On March 24 & 25, 2010, eighteen (18) persons including, 1 Ambassador & Special Envoy to President Dr. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 1 Assistant Governor of Maryland County, 1 County Inspector of Maryland, 1 District Commissioner of Harper District, 1 Airline Managing Director, 1 Hospital Administrator, 1 GSA County Coordinator, 1 Officer In Charge of an NGO, 1 Hospital Employee, 1 Reverend Nigerian national and many others, were arbitrarily arrested and arbitrarily detained by the Government of Liberia (GOL) on claims they murdered several individuals.
Whether or not the GOL claims are true and have a solid foundation (that these individuals arrested really murdered anyone) depends on who you ask. More so, it remains to be proven in a competent court of jurisdiction.
As such, the GOL has a serious Constitutional and Human Rights problem.
The GOL arbitrarily arrested and arbitrarily detained the accused. Not only did the GOL do that, its accusation is based on cardboard box evidence and a juju man’s mojo.
What this means is that, a juju man shuffled his mojo; looked in his “crystal” ball and understandably, his (the juju man) pen began to write. We understand the juju man’s pen wrote the names of the accused, except the name of the Nigerian pastor. Why?
I can’t answer the question. Your guess is good as mine!
Here’s the important part: The fact that the GOL based its claim on a juju man’s mojo is a violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Liberia. And we all know the Constitution is our Supreme Law. Whatever it condemns is really condemned. And whatever it does not recognize is not recognize. The Constitution forbids juju as a basis of prosecuting anyone in any court of competent jurisdiction. The opposite is true in the case of the GOL.
It is with this consideration, we (social justice and human rights groups) alarmed and called for the immediate release of the detainees.
The GOL had no other choice but to agree with us.
As such, it immediately release some of the detainees. Two of those left in prison (Cllr. Fulton Yancy and Amb. H. Dan Morais) were sent to court as per our demand.
Both the 4th Judicial Circuit Court and the Magisterial Court of Harper threw both cases over the window for lack of evidence.
Consequently, both (Cllr. Yancy and Amb. Morais), became free men thereafter.
Here is the other part that disturbed the minds of normal people everywhere:
While the “heat” was on, the GOL whisked the rest of the detainees away from Harper City under the cover of darkness to an unknown destination. Under the UN Laws, this is what is referred to as “Force Dissappearance.”
On Sunday, April 2010, the families went to visit with their love ones.
You know what they found?
They found out that the accused disappeared from the Maximum Prison Compound in Harper instantly.
When the families visited with the Prison Superintendent, Superintendent of the County and other law enforcement officers to inquire, every one of them said they knew nothing about what happened to the detainees.
This provoked chaos.
The families were afraid and unhappy that their love ones may have been secretly murdered by the State.
So they mounted extra pressure.
They visited with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to ascertain the facts. UNMIL said it also knew nothing.
Evidently, no one knew nothing about the disappearance of the detainees. So to whom would the families and concerned citizens run?
It is hard to believe the Superintendent of the County (who is the vice juror of the President of the Republic), Prison superintendent (who runs the day-to-day activities of the Prison), Police Department (that sent to citizens to jail) actually knew nothing about the mysterious disappearance of the detainees. As hard as it is to believe it, that happens to be the case in Maryland.
Sooner not later, news reached that the detainees were taken to Grand Gedeh County at the Zwedru Maximum Prison Compound. This Prison Compound is basically for convicts ONLY.
Mind you, these detainees had not yet been taken to court. And so they were convicts. Yet they were sent to a Maximum Prison ONLY for CONVICTS.
The families were not pleased with such news.
They began to launch series of inquiries. But GOL was stonewalling. So frustration set in. Soon the communities in which these men were living got overly concerned. For them, this sort of arrest seemed more calculated and for an ulterior motive rather than seeking justice for the dead.
Soon, the detainees were taken away from Zwedru Maximum Prison Compound to the capital city of Liberia (Monrovia) for Speedy & Fair Trial. But to the surprise of the families and social justice and human rights advocates, the GOL gave so many excuses so much so that justice was delayed and therefore GOL denied the detainees JUSTICE.
Nobody could listen to the families of the detainees and the communiters of their locales. Consequently, political action became the way out. The people resolve to a mass peaceful protest demonstration throughout the major streets of Harper City to show their distaste of GOL’s unjust attitude.
The Emergency Response Unit (ERU) of the Police Department embarked upon violent actions against the unarmed civilians. One youth was shot in the mouth. A 9-month old baby was tear-gas causing him to bleed profusely from the nostril. Many women were violently kicked in the butt and some Clan and Town chiefs were violently beaten.
If the GOL doesn’t want to listen to its people, is it not appropriate for someone to help lift their Voice?!
And there’s where I come in!
I help lift the Voice of the People with sole intent to bring peace, harmony and full human understanding between the GOL and its citizens.
If it is wrong to lift the Voice of the People and seek mutual resolution of pending crises, then Senator John Akel Ballout is right to call me a “troublemaker.”
I’ve heard this before when principals of various schools in the old days called outspoken kids “rude’ students.
What they were not saying to and about the kids is that these students refused to allow their souls to be bent to the will of their self-proclaimed masters.
Considering the aforementioned, Senator John Akel Ballout, Snr. is as wrong as he can be!
I am a man of peace. I denounce violence of all shapes and forms!
I am Thomas G. Bedell working and speaking from on the ground in Liberia.
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