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Liberia Sends Message With Firestone Manuever
April 12, 2002
The Liberian government deployed armed forces April 9 to the Firestone Rubber Plantation Co. near Kakata, approximately 35 miles northeast of the capital Monrovia. The deployment was in response to an alleged attack by the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group near Kakata in early April, the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Network reported.
A Liberian woman stands on the ledge of what was a hospital in Monrovia, where she and other displaced people have been living since the start of the country's civil war in the early 1990s.
Image Credit: David Guttenfelder -- AP.
There are several inconsistencies in Monrovia's accusations against the LURD, which casts doubt on whether an assault on Kakata even occurred. Moreover, the alleged attack is said to have taken place while U.S. and U.N. officials were visiting Monrovia - which suggests that Liberian President Charles Taylor's government may be propagating the allegations in order to solve a number of internal and external problems.
Specifically, Taylor may be hoping to pressure the United States and United Nations to ease sanctions against Monrovia by demonstrating the threat of insurgency. With a contingent of U.S. Congressional staffers reportedly in the country, Taylor could point to the attack at Kakata as an example of a national security threat and the need for Washington to support his efforts to stave off a revolt. Taylor clearly believed that a threat to a U.S. asset like the Firestone plant would have a greater chance of influencing Washington.
Implicit within the recent deployment is also a subtle message that Taylor can seize U.S. assets and hold them hostage if political and economic sanctions against Liberian officials or the diamond and timber trade remain in place, or if U.S. ally Guinea continues to back Liberian rebels.
There is no doubt that insurgents exist and that Liberia is in a state of chaos. Since coming to power in 1997, Taylor's government has exploited and fostered turmoil throughout the country and the sub-region. The United Nations sanctioned Liberia in 2001 for being a conduit for guns and for illicit diamond smuggling by Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels. Taylor's Machiavellian methods have earned him a number of foes -- including neighboring Guinea, which allegedly backs the LURD.
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(Story Source)
(c) 2002 Stratfor, Inc.
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Dan
Liberia Sends Message With Firestone Manuever . . .