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By Adolphus Williams in The Hague

The war crimes trial at the Special Court of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor has entered a crucial stage this week with his former vice president Moses Blah testifying in court.

Blah detailed the support of Libya, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast to Taylor and his NPFL rebels in fighting the government of Samuel Doe. He spoke of how NPFL fighters killed and mistreated Sierra Leonean civilians.

He confirmed the prosecution’s allegations that Taylor supported the RUF rebels.

Hear him: “I drove by a place called New Gbarnga. That was the time I saw Foday Sankoh that morning. I stopped my car and I alighted and embraced him, and said I had not seen him for a very long time, since in Libya. [Sankoh] ‘Look, I am here now. I am a rebel commander. I am no more a small boy and you have to salute me’. And I saluted him and said, ‘Okay, I know you are my boss now.’ He said, ‘Look, I have come here for a serious matter’, and I asked him what the matter was. He said, ‘The boys from NPFL, whom the chief sent to help me, they got involved into a lot of atrocities, raping women, looting people's property and killing people, and these are the people I have gone to liberate and I am losing respect amongst my tribesmen. This was what I have come to consult with the chief on’."

Blah, who had his back turned to Mr Taylor as he gave evidence of the former Liberian President’s alleged support to the RUF, had entered the courtroom from a direction directly facing Taylor. He had a walking stick clutched in his right hand. He watched his steps, with his eyes drilling the courtroom floor as he picked his way to the witness seat. Nevertheless, he was calm throughout his testimony.

Moses Blah said he had told Taylor of the RUF leader’s worry about the crimes Liberian fighters were committing in Sierra Leone. But he said Taylor brushed Sankoh’s concerns aside.

Moses Bah again: “It was not really a conversation. He was walking around his palace where he lived in Gbarnga and I went close to speak to him, to salute him. In a conversation, he said he didn't know earlier that Foday Sankoh had talked to me about this matter. He said, ‘Look, your man Foday Sankoh is here and he is saying that the people are destroying his people, looting his property.’ He [Mr Taylor] said 'how could the war be fought? When you talk about a guerrilla war it is destruction and this type of thing must happen if you are fighting a war. You are not eating bread and butter, you are fighting. If he continues with such a report, according to him he will withdraw his men from there.”

He named Christopher Varmoh and Duopoe (Dopo) Mekazon as two of the commanders Taylor had sent to Sierra Leone to fight alongside Foday Sankoh’s RUF.

Blah said that at the initial stage there was a small group of Liberian soldiers but they were a bit more than the RUF fighters. Under cross examination by the prosecutor Stephen Rapp, he said he knew their number from information from his soldiers, radio communication and their location. He said his operator would brief me on what was happening.

He said they were fighting alongside the RUF rebels.

Taylor sat calmly, looking in Blah’s direction and occasionally hanging heads with his lawyers. He broke the silence at one point when he laughed at the presiding judge’s inquiry to Blah on who between Agnes and Tupee was Taylor’s wife in the beginning of the NPFL civil war.

The cross cross examination continues.

Courtesy: BBC World Service Trust / Search for Common Ground

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz

The World Bank today approved a US$11 million International Development Association (IDA) grant to the government of Liberia to improve the efficiency and transparency in her financial and human resource management.

The Economic Governance and Institutional Reform Project (EGIRP), to be
implemented over a three-year period, will focus on major and measurable
improvements in revenue administration, public procurement, budget execution and
payroll management. It has two main components:

i) Strengthening public financial management (US$8.5 million)

This component is intended to assist Liberia to address immediate technical
assistance needs to consolidate gains in governance and institutional reforms
under the Governance and Economic Management Program (GEMAP), further strengthen
public financial management processes and systems, and facilitate graduation
from the temporary remedial measures being implemented under it. This includes
support for Liberia's participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (EITI), which is a global initiative aimed at improving governance in
resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company
payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.

ii) Supporting the Civil Service Reform Program ($2.5 million)

This component will support Liberia's overall Civil Service Reform efforts,
focusing particularly on (i) overhauling and reducing fraud in the payroll and
pensions system, as well as streamlining public sector recruitments systems (ii)
training and rebuilding of skills in the civil service.

The objectives of this Project are in line with Liberia's interim Poverty
Reduction Strategy (iPRSP), which is built on four key pillars: (i) Security
(ii) Economic Revitalization; (iii) Governance and the Rule of Law; and (iv)
Infrastructure and Basic Services.

According to Ohene Nyanin, the World Bank's Country Manager for Liberia, there
are specific measurable targets that we seek to achieve before or by the end of
this project, including increasing the percentage of collected revenue as
captured by the Integrated Tax Administration System by more than 50%; reducing
bureaucracy and the number of days it takes to approve procurement bid documents
by at least 60%; cleaning the payroll and eliminating ghost names completely,
and enhancing parliamentary monitoring and evaluation by preparing annual
statements of government accounts for the legislative scrutiny.

Ishac Diwan, World Bank Country Director for Liberia, on his part, stresses the
importance of adhering to agreed Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
principles:

It is lamentable that a country like Liberia, very rich in numerous natural
resources, should be counted among the poorest of the poor. Sustained efforts
must be made to ensure that the proceeds from all these concessions, whether in
extractive industries or forests, are maximized, and put to good use, for the
development of Liberia.

Former Liberian Vice President, Moses Blah and Charles Taylor
"Bockarie called him 'chief,'" Blah said.

Moammar Gadhafi's Libyan government ran a training camp in the 1980s that prepared Charles Taylor's troops to seize power in the West African nation of Liberia, a key witness at Taylor's war crimes trial testified Wednesday.

Moses Blah, who served as vice president under Taylor after he rose to power in Liberia, is the highest-ranking witness to testify against his former boss since the trial began early this year in the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Blah's testimony was the strongest link yet in the prosecution's case against Taylor that Gadhafi had a hand in his rise to power and also linked the Libyan leader to other bloody African insurgencies.

Taylor has pleaded not guilty to charges that include murder, rape, torture and enlisting child soldiers during the 10-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone that ended in 2002. Prosecutors allege he orchestrated the atrocities from his presidential power base in Liberia's capital, Monrovia.

Blah said he was among about 180 rebels recruited by Taylor and flown to Libya in the late 1980s to undergo months of military training. The fighters learned to use AK-47 assault rifles and surface-to-air missiles at a military camp near Tripoli, he said.

Rebels from countries including Gambia, the Philippines and Sierra Leone were also at the camp, Blah said. Among them was Sam Bockarie, one of the Sierra Leone rebels who Taylor is accused of supporting.

Taylor's forces entered Liberia late in 1989, triggering a civil war that lasted years and left thousands dead.

After Taylor grabbed power in Liberia, Gadhafi sent Taylor's regime a shipment of crude oil to sell so the proceeds could be used to buy "military hardware," Blah said.

Blah had originally been slated to give evidence anonymously, but he later decided to speak in open court despite a death threat e-mailed to his family. His testimony was expected to continue several days.

In an example of the brutality of the conflict in Liberia — and foreshadowing later atrocities in Sierra Leone — Blah said that one rebel commander "had a habit of eating fellow human beings" and that fighters only joined his unit if they were prepared to take part in cannibalism.

Blah said he once visited the commander, Nelxon Gaye, at a camp in a rubber plantation and found him roasting human hands. "He did it over a fire and he ate it with boiled cassava."

The 61-year-old Blah briefly served as Liberian president in 2003, assuming power after Taylor was forced into exile. Neither man looked at the other as Blah, walking with the help of a cane, entered the trial chamber.

Blah's testimony, which will continue Thursday, is expected to detail how Taylor allegedly controlled rebels in Sierra Leone from Liberia. Such evidence is critical to prosecutors seeking to link Taylor to the savage conflict in that country.

Taylor's trial is being held in a courtroom rented from the International Criminal Court because of fears that prosecuting him in Sierra Leone could spark new violence.

Source: Associated Press

Flashback: Presidents Sirleaf of Liberia (L) and Kabbah of Sierra Leone (R)

A one-day summit of Heads of State and Government of the Mano River Union gets underway Thursday in Monrovia, with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf chairing.

The Monrovia summit, will among other issues consider concrete measures, aimed at strengthening the Union’s secretariat. The leaders will also discuss peace and security in the sub-region as well as the looming global food crisis, with the aim of adopting a comprehensive approach to tackle the food crisis.

According to an Executive Mansion release, La Cote d’Ivoire, which recently announced its decision to join the Union, will formally be admitted into the Union.

The Current chair of the Union, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will open Thursday’s session with a statement. The leaders of Sierra Leone, Guinea and La Cote d’Ivoire will also deliver statements at the opening ceremony, following which they will retire behind closed doors for deliberations.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leone’s President, Ernest Bai Koroma arrives in the country later this afternoon for Thursday’s summit. President Koroma will be received upon arrival by President Ellen Johnson at the Roberts International Airport in Harbel, Margibi County. Guinean Prime Minister, Lansana Kouyate, arrived Wednesday afternoon at the James Spriggs Payne airfield in Sinkor. Prime Minister Kouyate was received by the Vice President, Dr. Joseph Boakai. Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, is being represented by the Head of the Country’s Economic Council, Mr. Laurent Dona Fologo.

Thursday’s Mano River Union Summit is the first in Liberia since the ascendancy two years ago of Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as President.

The Mano River Union was formed in 1973 to foster economic and regional cooperation between Liberia and Sierra Leone. Guinea joined the Union a few years later and has since remained an active and influential member.

The Newly installed officers of the KDA

A one-day convention organized by the citizens of Kokoyah in the United States of America early this week ended.

The convention, which took place at the African United Methodist Church in Trenton New Jersey , has given birth to a new organization, the Kokoyah Development Association USA Inc

The goals of the Association are to encourage educational, social and health ties between the people of Kokoyah District, Bong County , Liberia and the United States of America .

Although non-political, the Association intends to address political decisions which affect the lives of citizens of Kokoyah District residing the United States of America and that of the district.

According to a release, the association will lobby for and seek to initiate programs of social, economic and developmental nature for its people and the District.

The release says the Association will also seek to achieve the following objectives of the organization according to a dispatch includes to provide a forum through which citizens of Kokoyah District residing the United States of America can address their common concerns; to provide educational and health needs to the citizens and residents of Kokoyah both at home and abroad; and to encourage social unity and to maintain cultural ties amongst themselves.

During the convention, officers were installed for a two-year term. They are: Kutwan Yallah, President; Dennis Kotee, Vice President; Jonathan Omenika David, Secretary General; Rev. Dr. Daniel Gueh, Treasury and Kamah Yallah, Financial Secretary.

Five Board members were also installed. Those installed were Abba Solomon Dudu
(Member at Large) Chairman, Dahwula S. Quoikapor ,(Senwein Clan) Mark Yeleboe
(Bowein Clan)Philip Wise (Kokoyah Clan) Vice chairman Jacob Madehdou
(Tokpablee Clan) Secretary

In his induction speech, the newly installed President Mr. Yallah said "The Kokoyah Development Association Leadership and membership are linked together by a common belief and passion. We believe the association has the power to transform Kokoyah and our society for the better.”

He continued: “Our passion is to help Kokoyah District and our people achieve previously unimaginable levels of development and reach even higher goals.”

The President concluded: “We shall accomplish this by fostering a learning community, delivering innovative learning experiences, performance- enhancing resources, new thinking and models for development, opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration, and strategic tools and data designed to advance the developmental projects in Kokoyah District.

We shall most importantly seek, industry partners, outside thought leaders, and other stakeholders whoembrace this vision to help us forge ahead."

Source: The Liberian Media & Advertising Services (USA)