Taylor Report: Regime change in Liberia
Fri, 22 Aug 2003 12:53:33 -0700 (PDT)
"Regime change in Liberia: What the US wants the US gets.
Bellow is an article from the New York Times regarding the new regime in
Liberia. Followers of the Taylor Report will notice that the "businessman" and
"healer" chosen to takeover Liberia because he is neutral, etc. Is also
described as the man who organized a grouping of six(!)political parties in a
failed attempt to beat Charles Taylor in the 1997 election. The six received
less than 25% of the vote. But after guerillas supported by Guinea and Ivory
Coast attacked Liberia Taylor was forced out(says this NYT article)and lo and
behold the election losers are being installed in power. And the mid-wife is the
ex-US Airforce officer, assistant deputy Secretary of State and Koffi Annan's
"special emissary" Mr. Jacques Klein. The indepedent Mr Klein is asking the US
to kindly take over training and reorganizing the Liberian army. Meanwhile the
chief prosecutor at the UN "backed" Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal, David
Crane, a former US army officer, is demanding Charles Taylor be turned over for
trial. He is supported in this demand by his lead investigator who is also US
army retired. YOU GET THE PICTURE?
The Yanks leave nothing to chance. And lastly, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch
and other imperialist missionaries, are urging that Nigeria turn over Charles
Taylor to the US run Sierra Leone Court on the grounds that Nigeria is a
signatory of the agreement establishing the UN International Criminal Court at
the Hague! Wonderful, except that Sierra Leone is the only country in the world
to ratify an agreement with the US to defy the authority of that same
International Court since the US fears it might be subject to "political
manipulation"(of the type which the US practices in Sierra Leone and everywhere
else it places its hairy paw!). And can the human rights missionaries put 2 and
2 together?
Apparently not." - The Taylor Report
BUSINESSMAN CHOSEN AS LIBERIA'S INTERIM LEADER
August 21, 2003 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ghana (AP) -- Liberia's rebels and government chose a gentle-mannered
businessman Thursday to lead a transition administration that aims to guide the
country out of 14 years of civil war. The announcement came at the close of 78
days of peace talks with international mediators. In Monrovia, the U.N. envoy
for Liberia said he would ask the Security Council for 15,000 troops to secure
the peace -- what would be the U.N.'s largest deployment in the world. Envoy
Jacques Klein also said he had asked that American forces remain to train a new
Liberian army, telling The Associated Press, ``We are hoping the U.S. will take
it on.'' In Ghana's capital, the chief mediator announced the selection of
businessman Gyude Bryant to oversee the two-year power-sharing accord for
Liberia, and sent warring parties home with a mandate to support it. ``The first
step of unifying the people starts from today,'' retired Gen. Abdulsalami
Abubakar of Nigeria declared. ``Do not let your people down.'' Selection of the
transitional government follows Monday's signing of a peace accord, made
possible by warlord-president Charles Taylor's Aug. 11 resignation and flight
into exile in Nigeria as rebels laid siege to the capital. The interim
government is to take power from Taylor's designated successor, former Vice
President Moses Blah, on Oct. 14 and yield to an elected government in 2005. As
part of the peace accord, Liberia's rebels and government agreed not to vie for
the interim government's top posts themselves. Instead, combatants picked the
interim leaders from a list of nominees submitted by political parties and civic
groups in deliberations that ended only before dawn Thursday. Bryant, a
54-year-old heavy equipment dealer, was seen as the most neutral among the three
candidates for the chairmanship. ``I have lived there throughout all these
problems, and I see myself as a healer,'' Bryant, a large man noted for his
gentle manner, told the AP early Thursday. He pledged to work closely with the
United Nations and other international agencies in the two-year transition
government. His priorities include demobilizing fighters, many of them boys or
young men, who grew up with AK-47s. ``We have to disarm these young men, and let
them know the war is over,'' he said. Other priorities are restoring order and
basic services such as electricity, which was knocked out by fighting in 1992
and never repaired. Although not prominent, Bryant has been influential in
Liberian politics. In 1997, he united six political parties in an unsuccessful
bid to block Taylor from winning the presidency after a devastating 1989-96
civil war that Taylor had launched. The combatants picked Wesley Johnson as vice
chairman. With Thursday's selections, Abubakar officially closed the talks,
which were repeatedly sidelined by fighting in Liberia. ``Your job is not going
to be an easy one,'' he said, and urged Liberia's people to support the effort.
``You have to play your part,'' he said. ``Your country has bled for quite some
time now. This is the time to heal the wound. ``Never again should such a
carnage be visited to your country,'' the Nigerian said. Abubakar, Blah, and
other West African leaders now will go on a tour of Liberia's neighboring
countries, including three -- Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast -- that
themselves were embroiled in civil war or threatened with it because of Taylor.
Guinea and Ivory Coast supported the rebels in Liberia's war. Opened June 4 in
Accra, Ghana, the talks brought warring sides together under pressure from West
Africa countries, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.
Opening ceremonies saw Taylor, his indictment by a U.N.-backed war-crimes court
newly announced, go before fellow African leaders in attendance with a contrite
pledge to step down. He hedged on the promise within weeks. Rebels opened their
siege of Liberia's capital by June 6, ultimately helping leave Taylor little
choice but to get out. In Monrovia, U.N. envoy Klein told the AP he would ask
the United Nations for 15,000 troops -- the top end of the 12,000-15,000 figure
already discussed. The Security Council already has authorized a U.N. mission to
take the place of a 2-week-old West African-led force, but left unstated how
many troops it will send. Klein said it was essential that the United States,
which oversaw Liberia's 19th century founding by freed American slaves, stay on.
Fewer than 200 American troops are on the ground, in a rapid-reaction force on
standby to aid the West African force as necessary, and as liaisons with the
West African force. President Bush already has said the Americans will be gone
by Oct. 1. ``Some European countries have said they will only participate in the
U.N. mission if there's a residual American presence -- and that means anything
at all. That's why we would like them to do the army part,'' Klein said. He
cited Liberia's past strategic value for the United States, including its rubber
resources during World War II and its use as a key Cold War base, especially for
operations against Moammar Gadhafi's Libya. ``You don't let countries down, when
they've helped you in your national security,'' Klein said.
<http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Liberia.html?ex=1062482307&ei=1&en=085f7ace26c240e3
Mitayo Potosi
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