Barbaric And brutal killings

Verdier Condemns Kaddafi’s Onslaught

Call On Serleaf Administration To Do Same

The Chairman of the erstwhile Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has condemned as unsatisfactory and barbaric the brutal killings of protestors in Libya by the Libyan regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and calls on all peace-loving and democratic nations of the world to join in the chorus of condemnation.

Cllr. Jerome J. Verdier said that the massacre in Libya reminds the nation and people of Liberia of similar barbaric killings in Liberia financed and resourced by Libya through its military and financial support to the NPFL of Presidents Charles Taylor and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

He said President Sirleaf, a key ally of Col. Quaddafi, with whom she has consulted and visited throughout her six -year tenure as President of Liberia, holds a unique opportunity to distance Liberia from brutality of the Libyan Government, by making a public and categorical condemnation of the disproportionate and irrational force used in the wanton and brutal killing of the Libyan people. “A condemnation of sort of president Sireaf will demonstrate the spirit of true democracy, human rights and African solidarity, especially when done not at the expense of personal interest but in the interest of humanity worldwide.”

According to Verdier, while it is true that the power mongers will always support each other, when the interest of long term future of the people conflict with political agenda of their power driven leaders, such leader must go! “Such is the case of Libya and our president must recognize this and stand on the side of human rights and democracy and condemn the killings instead of being worried about securing deals with the pariah for 42 years,” he averred.

In the 21st century democracies and in Liberia, he said, there is no place for the leadership or people and leaders who wage war on their own people and stain their hands the blood of their innocence either to obtain power or to preserve it.

He said Libya under Col. Quaddafi, should by now be paying reparations to Liberia for the benefit of victims and the entire state for the destruction of the country and the massacre of over 100,000 Liberians during the period of the civil war. “But instead of paying reparations openly, pseudo schemes and business ventures have been designed for the benefit of few including perhaps the party of the President of Liberia to assuage and more specifically exonerate the conscience of Col. Quaddafi.

He further said as Quaddafi ponders his future in Libya, the President of Liberia has a duty, not only to condemn the killings and advise he key ally that these killings may have been acceptable in the 90s by proxy but they are no longer tolerated in the 21^st century but, to also declare that Liberia will not be a safe haven, refuge or place of asylum for high grade human rights violators like Col. Quaddafi who stain their hands of innocent citizens just as it was done in Liberia over the past two decades.

“Liberians should therefore be aware that a new Liberia is and cannot be a haven or leadership platform for warmongers and high-grade human rights violators who subordinate the rights and life of the people to their personal ambitions for power.”

Liberians, he said, must be warned not to vote for anyone or people who brought war, supported war, financed war and resourced war in Liberia and thereby stained their hands with the innocent blood of thousands of children, women, youth, elderly and men who continue to linger in mass graves and shallow resting place without memory or redress. “If we do otherwise, we will do so to our own peril and continue to endure and therefore prolong the misery of our transition from war to peace.”