Liberia's
election on October 11th
By
Jonathan
Power
TFF Associate
since 1991
Comments to JonatPower@aol.com
October 13, 2005
LONDON - Even the worst of African
situations can be turned around. In Liberia it has been
done in two years. The descent during the 1980s and 90s
was precipitous, fast and deadly. A quarter of a million
people were killed by rival militias, hundreds of
thousands driven across borders into refugee camps, one
president tortured to death and the macabre event
recorded on video, young adolescent boys dressed up in
wigs and terrified the populace with random killings and,
not least, the country was systematically looted almost
clean by its warlord/president Charles Taylor, who became
rich on the export of timber, iron ore and alluvial
diamonds from neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Two years ago I was here at the
war's end. Nigerian and Ghanaian peacekeeping troops
lined the road from the airport, backs to the road, eyes
scanning the jungle for movement. The roads were
sandbagged with checkpoints, the telephone polls and
electricity pylons were stripped bare.
I arrived with President Olusegun
Obasanjo of Nigeria who had engineered the removal of
Taylor to exile in Nigeria and the introduction of West
African peacekeepers, together with a contingent of U.S.
soldiers. He came to the presidential palace, making his
way through tumultuous crowds who shouted "bring us
peace" and surprised the leaders of the interim
government, made up in large part by leaders of rival
militias, by admonishing them "to love one another and to
forgive".
Two years later on Friday I
returned with Obasanjo. The peacekeepers were gone from
the airport road, the sandbags were removed, the streets
had been cleaned, the tradesmen lined the road, selling
everything from eggs to wash pots to cell phone cards. I
could see people sitting at leisure in open-air
cafés. There were signs advertising Internet
service.
Obasanjo came to meet the interim
government and also the contestants for the elections on
Tuesday - "the freest elections Liberia will ever have
had", in the words of Alan Doss, the UN's Special
Representative in Monrovia. This time Obasanjo thanked
the interim government for midwifing a peaceful
transition and bluntly told the over twenty presidential
candidates who had assembled before him that "Liberia
can't have 20 presidents. It is no good telling your
supporters you are 'sure' to win. That just creates
problems afterwards".
The election appears to be down to
two candidates who appear to be running neck to neck. One
is the 66 years old, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, an
experienced former senior Citicorp banker and one time
finance minister who, if she wins, will be the first
woman head of state in Africa. Her rival is the 39 year
old, former African and World Footballer of the Year,
George Weah.
Weah appeals to the youth of the
country and Johnson-Sirleaf to those who know the country
needs practical experience. Whoever wins, Obasanjo told
me, "will have heavy demands put on them by the donor
nations. And so it should be. Money can't be poured into
resuscitating the country unless there are very tight
controls".
The country is still being looted
by corrupt government officials and I was told how the
last year the railway lines have been ripped up and also
the sleepers and the ballast beneath, and everything sold
to Chinese scrap merchants. There is still no water and
electricity in the capital - even in the presidential
washroom that I used the water was a brown trickle in the
tap. There are few medical supplies to speak of.
How a football star could sort this
out is a good question. Obasanjo says if Leah wins he
will have to be "packaged". When I asked what this meant,
he said, it meant "carefully surrounding him with people
who know how to run things". Does he at least have
integrity, I asked the president, "Yes he does, most
definitely", he replied, "and compassion too."
In the capital the blue berries on
Nigerian, Pakistani and Ukranian heads are ubiquitous.
Their commander, the Nigerian lieutenant general, Joseph
Owonubi, presiding over a smart parade and the slickest
presentation of arms I have ever seen, told me that
"violence is sharply down and I don't anticipate any
election day violence." The UN's Alan Doss told me that
they had registered 75-80% of the putative electorate,
and had even got ballot boxes to some of the remotest
villages where ballots could only be delivered after a
four-day walk.
The peacekeepers will stay another
year. The Liberian police and army are being trained. The
donors are trying to get schools and hospitals up and
moving. Money is not the problem - even the Bush
administration has been generous. But avoiding both
corruption and sabotage (the EU's chief here was attacked
by an axe when he tried to restore the main electricity
transformer) is a Herculean task. But progress is visibly
underway. Liberia is being given a second chance at
life.
Copyright © 2005 By
JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by
phone +44 7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
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