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'm afraid that nothing has been in that regard. It seems as though that we have been too stressed out and paralyzed by current events. We should have been putting on our thinking caps and doing something about educating the people of Madison about what has gone terribly wrong in Liberia.
Thanks for your input.
Adelaide Fiske
>>> [log in to unmask] 07/22/03 10:09AM >>>
Who locally has contacted Sen. Feingold about this problem? isn't he on the
U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Africa? Has there been talk ABOUT LAW and AAM
HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE WISCONSIN STATE CAPITOL STEPS TO DEMAND
MORE U. S. and local public attention to this matter?
-----Original Message-----
From: Felix Ossia [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 10:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Liberia Chief Demands Direct U.S. Contact
Liberia Chief Demands Direct U.S. Contact
By AUSTIN MERRILL
Associated Press
July 21, 2003, 9:21 PM EDT
DAKAR, Senegal -- Embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor demanded
more direct contact with the United States Monday, complaining that he
only heard of U.S. demands that he step down via television.
President Bush has made Taylor's leaving office a precondition for any
possible U.S. deployment of peacekeeping troops to this war-torn west
African nation founded over a century ago as a haven for freed U.S.
slaves, and Taylor has repeatedly promised to go.
"I have not had the opportunity ... of speaking to a single person in
the Bush administration whatsoever," Taylor said in a phone interview
with The Associated Press from the Liberian capital. "The only way I
have had any contact with the Bush government has been through CNN."
Taylor, who has accepted an offer of sanctuary from Nigeria, said he
wrote Bush a letter containing preconditions for his departure.
"I have written him a letter outlining to him certain things that are
necessary for me to step down and certain things that are necessary for
me to leave the country," said Taylor.
He would not elaborate on what those preconditions were.
As Taylor spoke, sporadic fighting continued late into the night Monday
in the capital -- the only part of the country he still controls any
part of.
The former warlord also repeated his call for a promised west African
peacekeeping force to arrive quickly. "(It) could bring some sanity,"
said Taylor.
But Taylor said the best way to ensure stability was through U.S. troops
on the ground helping enforce a future peace.
"An American contingent would be excellent," he said.
"American troops in Liberia would have no problem," Taylor said, trying
to assuage fears in Washington of involvement in Africa after the
bungling of Somalia.
Taylor was elected president in Liberia in 1997 after waging eight years
of civil war -- a conflict that spread into neighboring Sierra Leone. He
has been indicted by a war crimes court in Sierra Leone for backing that
country's brutal rebels.
Taylor dismissed the charges against him.
"This whole indictment issue was designed as a pressure mechanism to
help to push me out of office and chase me out of the country. I intend
to fight it as much as I can," Taylor said.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
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