Beware
The Eyes of April
Taylor's army:
16 April 04
April
is perhaps the most ominous month in Liberia since the 1970s. Just why
the UN defied the terrible omen that this month carries in Liberian
affairs is not clear, but perhaps others are more prepared to confront
superstition with wisdom than the Liberians. But when superstition wears
the garment of believability, concern is understandable over the
terrible memories of April in recent times. .
The
UN began disarming Liberian rebels on April 15. The first memorable mass
protest against a Liberian Government in contemporary times was the Rice
Riots, staged on April 14 1979 to serve as the anteroom for anarchy. The
late President Williams Tolbert was assassinated on April 12 1980 by
Master-Sergeant Samuel Doe and his gang. On April 6 1996, Charles Taylor
Alhaji Kromah attacked ethnic Krahn warlord Roosevelt Johnson, leaving
3000 corpses behind as they failed to arrest one man—Johnson—for the
death of another man.
But
the UN’s April seems the April of hope for several reasons. The prince
of thieves and death, Charles Taylor, is effectively quarantined in
Nigerian, gradually deprived of capacity to commit more crimes.
The rebels are willing to disarm, now that their leaders are
occupying state positions and running to America to pay their mortgages
with their stolen dollars.
This
is all wonderful. Perhaps the twist of events since the self-declared
“liberators” fulfilled their dreams of occupying government
positions is that the Liberian youth will be taught never to line-up
behind men singing the songs of democracy with an agenda of theft.
Charles Taylor abandoned his Small Boys Unit. His successors in MODEL
and LURD have since left their child soldiers in the cold while they
fatten their accounts and implement Lebanese commands for collective
theft. Afraid that the child soldiers may come after them for their
share of war loot, they are calling on the UN to train their fighters,
as if the UN promised them plenty and glory once Charles Taylor was out
and their leaders in. But this call for transforming programmed killers
into labourers, in itself, is wise. The problem the UN may encounter in
implementing this wisdom is that many of the fighters cannot be trained
in any meaningful vocational programmes because they are illiterate and
undisciplined. Anyone can pull the trigger. Not anyone can understand
and apply concepts. Someone must be willing to take training to be
trained.
There is optimism that this April 2004 will be different from the
others. If not, then hell is in the wings, and Liberians cannot travel
through any more hell than the ones they are passing through. Perhaps
this April will be remembered as the good April.
--Tom
Kamara
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