Liberia

Chea Cheapoo: "I Will Become Next Rebel Leader"
...Former chief justice calls on Liberians to resist rigged elections

By Jay Nagbe Sloh
Managing Editor

Philadelphia, Pa, 02/02/03 (SIS) - A former Chief Justice of Liberia has announced he will become the next rebel leader in war-ravaged Liberia if the country's current president, Charles Taylor, rigs the elections scheduled for October 14, 2003 and succeeds himself.

Counselor Chea Cheapoo, also a former Liberian minister of justice and attorney general, said judging from prevailing political conditions in Liberia, "it is clear that president Taylor is unwilling to make fundamental reforms to ensure a level playing field in the up-coming elections."

He called on the Liberian people to "become rebels if Taylor steals the election." The controversial lawyer made the remarks Saturday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when he served as guest speaker at programs for the installation of officers of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association of Liberian Journalists in the Americas (ALJA), a grouping of Liberian journalists in the tri-state area of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

"President Taylor has no interest in rebuilding Liberia since he took office. Further, his regime is more repressive politically and unprogressive economically more than any other Liberian president I know or read about," he claimed. The former Liberian senator told his audience, which included LURD rebel leader Joe Wylie, that "unless the necessary reforms are made in Liberia, participating in an election arranged and controlled by an elections commission appointed by Taylor will only lend legitimacy to an already rigged election.

On the topic "Liberia: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow," Cheapoo said Liberia's tomorrow is bleak with a tyrant sitting in the Liberian presidential mansion, terrorizing the entire sub region. He called on Liberians to "press for power and take control of their country from Taylor by staying away from any bogus election lacking fair play and masterminded by Taylor." He said "if Taylor goes ahead with a fake election in any event, Liberians must not recognize the results of said fake election as citizens but rather organize a provisional government to put in place the appropriate fundamental reforms for democratic elections within a year."

On Liberia's past, Cheapoo said Liberia's successive governments from 1822 to 1980 were politically undemocratic and repressive and economically regressive. He said even the overthrow of the settlers by the natives in 1980 did not introduce much change in the operation of government. He said when Doe seized power in 1980, he had no special abilities in identifying his enemies, thereby putting his trust in Charles Taylor who stole a million dollars from the government as director-general of the General Services Agency and later overthrew Doe by force of arms."

Also making remarks at the occasion, the National Chairman of the Coalition of Progressive Liberians in the Americas (COPLA), Mr. Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe, stoned the audience with a disclosure that his organization had credible evidence that ballot papers and boxes for the ensuing election had already been ordered, printed, and filled out in favor of Taylor's party, and were being hidden in the interior of Liberia.

Mr. Siapoe said the ballot boxes were recently removed from one location to another, after COPLA raised the initial alarm from credible information it had gathered from Liberia and outside the country where they were printed.

Journalist Hassan Bility, who was recently flown out of Liberia by the U.S. government after spending six months in various criminal cells and other detention places throughout Liberia, explained his ordeal to the audience.

He said when he was first arrested, he was taken to President Taylor's house in the middle of the night, where Taylor, flanked by his security chiefs, personally coerced him to confess to operating rebel LURD cells in Monrovia, and to also implicate Catholic Bishop Michael Francis and some prominent Liberian politicians in activities of LURD rebels.

Bility said during his six-month detention, he was held under horrible conditions at various points, including at the war front, by lawless Liberian government forces. The Moslem sent the crowd wailing when he disclosed that at one of his detention points, he was made to drink undiluted Dewar whisky while, at another point, he was detained for a week in a hole half filled with dirty water.

Bility expressed appreciation to the U.S. government, Amnesty International, ALJA, and other institutions and individuals who helped secure his release.
ALJA National President Cyrus Badio, in remarks, disagreed with calls for violence in Liberia. He said the guns that should have liberated us from one tyrant to another have always done the opposite, enslaving us.

Badio called for unity among politicians and ordinary Liberians in tackling the political problems of the country. He said other African countries have effected democratic changes by peaceful means, and Liberians can do the same.

Those installed by Mrs. Judi Bernstein-Baker, a prominent Philadelphia-based immigration lawyer, were Massa Washington, Chairman; Bentt Chea, Vice Chairman; Moses Sandy, Secretary-General; and Gardea Woodson, Treasurer.

Messrs. J. Nagbe Sloh and J. Kpankoi Jallah were also installed as members of the Administrative Board, the legislative arm of the organization.