The Failure of The Liberian Runoff Election

Liberian Opposition Blames Police for Deadly Clashes, Vows to Boycott Election

Congress for Democratic Change spokesman George Solo says police used live ammunition against unarmed CDC supporters

James Butty, VOA 8/11/11

  

CDC Supporters and Liberian riot police during Monday's deadly clashes


An official of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) has accused members of the Liberian National Police of killing and wounding CDC supporters.

George Solo, CDC spokesman and deputy campaign manager, said there were at least two confirmed fatalities Monday.

All attempts to reach Liberian police for their comment failed.

Solo said the police ARU unit used live ammunition against CDC supporters who had gathered in front of their party’s headquarters to attend what the party called a vigil for the preservation of democracy in Liberia.

“As we turned the car around, moving into the party headquarters, the ARU guys were behind us firing, and I’m talking about live rounds, and they followed us into the party headquarters and continued to shoot at the crowd with live ammunition,” he said.

Solo said there were at least two confirmed fatalities.

“We have two bodies, but we also have four, five, six claims of death. We’ve got stories of people being shot on the beach and bodies taken and transported to who knows where,” Solo said.

The spokesperson for the U.N. mission, Yasmina Bouziane, also confirmed two fatalities from Monday’s confrontation.

“Most unfortunately, there are reports from people on the ground, and now confirmation of two casualties, with a few injured, including some U.N. personnel who were on the ground, slightly injured,” she said.

Bouziane said UNMIL was investigating Monday’s deadly clashes.

“The mission truly deplores the loss of life and, of course, has called upon all parties, supporters and all Liberians to really exercise maximum restraint and to ensure that peace is maintained in Liberia,” she said.

Some accounts said police took action when CDC supporters began throwing stones at the police.

But, Solo said the CDC supporters threw stones at the police only in retaliation for what he called unnecessary police violence.

“When innocent people are being shot at and they are running toward the fence, they came back, and there are a few pockets of people that threw stones, but why do [you] even have live bullets in your guns?  Why are you shooting unarmed people?  And, if a few come come back to throw rocks at you, to create space, how do you compare rocks with bullets?” Solo said.

The Press Union of Liberia reported in an email late Monday that Liberian police had shut down two pro-opposition radio stations in the capital, Monrovia.

The email from Press Union president Peter Quaqua, quoting employees of LOVE-FM, said police walked into the radio station, cut short a newscast and asked all employees in the building to get out before locking the main entrance.

The Press Union said a live program was similarly disrupted at KINGS-FM, and the station forced to end its broadcasts and the doors sealed after the private security was made to surrender their keys.

KINGS is owned by CDC founder and vice presidential candidate George Weah.  Power-TV had earlier videotaped the bloody clashes between CDC supporters and the police.

Solo said the police went to the stations to get hold of the videotape of the violence.

“As I speak to you now, radio stations that are balanced in their reporting like KINGS-FM, like LOVE-FM, and Power-TV are being closed.  The security apparatus are there right now.  We are receiving calls [from] journalists being threatened to give up tapes of the incidents, obviously because they do not want evidence because the entire incident was recorded,” Solo said.

He said Monday’s developments further deepened the CDC decision not to participate in Tuesday’s run-off election.

“When innocent lives can be taken away like they are animals, when life, which is innocent, [is] disregarded in terms of human value, why should we re-engage in this process?  Do we want to send a message to our people that the process is more relevant than their lives?  No, we will not engage in this runoff,” Solo said.

Liberia violence breaks out before election

G.K. Busch

8.11.2011

At least one person was killed in gunfire in Monrovia the day before a presidential runoff in Liberia. Several others were wounded. As the CDC supporters gathered around their headquaerters in Congo Town in Monrovia early this afternoon a car drew up. As the door opened. shots were fired at the car. One man was hit. The crowd panicked and moved towards the headquarters.

Two minutes late, as the security forces were gathering in response to the shooting, another car drew up. This time it was the Presidentiial candidate of the CDC, Winston Tubman. The UN security guard in charge of protecting Tubnan, opened the door and let Tubman out.The crowd surrounded him to protect him  and led him into the headquarters, They have not caught the shooter or the youths who were hurling stones at the crowd, injuring several CDC supporters. They shot at the wrong car.

Soon afterwards, at least 100 Liberian security forces and UN peacekeepers descended on the Congo Town area of Monrovia, where they secured the perimeter of the CDC headquarters, setting up roadblocks to redirect traffic.

This is what passes for Liberia's free and transparent election process.

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The Failure of The Liberian Runoff Election

Dr Gary K. Busch

7.11.2011

The presidential runoff election scheduled for November 8, 2011 will take place with only one candidate; Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson, the incumbent. The opposition party, the CDC, has announced it is boycotting the election. The CDC has made formal complaints to the Electoral Commission of massive rigging of the first election. These claims have not been examined by the Electoral Commission in depth and they have not reported on their findings. The candidates of the CDC, Winston Tubman and his Vice-Presidential partner, George Weah, are widely popular in the country as has been seen in the campaign and Mrs. Sirleaf-Johnson a great deal less popular.

However, Mrs. Sirleaf-Johnson has several things going in her favour. She has access to a lot of money which she is freely spreading around. Local sources estimate that she has spent almost US$30 million so far on the election, about $150,000 of which is said to have gone to Prince Johnson, a failed candidate in the first election who threw his support behind Johnson-Sirleaf. Prince Johnson was famous in Liberia for his hacking away with a machete at the late President Doe on a video available on You Tube and later, it is said, eating some of the organs of Doe. This prompted the best one-liner in Africa. “Where is Sam Doe? Something he disagreed with ate him”

Some of Mrs. Sirleaf-Johnson’s money was made available from grants from the US, the European Community, the UN and some from the oil companies who are her major sponsors.

Her major support comes from the US, who was instrumental in rigging the Nobel Prize to be given to her just a week before the election. Mrs. Sirleaf-Johnson, who returned from her flight from Liberia to the US during the civil war, returned to serve Charles Taylor in a direct capacity. Not to fall into the error of judgement made by Adam Clayton-Powell, she “arranged things” for Taylor until he left the country and settled many of his problems. Oddly enough the ‘independent observers’ sent by the US to observe the election found that they were fair and transparent. In the words of the State Department yesterday “The CDC’s charge that the first-round election was fraudulent is unsubstantiated. As evidenced by international and domestic observers, Liberia’s October 11 first-round presidential and legislative elections were fair, free and transparent.” This is despite documented cases of fraud and rigging at least about 35% of Liberia’s 4,800 polling places (most of whom were not observed by the observers) as reported by the CDC.

The problem is that Tubman and Weah are playing against a stacked deck. Liberia is an occupied country and has been so for many years. It is occupied by the US and to a smaller degree, by the UN peacekeepers that fall under US military ‘guidance’ and control. Right now the UN Peacekeepers include:

9,216 total uniformed personnel
7,775 troops
133 military observers
1,308 police (including formed units)
476 international civilian personnel (that is private military contractors)
1,000 local staff
240 UN Volunteers

Country contributors

Military personnel
Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mali, Moldova, Montenegro, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Serbia, Togo, Ukraine, United States, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Police personnel
Argentina, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The UN presence is dwarfed by the presence of the US military in the country (some of whom are included above). The Department of Defense is represented in Liberia by the Office of the Defense Attaché and the Office of Security Cooperation.

According to the Department of Defense:

Office of the Defense Attaché
The Defense Attaché represents the Secretary of Defense; other top military officers and the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Military. The Office of the Defense Attaché provides military and political-military advice, assistance, and support to the U.S. ambassador. The Office of the Defense Attaché has the full authority and responsibility inherent in the position on any military organization commander except the authority to administer military justice.

Office of Security Cooperation

The mission of the Office of Security Cooperation (OSC) is to provide U.S. Department of Defense Security Assistance to the Republic of Liberia on behalf of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. Embassy Monrovia in order to further U.S. strategic goals and objectives and to improve military-to-military relations. Within this mission, OSC’s primary objective is to build, equip and train a professional, apolitical 2,000 soldier Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) under the Security Sector Reform for National Defense program.  Included in this force is the development of a 50-100 person Liberian Coast Guard (LCG).

Current Activities
•    Operation Onward Liberty, U.S. Uniformed Mentor program, which includes 50+ mentors in wide range of skills working side-by-side with AFL. Funded by a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Case.
•    Provision of U.S. Military Training Teams (MTTs) to train on specific topics within Liberia. Recent examples include outboard motor maintenance and small boat operations for the Liberian Coast Guard.
•    Continuation of International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, which sends approximately 40 AFL/LCG personnel to training in the U.S.
•    Coordinate military-to-military events in which the AFL can engage with the U.S. on specific topics such as warehouse management and logistics procedures. This has recently been enhanced through the State Partnership Program with the Michigan National Guard.
•    Mentoring at the Liberian Ministry of Defense (MoD) staff level using the Defense Institution Reform Initiative (DIRI).
•    Continued development of the Liberian Coast Guard funded via a FMS case.
•    Funding support for equipment and limited base operations and maintenance through on-going FMS cases.
•    Development of armoires and ammunition control points along with proper policies and procedures funded by an FMS case.  
•    Incorporating the AFL in humanitarian assistance missions and projects funded by the DoD Humanitarian Assistance Program.
•    Encouraging healthy relationships with other nations and organizations and taking advantage of skill sets and training opportunities such as with UNMIL.
•    Defense HIV Awareness and Prevention Program (DHAPP).

In short, when you add the number of trainers of Dyncorp and the other active private military corporations to the US troops and policemen in Liberia  there is a healthy array of force available to the President of Liberia; no doubt an advantage to an incumbent. One can add to this the positive goodwill towards Mrs. Sirleaf-Johnson by the US Ambassador to Liberia, Linda Thomas-Greenfield; one of a number of Black-American female ambassadors to Africa named by Condoleeza Rice.  She has been Ambassador to Liberia since 2008 and played a role in the Nobel Prize arrangements. Local sources say she will soon be returning to the US to leave the State Department to return to Liberia as an agent for Chevron Oil.

They key to the importance of Liberia to the world is that substantial amounts of oil have been found nearby (in Ghana, Sierra Leone, etc.) There are signs of large quantities of oil within Liberian offshore water. In 2005 the Liberian Government, through the National Oil Company (NOCAL), entered into a "Production Sharing Contract" with three foreign oil companies to undertake oil exploration in Liberian territorial waters. The three companies include the Joint Consortium of Regal Liberia Limited, Broadway Consolidated, and Oranto Petroleum Limited. They were among five companies awarded blocks as a result of the Bid Round... Subsequently, most of the oil majors have sought a place in Liberia’s industry. In August 2010 Liberia selected one of the world's largest oil companies as lead partner to explore potential offshore reserves. The government said that a three-year exploration agreement with the Chevron Corporation involving three deep-water concessions in Liberian waters "has been approved by the Executive and submitted to the Legislature for consideration and ratification." "We are delighted to welcome Chevron as a partner for Liberia to explore our oil and gas assets," Johnson Sirleaf said in the Executive Mansion statement. "Energy is one of my top priorities, and with Chevron's technical skills we will be able to build our own capacity in the sector making a meaningful contribution to economic growth and job creation. “
Local sources say that it is very important for Chevron to finish the deal by getting the required legislation passed and, to that end, would like to see Mrs. Sirleaf-Johnson as President once again... Other oil companies are waiting in the wings. Chevron has already paid out a lot of money for the Liberian acreage and commissions. It doesn’t want to have to do it twice.

Wherever there is oil the level of transparency diminishes. Winston Tubman is doomed to face the financial might of Chevron and the military might of the US Department of Defense. If Mrs, Sirleaf-Johnson rigged the first election there is no reason why she not be expected to rig the runoff. Hence, the boycott. Africa seems doomed to repeat its mistakes over and over. If the lessons of the UN Peackeepers and the French next door in the Ivory Coast are not an example to the Liberians of what can happen when foreign armies and oil companies decide on how a country should be run, then no example will suffice.

Yet again the hand-wringers and chancers of ECOWAS repeat the litany of support for this sustained attack on African sovereignty, just as they did in Abidjan. What future for Africa when it continues to cosy up to international bullies for short-term cash advantages?