A international banking executive for Citibank, who is a leader of an opposition party in Liberia, went on trial yesterday on sedition charges in Monrovia, the Liberia capital, according to United Nations and State Department officials. The trial by military tribunal of the executive, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, as well as that of two journalists, comes two months before scheduled elections, which are to mark a return to civilian rule in Liberia.
Gen. Samuel K. Doe, Liberia's leader, has charged that a speech given by Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf in Philadelphia last month was "detrimental to the peace and stability of the country."
Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, a 46-year-old Harvard-educated economist, was Minister of Finance in Liberia at the time of the 1980 military coup. She later worked at the World Bank before becoming Citibank's African representative. She was placed under house arrest on July 31 after arriving in Liberia and was taken to a military stockade on Aug. 9.
United States Embassy officials in Monrovia have '"expressed concern" to the Liberian Government over the case, according to Robert Bruce, a spokesman for the State Department. "We're urging prompt due process," he said. In addition, Edward Derwinski, a State Department counselor, went to Monrovia last month to review election procedures and to voice concern about the impending trials, said Mr. Bruce.
Despite the proliferation of political parties that sprang up when elections were called, only one party besides General Doe's ruling National Democratic Party of Liberia has successfully registered for the election. The other parties - including Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf's Liberal Action Party, which she helped found -have been blocked by the courts or special election panels, or the parties' leaders have been jailed or banned from political activity. In her speech in Philadelphia to the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf criticized Liberia's program of constructing large public buildings to the detriment of the rest of the economy. "While agricultural and rural development programs are on the verge of closure for lack of funding, a wide range of buildings - Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Health and scores of buildings - are being constructed," she said, adding that this activity "represents a nonproductive investment."
In New York City yesterday, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf's sister, Jennie Bernard, said she was deeply worried about her sister's fate. "My family members have tried to get permission to see her but that hasn't been granted," Mrs. Bernard said.
Source: New York Times
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