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This month's presidential and parliamentary polls in Liberia may not
necessarily bring full restoration of peace and democratic rule. A lot
still remains to be done to prevent a return to war,
War clouds still hang over Liberia despite this month's crucial
elections in the country. Indeed, post-colonial Africa's oldest
independent state could slide back into war by the end of the decade,
dragging its neighbours with it, unless tough measures are taken to
stem the tide of corruption and ensure that the international community
stays on to help the rebuilding effort after the polls, an influential
think tank has said. Liberians, who are recovering from 14 years of
civil war, go to the polls October 11 to elect a new president and
parliament to succeed the transitional government that was installed
when the conflict ended in August 2003.
"Elections are but a small, early step in a lengthy reconstruction
process that will be sabotaged if Liberian elites refuse some form of
intrusive governance mechanism or if international partners pull out
before a sustainable security environment is achieved," Crisis Group
said in a recent report on the beleaguered country.
"In a regional context in which UN peacekeeping forces are drawing down
to zero in Sierra Leone, Guinea remains volatile, and violence in Ivory
Coast simmers just beneath the surface, anything less than full
commitment to reintegration and reconstruction in Liberia will most
likely contribute to a new, wider conflict," the Brussels-based think
tank stated.
International donors and Liberia's transitional government are
currently wrangling over the finer details of a plan to stamp out
corruption in the west African nation, whose diamond, timber and iron
ore wealth have tempted generations of government officials.
Through the so-called Governance and Economic Management Assistance
Programme (GEMAP), donors want to ring-fence key sources of revenue,
place international supervisors in key ministries and state
organisations, and bring in judges from abroad.
Western governments have warned that they will cut off funding to
Liberia if politicians and government officials continue to squander
the cash meant to help the country's estimated three million people,
who are still living without running water or electricity more than two
years after the guns fell silent.
"What is at stake is not only aid and reconstruction funds, but also
the possible forgiveness of Liberia's approx $3 billion debt," Crisis
Group pointed. It also warned the international community that it must
stick to its side of the bargain if the current interim government and
the elected government that follows it do allow foreign experts in to
help manage the economy.
"Donors must (then) come through with the significant funds and long-
term commitment required to rebuild an electricity grid, a piped-water
system, roads, education, healthcare, security forces and everything
else Liberian needs to become a functional nation again," the report
said.
The 15,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force in Liberia is the
most expensive in the world and observers say that if this month's
polls go smoothly there will be the temptation for troops draw-down to
begin.
Many residents openly worry about how safe their war-scarred country
would be with fewer UN blue hats on the ground, given that the
unemployment rate is around 85 percent and thousands of ex-combatants
have nothing to do. Diplomats, human rights experts and aid workers
agree that reintegrating former fighters into the society and finding
them jobs is the key to guaranteeing Liberia's future security and that
of the region.
The vicious intertwined west African conflicts of the 1990s and early
2000s showed how porous borders allowed idle youths to take up arms
abroad and become regional warriors. As recently as April this year,
Human Rights Watch sounded the alarm about Liberian youths renting
themselves out as hired guns across the border in Ivory Coast.
Around Liberia, both ex-combatants and civilians are quick to point to
the last elections held in the country in 1997, when everyone hoped for
peace but more war followed because of a flawed disarmament and
reintegration process.
According to Crisis Group, "Getting it right over the next year in
Liberia would help move the entire Mano River Basin region (which also
includes Guinea and Sierra Leone) in the right direction. Getting it
wrong would probably seal the region's fate for years to come as the
theatre of a nomadic war in which aimless and cruel young men roamed
from one country to another, seeking the most lucrative sites to loot."
But corruption is not the only concern being raised about post-
transition Liberia. There is also concern about the lack of clarity
exhibited by various presidential candidates on whether to ask for
former president Charles Taylor to be transferred from exile in Nigeria
to stand trial for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. Taylor has
been served 17 indictments for crimes against humanity for his
involvement and support for the Revolutionary United Front rebel
faction in Sierra Leone, known for hacking off hands, feet, lips and
ears of civilians during the 1991-2002 civil war.
The UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone has repeatedly called on
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to hand Taylor over for trial.
However, Obasanjo has insisted that the former warlord can only be
handed over to an elected Liberian that makes such a request, or if
Taylor breaks the terms of his asylum deal.
George Weah, Africa's most successful footballer and a favourite
contender for the presidency, has indicated that all he wants is for
Taylor to have the opportunity to clear his name.
"What I will say is that ex-president Taylor has the right to exonerate
himself. For Taylor, his family, and people that believe in Taylor, it
is time for Taylor to exonerate himself and we should be able to give
him the opportunity to do that," said the former African and World
Footballer of the Year.
Wildly popular with Liberia's youthful and mostly illiterate
electorate, Weah has a strong following among former combatants,
including those loyal to Taylor. The former international soccer star
has yet to specify whether he is in favour of sending Taylor to the
Special Court to exonerate himself.
Roland Massaquoi, a stalwart of the former president's cabinet who has
now become the new torchbearer for Taylor's National Patriotic Party
(NPP), says he would accept an option for Taylor to stand trial if his
asylum deal was broken, or if the Liberian people demanded it.
On her part, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, veteran opposition leader and a
notable presidential candidate, has called for a review of Taylor's
asylum in Nigeria, where authorities have investigated allegations that
the ex-warlord has been meddling in Liberian affairs by telephone.
"Mr. Taylor was not indicted by a Liberian court. He was indicted by an
international court. Mr. Taylor reportedly had a deal with the west
African leaders that led to his exit from Liberia. If it is true that
deal has been broken, he should bear the consequences," said Johnson-
Sirleaf, a former UN official.
Only Charles Brumskine, deputy senate leader under Taylor, has openly
vowed to send his former boss to Sierra Leone to stand trial. "I would
have no reservation to transmit Mr. Taylor to the Court for
prosecution. The rule of law must be upheld and Mr. Taylor has an
international indictment hanging over him," he said.
But two of the lawyers in the presidential race have raised legal
questions on the matter. Winston Tubman, a former UN diplomat and
recently a Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to
Somalia, has questioned the jurisdiction of the Special Court which is
intent on trying Taylor. "I would not just send Mr. Taylor to court
because the Special Court asks me to do so. The question of the
jurisdiction of the Court is a legal issue. The Court does not have a
compulsory jurisdiction to make Mr. Taylor appear there," he said.
However, Tubman, a nephew of Liberia's longest-serving president, the
late William Tubman, did say that he would hand the decision over to
the UN Security Council.
"If I have a 90 percent margin in the elections, I would then ask the
Security Council to make a decision on whether it is compulsory for us
to send him there," he stated.
In the opinion of corporate lawyer, Varney Sherman, there is a need to
clarify whether an extradition treaty exists between Nigeria and
Liberia. He also noted that the Special Court would try Taylor for
crimes against Sierra Leoneans, not Liberians. "As a lawyer turned
politician, there are complications with the Taylor issue," Sherman
noted. "He has not been indicted by a court in Liberia. He has not been
indicted for any offence committed against the Liberian people. He has
been indicted for an offence committed against Sierra Leoneans."
That, however, is not to say that Taylor committed no crimes against
the Liberian people; he did too, making his indictment by the incoming
Liberian government perhaps a matter of time.
For the time being, Liberians may have to forget about the infamous
fugitive, even if temporarily, and face the issue of the moment:
electing the right people to be entrusted with the difficult job of
national restoration. It is one critical assignment on which they
cannot afford to make a mistake.
October 2005
PETER W.VAKUNTA
DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON
602 VAN HISE HALL
1220 LINDEN DRIVE
MADISON WI 53706-1525
U.S.A
Office 608 262 4067
Home 608 422 6089
Cell 608 381 0407
"The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is
in his heart."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
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