United Bassa Organizations in the Americas (UNIBOA) -
Position Statement on the ongoing Fracas at LAC
Alfred M. Dousuah, President of UNIBOA
Flashback - LAC's treatment of our people The late Bruno Michiels
The United Bassa Organizations in the Americas (UNIBOA) continues to observe, with utmost dissatisfaction, the chain of events unfolding between the Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) and the people of Districts number 3 and 4 in Grand Bassa County. Like other peace loving Liberians, we deeply regret the loss of lives in this fracas and extend our heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved families.
We have been following with keen interest the recent events regarding the on-going land dispute between the citizens of Districts #3&4 in Grand Bassa County, on the one hand, and LAC on the other hand and would like to add our voice to the calls for a peaceful resolution of this matter. The unabated tension that this matter has generated and for which has now been heightened by the events of the past few days, does not augur well for the atmosphere of peace and security that Liberia needs in order to successfully pursue a program of reconstruction and reconciliation. It is our opinion that the on-going land dispute has the potential to degenerate into a major national crisis. Such an eventuality could be a serious threat to the fragile peace the nation now enjoys and for which Liberians have worked so hard.
We share the position of the Resilient Council of Elders of Grand Bassa and River Cess Counties that the action of LAC is a gross abuse of the human rights of indigent Liberians because it is simply wrong to dispossess entire villages of people simple to plant rubber trees. In light of the aforementioned, we welcome recent comments by Information Minister, Dr. Lawrence Bropleh, that “Government’s position on the LAC expansion was very clear and that the government would at no time remove anyone forcibly from any land for the planting of rubber trees”.
Our attention is also drawn to the recent circulation of anonymous leaflets in our county. Inter alias, said leaflets called for the arbitrary arrest of some of our most distinguished tribesmen. While we do not wish to further dignify such shameless attempt at divide-and-conquer, we wish to serve notice on those political pettifoggers that such Gestapo tactics have no place in Liberia’s emerging democracy. We are grateful that the Liberian people continue to reject attempts by these “invisible hands” to exploit the LAC crisis for partisan political purposes.
As the premier Bassa Diaspora based organization, we wish to make it unequivocally clear that we shall employ any and every legitimate means to resist the forced removal of our people from their ancestral homeland. While we do welcome development undertakings by LAC and other well meaning- investors in county, we are of the opinion that such undertakings cannot succeed unless they are embraced by and involve the full participation of our people.
According to our government’s spokesman Dr. Lawrence Bropleh, “the government has been frantically working to ensure that those who are involved in the killing of the Plantation Manager of the Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) are brought to book”. While we do welcome a full investigation into the unwarranted death of Mr. Bruno Michaels, we hasten to remind our government that two locals also lost their lives in this incident. We find it very disappointing that in all of its utterances, there has yet to be a tangential reference to the lost of other lives. We firmly believe that “everybody is somebody”; as such, we find such behavior unacceptable and call on the Government to also bring to justice those responsible for the shooting deaths of the locals as well.
In concluding, we call on all county organizations to join us and send a clear message to our Government that “the forced removal of people from their ancestral homeland is wrong”. The current issue cannot and should not be seen as a Bassonian problem but rather one that affects us all as Liberians; especially the most underprivileged amongst us. Finally, we call on President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to immediately set up a Commission of inquiry to not only investigate the flagrant gross violations of human rights abuses suffered by the Bassa people at the hands of LAC’s security personnel aided by our national police, but also the whole issue of land reform.
Issued in the City of Newark, New Jersey this 30th day of November 2007.
Signed:
Alfred M. Dousuah
National President, UNIBOAApproved:
Mydea Reeves-Karpeh
Chairman of the Board of Directors, UNIBOA
