We assemble here today, I believe to say “enough is enough.” We will take our country back. It is complete insanity to let our country, already plundered and raped, continue in the path of utter destruction. We have assembled here to say NO to the warlords and want to publicly declare that we will do every reasonable thing within our powers to ensure that their desire to ruin our country will not be tolerated but in fact resisted and prevented. I hope that at the end of this gathering, we would have pledged ourselves to work scrupulously to ensure that achieving political power in Liberia through the force of arms will be totally and absolutely rejected by the civilized nations of the world.

The immediate precursor to our most recent conflict lies squarely on the shoulders of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) headed by Charles Taylor and the United Liberia Movement for Democracy (ULIMO-K) of Alhadji Kromah. They are to be blamed for the recent destruction and killings in Monrovia. They should be condemned and held accountable.

The current peace plan known as the Abuja Accord contains provisions which deal with any violation of the accord. If Roosevelt Johnson of ULIMO-J violated the accord, the aggrieved party should have resorted to the legitimate abjudicating mechanism to deal with Mr. Johnson. The strong-arm tactics employed by Messrs Taylor and Kromah should be condemned vehemently. Certainly, Mr. Johnson is no angel. He, like his fellow warlords, are all complicit in the barbarically massive killings which our nation has endured in the last six years.

In the most recent past, ULIMO-J rebels ambushed members of ECOMOG in the Tubmanburg area killing 10 soldiers and severely wounded 70 others. The Council of State did not act against Mr. Johnson then. Late last year Liberia Peace Council leader, George Boley, ordered the execution of five of his rebel soldier; without recourse to due process. Mr. Boley was never taken to task by the Council of State. In September NPLF soldiers massacred about 105 civilians in Tappita. The Council of State did not issue any arrest for Mr. Taylor. The litany of abuses goes on and on.

Considering all of these facts, it is inconceivable that Mr. Johnson, would be arrested for murder because a bodyguard of one of his nemesis got shot in a shoot-out. Most Liberians are convinced that Mr. Taylor is using the charge of murder against Mr. Johnson as smokescreen to consolidate his faltering power base and become Liberia’s peace through the force of arms.

Given the fragility of the country’s stability, it is incumbent upon all and sundry to thread the path towards sustained peace gingerly. Strong-arm tactic are most unwelcome and unnecessary. That it backfired recently is only a brutal reminder that the path to peace in Liberia is not paved with personal ambition and self-aggrandizement. Those who would like to promote their personal interest violently do not deserve the support of the Liberian people, the majority of whom desire peace.

It is against this background that we are so assembled not only to protest the barbarism that is war, but to invoke the support of the international community especially the United States to assist the Liberian people achieve peace.

It is heartening to note that the United States has already enhanced its diplomatic and financial support for the peace process. We welcome the visit to Liberia of a high power U.S. delegation headed by William Twaddell, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and the announcement that an additional $30 million will be provided for peace-keeping activities. We are not unaware of the budgetary crisis in the United States. However, we believe that if the U.S. seriously wants to see peace come to Liberia, it has the diplomatic and political capability as well as the financial capacity to do so.

We therefore call on the United States to employ its vast economic and diplomatic power to ensure that peace returns to Liberia in the shortest possible time.

This may come about if the United States chooses to do the following:

Adequately provide the necessary logistics requested by ECOMOG to carry out its duties; these will include communication and transportation equipment.

Provide the necessary funding so that ECOMOG will augment its troop strength within the country.

Mobilize international public opinion as well as resources in favor of ECOMOG presence and activities in Liberia.

Pressure the Cote d’Ivoire Government as well as that of Burkina Faso to cease all support for Mr. Taylor. We would like to see Mr. Taylor unable to use the Liberian\Ivorian border to smuggle weapons into Liberia. The same is true for Guinea from which Mr. Kromah is reportedly receiving military and financial support.

Liberians will continue to protest the roles of Burkina Faso, La Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea in the continuous destruction of our country.

I also would like to welcome a statement attributed to the U.S. delegation which visited Liberia recently that the U.S. will not recognize any government which comes to power by force of arms. However, we implore the United States to take it one step further by making it crystal clear that not only will the U.S. withhold recognition of anyone who comes to power by force of arm, but that the United States will vigorously work to isolate such a regime thereby denying it any and all legitimacy. It should be proclaimed a pariah government that will find it absolutely impossible to court international assistance and acceptance.

Fellow Liberians and friends of Liberia, our call to support ECOMOG’s efforts in Liberia is not a refusal on our part to recognize the problems which ECOMOG may have created in our country. Our recognition is borne out of the history of the current war and the lack of adequate response from the international community. From the outset of the war until August 1990 no one except ECOWAS did anything to curb the wanton abuse of human lives in our country. That the regional leaders acted out of self-interest is not lost on me. But we must recognize that the only reason the majority of Liberians are still within territorial Liberia is largely due to ECOMOG’s intervention. Despite the numerous deaths the peace-keepers have had to endure, they did not forsake Liberia. They held on inspite of our demonstrated lack of gratitude and the abuses and insults they have had to absorb from the various warring factions as well as their civilian supporters. Their demoralization notwithstanding; the lack of basic necessities such as receiving their salaries on time, etcera, they continue to provide relative calm in Monrovia, Buchanan and Kakata, the three “safe havens” where the majority of Liberians within the country have been able to seek and find refuge.

We must be grateful that our African brothers and sisters have accorded us this immense favor, when the rest of the world was looking the other way. That is why I join the thousands of Liberia to say “Thank God for ECOMOG.”

This does not mean that ECOMOG does not have its problems. It certainly does. They have taken part in plundering the country, in the sales of weapons to various warring factions; have sided with one faction or another at different times. These problems, which are indeed weaknesses must be dealt with. They must not however become obstacles for the support that ECOMOG so desperately needs to carry out its mandate of imposing peace and stability in Liberia. The weaknesses of ECOMOG is not unique. Peacekeepers around the world are known to indulge in excesses. That is a product of war. ECOMOG did not create the Liberian war, it came in to assist Liberia end the insanity generated by Liberian men who are blinded by greed and a perverted lust for power.

We don’t believe that a military intervention in Liberia is desirable or possible. Indeed it may be unnecessary. Without a doubt, a U.S. military intervention in Liberia may follow a short time frame to establish its objectives; what happens if it does not achieve that objective within the defined period which may range between 30 days – 90 days? The operational premise among Liberians who seek U.S. intervention is that once the Americans arrive, Liberia’s rag-tag militias will drop their guns and run for cover. This may be true. But it is also true that a similar assumption was made about Somalia and we know the story. In the Liberian context, Mr. Taylor is known to appropriate the “sovereignty” issue as one of the veneers he employs to project himself as a Liberian nationalist.

Additionally, Mr. Taylor, a master manipulator, who is very much aware of U.S. politics, knows that if a U.S. soldier is killed in Liberia, there will be clamor in the United States to withdraw. The fact that this is an election year, one can, with a measured assurance, suggest that the President would yield to such a demand. So Why wouldn’t Mr. Taylor attack the Americans, especially if he believes that they have become a stumbling block to his ambition of achieving power in Liberia by force of arms. There is ample historical data which shows Mr. Taylor’s willingness to kill peacekeepers whom he deemed are in his way; the 6 Senegalese who met their grisly death at the hands of the NPFL in 1993 is a clear example. It may be recalled that the Senegalese were brought in to appease Mr. Taylor and was backed financially by the United States. None of that however, prevented Mr. Taylor’s troops from attacking them.

The most important reason why the U.S. need not intervene militarily is because there is already a military intervention by the West African forces. A U.S. intervention carries certain possibilities. It will, for one thing, ensure the continued demoralization of the ECOMOG forces and second, it may lead to a withdrawal of the West African forces and for very good reasons. In either case the emerging scenario does not appear good for establishing lasting peace in Liberia, especially since it may take a longer time than the U.S. desires to pacify the country.

Besides, wouldn’t it be a breadth of fresh air to see and assist Africans solve their own problems. It certainly is to me. That is why the international community can not sit back and see ECOMOG fail. It is in the interest of regional peace that ECOMOG succeeds in Liberia. I dare say also that it will be a boom to Africa’s diplomacy if ECOWAS can achieve peace and stabilization in Liberia. It is a good thing and we believe that is why it is urgent and necessary to continue to support the ECOWAS initiative.

As I was preparing to appear here tonight, I receive a fax from a group called Friends of Liberia in which they said that President Rawlings of Ghana who is the head of ECOMOG has decided to seek U.S. military intervention. I believe that Mr. Rawlings is ill-advised and this is an indication of his frustration to get Liberian warlords to comply with the peace accord and the lack of sufficient international support for ECOWAS activities in Liberia. Indeed, I believe that following his meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary Twaddell, he may probably get the necessary support he needs to rejuvenate the peace process and may not be inclined to pursue this stance.

April 25, 1996 Howard University Washington, D.C.