOWAS. My reason for advocating this is simply to provide some level of security for the Liberian people that so often fall victims to Taylor’s ill-trained security thugs as well as LURD, MODEL, etc. Unfortunately, that has never been considered up until now. Yet today, that seems to be the clarion call of many Liberians, except those that are comfortable with the very repressive Taylor regime. Why it took some Liberians so long to realize this fact is something that I certainly can’t explain. All that I can say is that they were probably shortsighted!

To be more brash, I’d say that the Liberian situation could be resolved today, say, for example, if the US or some other powerful country were to give the Taylor administration an ultimatum – “you either do this or else…” We have seen this done in Iraq, Bosnia, and so on. And closer to home, Sierra Leone with the British and the Ivory Coast with the French. All it really takes is the WILL! But of course, Liberia is not in the “strategic interest” of any of the countries mention above and so, our nightmare continues unabated.

As a solution to the ongoing Liberian mess, some Liberians have begun to talk about the idea of yet ANOTHER INTERIM GOVERNMENT or whatever you may want to call it for Liberia as an alternative to the dismally failed National Patriotic Party (NPP) regime. Given our unique situation, there seems to be no other choice due to the fact that conditions in the country are not conducive for the holding of elections as required by the Constitution when Taylor’s term ends this October.

Honestly, I’d support any arrangement that would eventually lead Liberia towards peace and stability. But an interim government led by whom? That’s the million-dollar question! Hopefully, it would not be one of our so-called opposition leaders that our people already distrust, preferring even the tainted Taylor, who incidentally has now been indicted as a war criminal by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone that’s presently sitting there, to remain their Head of State.

Again, if we were to be sincere with ourselves, we would spare the country a lot of trouble if we were to select a candidate for that position based “solely” on his or her past and present records as well as the ability to unite the country, irrespective of tribal affiliation, social or economic class, etc. Simply, a person of integrity and unquestionable character, among other “good” qualities. But certainly, we have apparently not reached that point where we could separate the “sheep from the goats” based on their past records or deeds. And that seems to be our biggest fault; our dilemma.

Unless we can resolve such issues and isolate the cast of characters that seem to be prolonging our nightmare, it looks like the CIRCUS WILL CONTINUE until a new core of Liberian leadership emerges – one that would put our nation first. So far, nothing seems to be on the horizon, while the ‘career opportunists’ are having a field day in Akomsombo determining the destiny of our now pariah nation.

Finally, while we continue to pray for peace and revival for our now destroyed homeland, we must simultaneously demand JUSTICE. Justice for Aloysius Toe, Sheikh Sackor and the many others that have fallen victims to the inhumane conditions imposed on them by all sides to this maddening conflict.