Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Three Activist Women

Left, Leymah Gbowee; center: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; right: Tawakkol Karman.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three women from Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their nonviolent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia — the first woman to be elected president in modern Africa — her compatriot, the peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner.

They were the first women to win the prize since Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who died last month, was named as the laureate in 2004. Most of the recipients in the award’s 110-year history have been men, and Friday’s decision seemed designed to give impetus to the fight for women’s rights around the world. “We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,” said the citation read by Thorbjorn Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister who heads the Oslo-based Nobel committee that chooses the winner of the $1.5 million prize. In a subsequent interview, he described the prize as “a very important signal to women all over the world.”

Sitting inside her blue tent at the antigovernment sit-in where she has lived since late February, Ms. Karman, the Yemeni human rights activist, said “I didn’t expect it,” her eyes growing wide, a red flowered veil around her head. “It came as a total surprise.”

Ms. Karman, 32, a mother of three, took to the streets of the capital along with about 50 other university students in January, demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. “This is a victory for Arabs around the world,” she said of the prize, adding “and a victory for Arab women.”

In Liberia, Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf said that she and Ms. Gbowee accepted “this honor on behalf of the Liberian people, and the credit goes to them. For we are now going into our ninth year of peace, and every Liberian has contributed to it,” she said. “We particularly give this credit to Liberian women, who have consistently led the struggle for peace, even under conditions of neglect.” Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf is nearing the end of a heated re-election campaign, and as the world absorbed the news of her prize, her nation’s capital, Monrovia, was virtually shut down by a previously scheduled rally intended to energize the opposition before the vote on Tuesday. Mr. Jagland said the election had not influenced the committee’s decision, calling the ballot there a “domestic consideration.” Analysts in Liberia have described the president’s re-election prospects as uncertain, though the Nobel announcement could change that. The Nobel committee’s decision underscored the gap between local perceptions of her — it is not hard to find critics of the president in Liberia — and the view from abroad. Indeed, while Liberians widely acknowledge that peace and security have improved markedly during her tenure, Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf’s success in securing forgiveness for billions of dollars worth of Liberian debt and the change she has effected in the nation’s once brutal international image are often less appreciated in Monrovia than among outsiders. Unemployment is daunting, and the country is still mired in poverty. But some residents took obvious pride in the decision. As the prize was announced, Bushuben Keita, a spokesman for Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf’s Unity Party, declared: “We are dancing. This is the thing that we have been saying: progress has been made in Liberia. We’ve come through 14 years of war, and we have come to sustained peace. “This is proof that she has been doing well; there’s no cheating in this, this comes from other people. She’s doing very, very well. Her progress has been confirmed by the international community.”

In Yemen, Ms. Karman called the prize “the victory of our peaceful revolution. I am so happy, and I give this award to all of the youth and all of the women across the Arab world, in Egypt, in Tunisia.” “We cannot build our country or any country in the world without peace,” she said. In an op-ed piece published in The New York Times on June 18, Ms. Karman, whose first name in Arabic has been spelled as both Tawakkol and Tawakul, characterized President Saleh’s regime as a corrupt failure, and she urged the United States to quit supporting him even though he has portrayed himself as indispensable to the American effort to eliminate Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen. American officials have been pressing Mr. Saleh to relinquish power in a peaceful transition.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of the world’s most powerful women, praised the award recipients. “The unflinching courage, strength and leadership of these women to build peace, advance reconciliation and defend the rights of fellow citizens in their own countries provide inspiration for women’s rights and human progress everywhere,” Mrs. Clinton said in a statement.

In Egypt, several activists who had been rumored to be in contention for the prize for their roles in the Egyptian revolution — the Google executive Wael Ghonim, the online organizer Esraa Abdel Fatah and the members of the April 6 Youth Movement — expressed pride that a young Arab had won the Nobel. They declared that the true prize they sought was the fruition of the Egyptian revolution in the development of democracy in Egypt and the region. “We will work hard even if we didn’t get the Nobel prize,” Waleed Rashed, a spokesman for the April 6 group, said in an Internet posting.

More than 250 people were nominated for the prize this year, and there had been speculation that the committee would reward bloggers or other activists from the Middle East who used social networking sites and other Internet platforms as they challenged entrenched dictatorships, particularly in Tunisia and Egypt. But if the committee had singled out the Arab Spring, it could have courted criticism that, far from rewarding efforts toward peace, it had chosen a phenomenon whose final outcome in Egypt and Tunisia is far from clear, and which has provoked bloodletting and strife in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Mr. Jagland said the 2011 prize recognized those “who were there long before the world’s media was there reporting.” The announcement in the Norwegian capital followed intense speculation that the prize would be awarded variously to a figure from the Arab Spring, the European Union or exclusively to Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf, 72, a Harvard-educated economist, who has often been cast as a pioneer in African politics.

In a recent interview with the Paris-based monthly magazine The Africa Report, Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf said she did not “want Africa to return to the men’s club” and forecast that women would take over in more African countries. “It will definitely happen in other countries because many women are now vying for the presidency, which didn’t happen much in the past,” said Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf, who was inaugurated in January 2006. She was broadly perceived as a reformer and peacemaker when she took office after several years in exile, during which she worked as a World Bank economist.

In Yemen, Ms. Karman has been widely known as a vocal opponent of the pro-American regime of Mr. Saleh since 2007, leading a human rights advocacy group called Women Journalists Without Chains. But it was only earlier this year — before the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt had gained momentum — that her readiness to take to the streets inspired thousands more in Yemen to do the same. Her brief arrest by the authorities in January incensed many people and is credited by some analysts in Yemen with starting the widespread protests that have convulsed the impoverished land since. Some of her supporters have labeled her “the Mother of Revolution.” Since then, however, she has become a contentious figure, criticized even by some in the anti-Saleh opposition, and her share in the prize could stir further debate among antigovernment activists. Among women of Yemen’s Arab neighbors, however, the choice of Ms. Karman was cause for celebration, both for women and Islam. Nadia Mostafa, a professor of international relations at Cairo University, said the prize was endowed with “political significance.” “Islam has always been associated with radical terrorism, intolerance and more,” she said. “Giving it to a woman and an Islamist? That means a sort of re-evaluation. It means Islam is not against peace, it’s not against women, and Islamists can be women activists, and they can fight for human rights, freedom and democracy.”

Ms. Gbowee, 39, was cited by the Nobel committee for uniting Christian and Muslim women against her country’s warlords. As head of the Women for Peace movement, she was praised for mobilizing women “across ethic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war” that had raged for years in Liberia until its end in 2003 and for ensuring “women’s participation in elections.” Her organization was founded in 2002 when Ms. Gbowee rallied women to sing and pray to protest fighting in a fish market. “This whole process of three women receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is really overwhelming,” Ms. Gbowee said in a telephone interview in New York, where she had just arrived on the last stop of an eight-city tour in the United States to promote “Mighty Be Our Powers,” her new memoir describing her life in war-torn Liberia. “It’s finally a recognition that we can’t ignore the other half of the world’s population. We cannot ignore their unique skills.” Asked whom she was going to vote for when she returned to Liberia for the election on Tuesday, Ms. Gbowee said: “President Johnson Sirleaf.”

Vaiba Flomo, a women’s right activists who has worked with Ms. Gbowee since 1998, said: “What motivated Leymah was the children she saw dying from starvation; women are getting raped, receiving multiple traumas. People shared with her, made her to come to know these things.” Without such commitment, she said, “half the Liberian youth population will be amputated. It’s good news for the Liberian people,” said Emmanuel Ogbodu, a teacher, standing by the side of the road in the ramshackle seaside capital, referring to Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf. “It’s a good way for peace in Liberia. Since she got in the chair, for me, we are experiencing peace. So I think she deserved it. Through her, peace came.”

Immediate reaction in Monrovia was muted as the news was slow to spread. But some who had heard expressed satisfaction. “I appreciate her highly, very well,” said Kona Ndoma, a civil servant. “She has done very much for developmental purposes. So now, we go for the second term, please,” said Mr. Ndoma. “She stabilized peace. There is no gunfire at all.” A woman selling fritters by the side of the road, Christiana Sami, said: “She deserves it, because she has developed the area. She’s done some important things.” A student, Grace Kollie, 18, walking to school, said: “She increased the education system in Liberia. She also carried on good development in the country.”

Forecasts of the winner are rarely accurate. In 2009, the committee stunned Nobel watchers by awarding the prize to President Obama. Last year’s winner was the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo — a choice that infuriated the Chinese authorities and led them to take reprisals against Norway. Mr. Liu was not allowed to leave China to receive the prize and was represented on stage at the award ceremony in December by an empty chair.

In the past the prize has not infrequently been split among several recipients, including the 1994 prize shared by the Palestinian Yasser Arafat and the Israelis Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin; the 1978 award to Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel; and the 1973 prize to Henry A. Kissinger of the United States and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam.

Source: New York Times

The Nation Full of Strong Women

When she pleaded for her life, as taunting rebel soldiers vowed to bury her alive, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, now the Liberian president, remembers defending herself with her most basic strength: “You can’t do this. Think of your mother.” To this day, she is not sure why they spared her, but since she was jailed in a coup uprising in 1980 and later watched Liberia shattered in a bloody 14-year civil war, Mrs. Sirleaf has turned to mothers and women for popular support and to rebuild a country that essentially failed.

Women hold six of the top positions in her cabinet of 22 — the Foreign, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Sports and Gender ministries. Mrs. Sirleaf is assertive about why they rose in the government of the first woman democratically elected to lead an African state. “Women have stronger commitment. They work harder. They’re honest, and the experience justifies it,” Mrs. Sirleaf, 71, said in an interview in the Foreign Ministry building where she maintains her office. “In every time and every place I’ve worked, wherever there has been a scandal, wherever there has been indication of impropriety, it’s always been men.”

As Mrs. Sirleaf prepares to run for re-election next year, she is not free from controversy. While the United Nations peacekeeping force in Liberia is winding down, she faces pressure from the nation’s truth and reconciliation commission, which urged that she and dozens of others be banned for 30 years from holding public office for their roles in the war. She has conceded that she gave $10,000 while abroad in the late 1980s to a rebel group led by Charles Taylor, then a warlord, but for humanitarian services.

In Liberia, she contends, men are more tempted by corruption. “In an African context, men have too much of an extended family. They have too many obligations outside their families and homes, so the demands on them are harder and more intense.” At the outset of her election campaign in 2005, Mrs. Sirleaf took on corruption as “Public Enemy Number One.” She has since had to confront cold reality in a nation of 3.5 million people who struggle with an 85 percent unemployment rate, where 60 percent of the population is under 25 years old.

Mrs. Sirleaf, a Harvard-trained economist, established a structure for combating graft with an anti-corruption commission and a code of conduct for public servants. The rules ended up snaring two government ministers, including her close relative, A.B. Johnson, who resigned last month as internal affairs minister in a scandal over spending of a community development fund. She said she was personally betrayed by those former ministers but that Liberia was still overcoming the corruption of values through war and survival. People sought “public positions because they could engage in extortion for small services rendered,” she said. “What we have done is to expose it.”

Mrs. Sirleaf says she is running for re-election to achieve ambitions that stalled with the global economic crisis. “I want to be sure I leave a legacy behind and I made a difference,” she said.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Seized to Stand Trial on War Crimes

Charles G. Taylor, the warlord who became Liberia's president, was captured Wednesday after a dramatic 24 hours in which he disappeared from the villa in Nigeria where he had lived in exile and then was recognized at a remote outpost as he tried to leave the country.

He was brought here to face war crimes charges for his role in a brutal decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, one of a series of conflagrations that he set off, killing at least 300,000 people. He is the first African head of state to face such charges in an international court. Mr. Taylor's arrival by helicopter under extraordinary security capped a saga that began nearly three years ago, when he fled his nation in the face of a rebel onslaught. He was captured Wednesday morning after a customs official recognized him as he tried to escape into Cameroon.

He arrived unshaven and dressed in a white tunic covered by a bullet-proof vest, tan pants and slip-on shoes. His appearance was in stark contrast to his dapper look in his last public appearance, in 2003, when he went into exile after a 14-year civil war that killed a quarter million of his countrymen, defiantly declaring, "God willing, I will be back." He did return to Liberia, briefly, on Wednesday, but only to be handed over to United Nations troops who promptly flew him here, where he was read the indictment from a United Nations-backed court dealing with war crimes in Sierra Leone — 11 counts of crimes against humanity — then jailed.

Desmond de Silva, the prosecutor who will try the case, said Mr. Taylor's arrival "sends out the clear message that no matter how rich, powerful or feared people may be, the law is above them." The trial is sure to resonate on a continent where dictators have ruled with ruthless impunity. From Idi Amin, the soldier whose murderous rule in Uganda gave way to comfortable exile in Saudi Arabia, to Haile Mengistu Mariam, whose 14-year Communist rule in Ethiopia brought political purges that killed more than a million people but who is now living quietly in Zimbabwe, African leaders who brutalize their citizens have faced few consequences. "The current perpetrators of serious human rights crimes should be put on notice that international courts take the crimes they commit very, very seriously," said Corinne Dufka of Human Rights Watch.

Mr. Taylor's arrival here was a dramatic turn in the already complicated saga of the effort to bring him to justice after he ignited a series of civil wars in the 1990's that engulfed much of West Africa. In the early 1980's, Mr. Taylor was a senior government procurement officer in Liberia. Charged in 1983 with embezzling nearly $1 million, he fled. He was arrested in Massachusetts in 1984, then escaped from jail in 1985. He resurfaced in Liberia in 1989 as a Libyan-trained warlord, leading a rebel force. He was elected president in 1997, in a vote overshadowed by fears of what might happen if he lost.

A warrant for his arrest was issued in March 2003. But as part of an agreement to remove him from power and halt a bloodbath in Liberia, Nigeria offered him asylum and refused to hand him over to the court in Sierra Leone, where he was accused of fomenting a civil war. Though under intense pressure by the United States to arrest him, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria had insisted he would hand over Mr. Taylor only to an elected Liberian government. Earlier this month, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's new president, herself facing pressure from the United States, made the request, and Mr. Obasanjo agreed. But Nigeria insisted that it was Liberia's responsibility to go and arrest him, with Mr. Obasanjo's spokeswoman declaring that Mr. Taylor was "not a prisoner," which seemed almost to taunt Mr. Taylor into trying to escape from his lightly guarded compound in Calabar.

Late Monday night the Nigerian government said he had vanished. He was found more than 600 miles north, in an ash-colored Land Rover with a large quantity of dollars, in the company of a woman and a driver, Haz Iwendi, a spokesman for the National Police, said by telephone. A customs official spotted Mr. Taylor, whose vehicle had diplomatic license plates, early Wednesday morning in the border town of Ngala, Mr. Iwendi said.

The escape was an acute embarrassment for Mr. Obasanjo, who arrived Tuesday in Washington for a visit to the White House to discuss security in the volatile Niger Delta, where attacks by militants on oil facilities and kidnappings have slashed output. Nigeria is the United States' fifth-largest supplier of oil. Outraged American lawmakers called on President Bush to cancel his meeting with Mr. Obasanjo, with whom Mr. Bush has had a warm relationship, based in part on their shared Christian faith and bolstered by Mr. Obasanjo's role as a regional problem solver. But internal problems have eroded the Nigerian's status. Militants in the Niger Delta, sectarian violence that killed more than 100 people last month and a political crisis stemming from plans to try to extend his rule to a third term have roiled Nigeria.

Mr. Bush met with him on Wednesday, and at a joint news conference, hailed the arrest of Mr. Taylor. "The fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court of law will help Liberia," Mr. Bush said, "and is a signal, Mr. President, of your deep desire for there to be peace in your neighborhood."

Mr. Taylor was flown on a Nigerian government jet from Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria, where he was captured, to Monrovia, Liberia's capital. There he was handed over to Liberian officials, who promptly turned him over to United Nations peacekeepers, who arrested him. After a brief medical checkup, he boarded a helicopter for Sierra Leone. The reaction to Mr. Taylor's arrival here was muted and fearful.

J. B. Jenkins-Johnson, a human rights lawyer in Freetown, worried that Mr. Taylor's arrival would cause unrest in a country still reeling from the long civil war. "Let them not bring that man here," Mr. Jenkins-Johnson said. "This man will bring us nothing but problems." Indeed, many Sierra Leoneans wonder if the court's work will do much to help them improve their lives. "The Taylor case doesn't have a lot of resonance," said Olu Gordon, a political analyst and journalist in Freetown. "It is abstract, while the problems they face are concrete: what to feed their children, how to pay for school, and so on."

The loudest calls for Mr. Taylor's arrest came not from his victims but from the United States, which has backed the international court here financially and diplomatically. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf, the Liberian leader, had been hesitant to act on Mr. Taylor, saying that the peace in Liberia was still fragile and that any action could stir up his allies, several of whom hold seats in Liberia's new legislature. Several of his commanders remain in Liberia, and news of Mr. Taylor's arrest caused immediate fears of a coup attempt. But removing him from the scene could also help stabilize the region, said Mike McGovern, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, by demoralizing Mr. Taylor's supporters. "The arrest closes an ugly chapter in Liberian history and gives people the confidence to look to the future," Mr. McGovern said in an interview in Monrovia. "A lot of people are still sitting on the fence. Once they have a clear idea of where Taylor is and what's likely to happen to him, they're likely to really turn their backs on that period and move forward."

In Liberia, human rights advocates exulted in the news. "This is a great day," said Jerome J. Verdier Sr., head of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "It's a fundamental triumph for the rule of law both in Liberia and the sub-region."

Source: New York Times

Nigeria Will End Asylum for Warlord

Nigeria said Saturday that it would end the asylum of the deposed Liberian dictator Charles G. Taylor and turn him over to the Liberian government for trial. Mr. Taylor, a warlord-turned-president, spawned a bloody cycle of civil wars that killed 300,000 people across West Africa in the 1990's. He was indicted by the United Nations-backed Special Court here in Sierra Leone in 2003 for war crimes and crimes against humanity during this country's decade-long insurgency.

But the court has been unable to arrest Mr. Taylor, who left Liberia as rebels narrowed in on him in 2003. Instead, he went into exile in Nigeria, where authorities agreed in an internationally brokered deal to grant him safe haven in order to end 14 years of civil war in Liberia. "God willing, I will be back," the flamboyant Mr. Taylor said as he bid farewell to his country.

Since agreeing to accept Mr. Taylor, the Nigerian government has rebuffed many attempts to put him on trial before the international court, saying it was awaiting a request from an elected Liberian government. Liberia's new president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, raised the issue this month with President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, describing it as an important part of bringing stability to Liberia. "Liberia's peace is fragile," she said this month after announcing her extradition request. "There are many loyalists in our country to Mr. Taylor."

In Sierra Leone, where a cell has sat empty awaiting Mr. Taylor's arrival, there was fear and awe of the man who let loose so much misery in a nation smaller than South Carolina and home to five million people. "We are very afraid of Charles Taylor coming here," said Jerry Nyuma Bongay, a 25-year-old student in Freetown. "But we want him to face justice. He hurt us too much."

Desmond De Silva, the chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone court, hailed the announcement. "This is a remarkable day for justice," he said. "This is very important because it is all part of the fight against impunity." In a statement on Saturday, Mr. Obasanjo said Liberia was free to take Mr. Taylor into custody. Although he is not under indictment in Liberia, United Nations peacekeepers there have been authorized by the Security Council to transfer him to Sierra Leone.

The statement gave no date or details for the transfer, but Mr. Obasanjo said he had never been against surrendering Mr. Taylor to a democratically elected government in Liberia. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia's president in January, becoming Africa's first woman to be elected head of state. Mr. Taylor was forbidden from leaving Nigeria during his exile, but he continued to meddle in his former country's affairs from his government guest house in Calabar, on Nigeria's southern coast, using some of the millions of dollars he is accused of stealing from Liberia's coffers.

Security around Mr. Taylor's villa has been lax, said Corinne Dufka, a researcher for Human Rights Watch based in Dakar, Senegal, prompting fears that Mr. Taylor may try to escape. "We are calling on Nigeria to tighten security around Taylor," Ms. Dufka said. "I think there will be a great sense of relief when Charles Taylor is actually in the custody of the special court."

The court, set up in 2000, had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Taylor on 17 counts in 2003 but Nigeria ignored it. Mr. Obasanjo had said that he would honor a request by Liberia's government to relinquish Mr. Taylor, but until this year Liberia had only transitional leaders. With the backing of Libya and other regional powers, Mr. Taylor unleashed his horrific brand of warfare across the region for the better part of two decades, dragooning young boys into combat, first with violence, then with drugs, money and sex.

In Sierra Leone, he is accused of training and arming Sierra Leone's rebels in a bloody conflict left tens of thousands of people dead.

Source: New York Times

In First for Africa, Woman Wins Election as President of Liberia

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist and former World Bank official who waged a fierce presidential campaign against the soccer star George Weah, emerged victorious on Friday in her quest to lead war-torn Liberia and become the first woman elected head of state in modern African history. "Everything is on our side," said Morris Dukuly, a spokesman for Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf. "The voters have chosen a new and brighter future."

With 97 percent of the runoff vote counted on Friday, Ms. Johnson- Sirleaf achieved an insurmountable lead with 59 percent, compared with Mr. Weah's 41 percent, in a nation where women make up more than half the electorate.

Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf's victory propels her into an old boys' club unlike any other. From the Cape to Cairo, from Dar es Salaam to Dakar, men have dominated African politics from the earliest days of the anticolonial struggle. "There are so many capable women," said Yassine Fall, a Senegalese economist and feminist working on women's rights in Africa. "But they just don't get the chance to lead." Indeed, when supporters of Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf, 66, a onetime United Nations official and Liberian finance minister, marched through the broken streets of Monrovia in the final, frantic days of the campaign for Liberia's presidency, they shouted and waved signs that read, "Ellen - she's our man."

Mr. Dukuly said Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf held off formally declaring victory because Mr. Weah, who won the first round of the election last month and enjoys broad support among Liberia's huge youth population, had alleged that the results were tainted by fraud. Mr. Weah told reporters in Monrovia that he had submitted a formal complaint to the Supreme Court, which will investigate. International observers said that while there were some minor irregularities, they were too small to change the outcome.

Mr. Weah, speaking Friday to a crowd of supporters at his campaign headquarters, appealed for calm, but hundreds of supporters wielding branches marched through the streets in protest, chanting, "No Weah, no peace!" They threw stones at police officers in front of the National Elections Commission, and United Nations peacekeepers fired tear gas to keep protesters from storming the United States Embassy, according to Reuters.

Mr. Weah, whose base was the young, discontented population who idolized him for his exploits on the soccer field and his rags-to-riches life story, was seen as a favorite because young voters make up 40 percent of the electorate. But the women's vote appears to have been stronger. There were slightly more women registered to vote in Liberia, and while there were no reliable surveys of voters leaving the polls, women appeared to be a strong presence.

Political strategy played a role as well. In the final weeks of the campaign, Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf formed crucial alliances with parties whose candidates had lost in the first round, which winnowed the field of 22 presidential contenders to 2. The impact of her victory went well beyond Liberia, a nation still trying to recover from more than a decade of civil war.

The history of the continent rings with the names of heroes like Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and Jomo Kenyatta, fathers of the modern African states they helped form, and villains like Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin and Sani Abacha, the despotic "big men" who ruled ruthlessly over their subjects, enriching themselves along the way. Despite the large role women played in many national struggles for independence, they were largely relegated to the sidelines in the post-colonial era. The most ambitious women often went abroad, and some, like Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf, rose to prominence in international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank. But in recent years, African women have gained power and visibility. In 2004 a Kenyan environmentalist, Wangari Muta Maathai, won the Nobel Peace Prize, while Nigeria's finance minister and feared corruption fighter, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has emerged as one of that country's most respected officials.

Women have also made gains at the ballot box. The prime minister of Mozambique, Luísa Dias Diogo, is widely seen as a likely future president. In Rwanda, there is a greater proportion of women serving in Parliament than in any other nation; they occupy nearly half the seats. Indeed, Africa leads the developing world in the percentage of women in legislative positions, at about 16 percent, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an organization of parliamentary bodies worldwide. Yet having more women leaders does not necessarily bring decisions that benefit women. While women generally make decisions that favor women and children, they often gain political power as an embattled minority that feels it must follow men's lead in order to maintain power, said Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the International Center for Research on Women, a Washington-based research group. "When there is a critical mass of women leaders, they gain confidence over time and are more likely to exhibit diversity of experience as women in their decisions," Ms. Rao Gupta said. "It takes a few cycles to really sink in."

Liberia's presidential election came two years after the nation emerged from a brutal civil war that claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced a third of the population. Pushed from power by rebels, Charles Taylor, the warlord who became Liberia's president and fomented bloody wars that racked the region for more than a decade, went into exile in 2003 and is now in Nigeria.

He left behind a nation shattered by war, with the entire infrastructure, from roads to electric wires to water pipes, rotted away or looted. Despite its natural wealth in gems, rubber and timber, Liberia is one of the poorest nations. Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf, who has been known as Liberia's Iron Lady since she ran against Mr. Taylor for president in 1997 and was jailed for more than a year under the former dictator Samuel Doe, will have no trouble fitting into the all-male club of African heads of state, said Ms. Fall, the economist, who has known her for years. "She is fearless," Ms. Fall said. "No men intimidate her."

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 11 (Reuters) - The Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to authorize peacekeepers to arrest Charles Taylor, the former president, if he returns to Liberia and turn him over to a special tribunal in Sierra Leone. Mr. Taylor, in exile in Nigeria, was indicted in Sierra Leone in March 2003 on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In addition to calling for Mr. Taylor's arrest, the resolution referred to his stay in Nigeria as temporary, which rights activists said could clear the way for Nigeria to turn him over for trial in Sierra Leone.

Source: New York Times

Interim Liberian Government Head Named

Liberia's warring parties chose a mild-mannered and politically obscure businessman today to lead an interim government until 2005. Delegates from the government and two rebel factions, meeting in Accra, Ghana, chose Charles Gyude Bryant, 54, who is an Episcopal leader, a dealer in heavy equipment and the head of a minor political faction, the Liberian Action Party.

Under the accord, the chairman of the interim government -- the title will be chairman, not president -- had to be an outsider unaligned with the three warring parties. "I see myself as a healer," Mr. Bryant said in a telephone interview. "I see myself as neutral. I side with no group."

Liberia has been in almost constant conflict for 14 years, since the last president, Charles G. Taylor, a former warlord who left last week for exile in Nigeria, began fighting his way to power in 1989. Mr. Taylor's immediate successor, his vice president, Moses Blah, will resign in October.

The interim government led by Mr. Bryant is to try to help hold Liberia together until elections in October 2005. Mr. Bryant's selection came as a surprise to many diplomats and foreign officials, and to many Liberians. Many had expected the chairmanship to go to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 64, a former international banker and senior United Nations official who had led the candidates submitted by the government's negotiators to the rebel parties for their approval. But some diplomats cited last-minute maneuvering by Mr. Taylor's loyalists to block Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf, who lost to Mr. Taylor in the last election Liberia held, in 1997. She said in an interview today that she would back Mr. Bryant.

Several of the Liberian delegates were injured this afternoon when the Ghana Air Force plane meant to carry them home failed to take off and its undercarriage collapsed, airport officials said. The mishap did not seriously injure any of the 44 passengers, the officials said, but it closed Accra's international airport.

In Monrovia, aid groups carefully began shipping some food into the countryside today. Fighting is continuing between government and rebel forces within 50 or 60 miles of Monrovia, despite a cease-fire. On Friday, more than 200 soldiers from Ghana are to join a West African peacekeeping force of nearly 1,000 troops, overwhelmingly from Nigeria. By October the force is to number 3,250, and the mission is to be turned over to the United Nations.

The United Nations envoy for Liberia, Jacques Klein, an American diplomat, said he would seek a mandate from the Security Council for up to 15,000 troops from all over the world to help secure the countryside so aid can reach a starving and war-weary population. There is also talk in Monrovia of a formal request to the United States to help train a Liberian army that was undermined and corrupted during Mr. Taylor's presidency.

Source: New York Times

What the U.S. Owes Liberia

This is an article by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

When Liberians got their first chance to vote in multiparty elections, old women walked from their villages in the scorching heat to stand in long lines at the polling places. My party's symbol at the time was the rooster, and I remember the crowds lining the road to cluck and flap their elbows as a sign of support. Anyone who saw their enthusiasm, like me, could have no doubt that Liberians yearn for democracy.

That was 1985. Sadly, the military stuffed ballot boxes and burned ballots, and Samuel Doe, a sergeant who had seized power in a 1980 coup, declared himself the winner. Liberians' hopes were dashed by American recognition of the results. It is hard to imagine that Chester Crocker, the Reagan administration's assistant secretary of state for African affairs, was not being deeply ironic when he praised Doe at the time for claiming only 51 percent of the vote. It was, he said, "unheard of in the rest of Africa, where incumbent rulers normally claim victories of 95 to 100 percent."

I have been pondering that betrayal recently as I attend peace talks for my troubled country here in Accra. Founded by emancipated American slaves in 1847 as a beacon of democracy for Africa, Liberia has degenerated into a violent free-for-all. As the battle rages for our capital, Monrovia, politics has been reduced to an extended street fight among gun-toting boys. Had the United States respected the will of Liberia's voters in 1985, we would not be in the desperate straits we are today. The failure to challenge Doe's electoral fraud discredited the democratic process and paved the way for an increasingly brutal competition for power.

But we can still dare to hope. President Charles Taylor, who displays an almost psychopathic will to power and has been indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal for war crimes in Sierra Leone, says he will step down from office today. West African states have sent peacekeepers and the United States is considering a military role. The peace talks include not just the government and the two rebel factions, but also 18 political parties and five civil society organizations.

After six frustrating weeks in Accra, I can say that the peace talks are flawed and unstructured. The process is under the direction of a mediation team from the Economic Community of West African States, and meetings take place haphazardly in ad hoc groups, with only the occasional plenary. Yet I remain optimistic that an agreement will emerge on a future transitional government. I have to, because the talks are our only way out.

Unfortunately, the United States has steadily downgraded its diplomatic presence at the Accra discussions and is now represented by a relatively junior official. This is a mistake. As the Bush administration should already have learned in Iraq, military intervention is often the easy part. The political process that follows -- call it ''nation building'' if you will -- can be much tougher.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, recently appointed Jacques Klein as his special representative for Liberia. Because he is a former United States Foreign Service officer and a retired major general in the United States Air Force, he is seen among the Liberian parties as a virtual American envoy. Senior State Department officials are also paying increasingly frequent visits. But that is not good enough. The Bush administration should immediately dispatch a full-scale mediation team to Accra to see the process through.

If the administration does not get the politics right, any military intervention will be doomed to failure. Up to now, Washington's policy has been largely reactive. Liberia has fundamental problems to tackle if it is ever to live up to its founders' dreams of freedom and political participation. First, we need to restore hope and confidence to people subjected to despair, particularly to the thousands of young boys and girls who have been press-ganged into combat. Then we need to rebuild our institutions to ensure accountability and transparency; restructure the economic system so that it is no longer dominated by a small elite; conduct a national dialogue; and then hold elections that bring to an end our tragic tradition of rule by strongmen.

We need Washington's help to construct a credible transitional government that is interested in more than its own greed. After the betrayal of 1985, the United States owes us that much.

Source: New York Times

Winner Named in Liberia

Charles Taylor was declared the victor today in Liberia's elections, completing his conversion from rebel leader to President. The elections, held last Saturday, ended a civil war that Mr. Taylor set off in December 1989.

Mr. Taylor promised at party headquarters: ''I will not be a wicked President. But I have no intention of being a weak President.''

Mr. Taylor and his National Patriotic Party won 75 percent of valid votes tabulated up to today. The Unity Party, led by Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was second, with 9.6 percent.

Source: New York Times

Liberia's Ambiguous Election

Liberia's American-influenced past and its Nigerian-influenced present were both evident in Sunday's presidential elections. The overwhelming winner, Charles Taylor, studied in Massachusetts and was later jailed there for embezzlement at the request of a former Liberian Government. His closest rival, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, graduated from Harvard and later worked as a Citibank executive.

That is the American connection. Real power, however, remains in the hands of Victor Malu, the Nigerian general in charge of the West African force that imposed enough stability on Liberia for these elections to take place. If General Malu means what he says about staying in charge for the foreseeable future, the elections will turn out to be a victory for order, not democracy. An abrupt withdrawal of the West Africans could set off renewed fighting. But preparations for their departure must begin promptly.

Mr. Taylor's landslide victory requires explaining, since tens of thousands of Liberian families lost relatives to his undisciplined rebel troops during an eight-year civil war that took 150,000 lives. Further, despite a professed conversion to peace and democracy, Mr. Taylor has a well-deserved reputation for violence and indifference to human rights. His candidacy benefited from a widespread belief that only a warlord could stop the anarchy. Even some who suffered personally at the hands of his troops voted for him. His campaign war chest was swelled with captured booty, while the underfinanced Johnson-Sirleaf effort was late in starting. Finally, many Liberians felt that Mr. Taylor's rivals represented the discredited old American-Liberian elite that ran the country at the expense of the indigenous majority for more than a century.

Given Mr. Taylor's history, his performance must be carefully monitored by the international community. American assistance, for now, should be limited to privately distributed humanitarian aid and independently run police training programs. For his part, General Malu has earned gratitude from Liberians for finally halting the murderous conflict. But his statements belittling Mr. Taylor's authority suggest that he considers the elections a minor detail and that he is in no hurry to end the Nigerian-led occupation.

That would be a mistake. Liberia's people will not accept prolonged Nigerian tutelage. They have elected Mr. Taylor President in a free and fair election. He should be accountable to them, not a foreign general.

Source: New York Times

Not Quite Democracy; Africans Look East for a New Model

ACROSS the continent of Africa, for many of the countries that can still dream of economic progress instead of simply hoping to ward off disaster, the most seductive development model lies not in the ripe old West, but rather in the fermenting economies of the Far East.

Hoping to copy blueprints that allowed some Asian countries to leap from poverty to relative prosperity in little more than a generation, more and more African leaders are heading off these days on tours of countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea. And along with their economic recipes, these leaders are returning home with authoritarian political notions. These may clash sharply with the Western ideal of democracy, but they have the merit, the leaders say, of being more in tune with traditional African values.

Having flirted in this decade with democracy, one country after another is now seeking to implement a form of government that meets some technical requirements of democracy but in reality is the most formalized kind of pluralism possible: one in which only the most marginal questions of national interest are subject to open debate, and leaders rig their electoral systems, minimizing to virtually nil the chances that they will be voted out of office. In doing so, governments in countries from Ivory Coast to Uganda are invoking the model of the tightly controlled Asian society, with its Confucian notions of sacrifice and obedience.

The pro-Government Ivorian newspaper, Fraternite Matin, carried the strongest recent articulation of this philosophy earlier this month, in a lead editorial that said that the strength of Japan came from a caste system in which "the samurai does not seek to replace the emperor, or to speak in his place." Pursuing this line to its chilling conclusion, the editorialist proposed a formula that would enable this country to develop: "The party member needs to stick to the line and not impose his point of view on superiors; the manager will not exceed his prerogatives and divert the funds of the enterprise for which he has responsibility; the expatriate should not violate any of the rules governing his stay; the cleric, rather than giving political speeches to support one camp or another, should stick to what he can contribute to the spirituality of his flock."

For many experts on Africa, there are many problems with these nose-to-the-grindstone nostrums. Not the least is the fact that they leave unanswered a question that this continent has managed more disastrously than any other: Who will keep an eye on the leaders? "The success of authoritarian governments elsewhere is based on things that African leaders have not paid sufficient attention to," said Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Liberian who is the deputy administrator for Africa of the United Nations Development Program. "First there was an emphasis on human resource development. Just look at the high literacy levels in most Asian societies. "Then, Asian governments built strong partnerships with the private sector, which ultimately served as counterweights to authoritarian power. Finally you have a system of ethics: In the Korean example, former heads of state were ultimately arrested because they offended some commonly held values."

Although it may sound new, today's Asian-inspired ideology is far from the continent's first experiment with paternalism, which was in part a legacy of colonialism. Africa's early leaders, from Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta and Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda to Ivory Coast's Felix Houphouet-Boigny, all demanded the virtually unquestioned obedience of the population under one-party states, which they justified by talk of Africa's traditional socialist values and its emphasis on consensus.

Rather than help build thriving new nations, however, the lack of accountability built into these political creations favored the emergence of corrupt elites who quickly discovered that controlling the state offered unparalleled opportunities for stealing from it. "What we are seeing today is an exact replay of what happened in the 1960's in the move toward one-party states: Maintaining the formalism of democracy while gutting it of its substance," said Thomas Callaghy, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. "What you end up with is 'crony capitalism,' an extension of the patron-client form of free enterprise, which, in the African case, has always placed the emphasis on the welfare of the patron."

With few checks on this sort of power, Africa will be hard pressed to develop under any economic model. Instead of seeing the kind of accumulation of savings necessary for an industrial takeoff -- the kind of capital accumulation that took place in Asia -- the continent has witnessed an unparalleled flight of capital, as elites bank their earnings in safe havens elsewhere.

According to one United Nations estimate, $200 billion or 90 percent of the sub-Saharan part of the continent's gross domestic product (much of it illicitly earned), was shipped to foreign banks in 1991 alone. In each country, the formula for enrichment differs. In Senegal, World Bank officials have said that Government imports of rice, the staple food, have constituted a major source of unaccounted-for revenue for ruling party leaders for years. In Congo, top officials and their relatives sign deals that mortgage the heavily indebted country's oil earnings years in advance, in exchange for quick cash.

In Kenya, the Government plows ahead with plans to build a major international airport in the President's home town. In military-controlled Nigeria, the Government awards so-called "lifting contracts" to its political friends that amount to little more than gifts of handsome commissions on oil contracts.

Based on realities like these, a confidential report prepared last year by the French Foreign Ministry warned of the "criminalization of sub-Saharan Africa" by its elites. While the ideologues of present-day Africa wish to draw out cultural parallels between the supposedly deferential masses of Asia and hordes of Africans whose salvation, they say, lies in a sort of unquestioning acceptance of a new work ethnic, for many the recent news out of South Korea may inspire other observations.

Reports that two past presidents of that country amassed huge slush funds have led to dramatic confessions of corruption and the arrest of these leaders, along with those of several captains of Korean industry. This can be seen as a consequence of the lack of democracy that prevailed through much of that country's modern history. As much as some proponents of an African resurrection would like to follow Asian models, at least two elements in the recent Korean scandal stick out as inconceivable on this continent.

In the primary capitalism that still prevails in these parts, heads of industry frequently don't have any need to pay bribes to African leaders. As often as not, they are buddies, cousins and sons. Then again, in an environment where courts are subject to political control, Parliaments act as rubber stamps, and presidents stay in power as long as they like, who could get caught?

Source: New Yrk Times

LIBERIAN OPPOSITION POLITICIAN FLEES TO NEW YORK

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, an opposition politician in Liberia who was cleared of charges of complicity in a coup attempt last year, said she fled to the United States this month after the chairman of the ruling party threatened her life.

In her first public statement since she arrived in New York on Sept. 1, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf said last week that she decided to leave the West African country after being denied an exit visa and after her home was ransacked. She said the chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party of Liberia, Keikura B. Kpoto, who is also a senator in the national legislature, told her on Aug. 16 that "something might happen to you, and no one would be responsible." She said he also warned her not to take part in protests against the Government's arrest of three other opposition leaders.

Two days later, she said, her home was broken into by people in civilian clothes who wrecked it while she hid nearby. The men told neighbors they were looking for her, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf said. "I took the threat seriously," she said of Mr. Kpoto's warning. "I think I could be more effective there, but because I wanted to be alive, I had to leave."

Mr. Kpoto, reached by telephone in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, denied that he had threatened Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf and said she had used "cheap politics" to advance her political standing. Mr. Kpoto said he had asked her "as a neighbor" to call off a demonstration that the Government had prohibited. "I told her that if you put people in the streets, you never know what might happen, and you cannot hold anyone responsible," he said. "If I wanted to threaten her why would I have done it in front of witnesses?"

Mr. Kpoto said Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf's home was ransacked by disgruntled demonstrators who were angered when she failed to attend a rally. J. Emmanuel Bowier, a spokesman for the Liberian Embassy in Washington, said his Government did not know Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf had left the country. He said 12 men had been arrested in the attack on her house.

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf said she would continue to speak out from the United States against the Government of Gen. Samuel K. Doe and would work with a coalition of opposition political parties to get new presidential elections. She said she would like to "take her chances" as a candidate for President.

General Doe won an election last October in which it was reported he received 50.1 percent of the vote. Opposition leaders say the count was rigged.

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, a Liberian who became a vice president of Citibank while working for the bank in Kenya, has been an outspoken critic of General Doe and his aides despite a military decree making it a crime to spread "lies, rumors or disinformation." She was jailed in 1985 for calling Government officials "idiots." Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf was again jailed, for seven months, after the coup attempt last November. The Government failed to present evidence of her involvement, and she was released from prison on June 6. On June 8, she said, she applied for a travel visa but was refused. She said she was told her possible connection to the coup attempt was still being investigated.

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf refused to disclose how she was able to leave Liberia, but denied breaking any laws. "I was not charged with anything," she said. "I was just exercising a right of travel that should not have been denied."

In July, a Monrovia newspaper erroneously reported that Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf fled arrest after staging an illegal rally in Buchanan, a coastal town. It was later learned that there was no rally but that she had been surrounded by well-wishers. She said she returned to Monrovia oblivious of an attempt by a local senator to have her arrested.

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf said national reconciliation, which General Doe has advocated since Government troops thwarted the overthrow attempt, was now just a "fleeting possibility."

Source: New York Times

An Opposition Leader Flees Arrest in Liberia

A Liberian opposition politician, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, fled arrest after staging an illegal weekend rally, the Star newspaper said today. The paper said that the woman, a former Citibank vice president whose case has drawn attention in the United States, held the rally in Buchanan, about 70 miles from Monrovia, without a permit.

Her arrest was ordered by the local Senator, Charles Williams, who was quoted as having said that he would have personally jailed her if she had been caught by the police. She was one of more than 20 political prisoners released from jail by President Samuel Doe last month after being held in connection with an attempted coup in November 1985. The prisoners were told to stay in Liberia.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Leader Pardons 34 Accused in Plot

Liberia's President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, announced today that he had pardoned 34 people accused of conspiring to overthrow the Government. The Liberian Information Ministry said General Doe granted "a complete and unconditional pardon to all persons implicated and detained after the failed coup of Nov. 12, 1985."

Among those pardoned was Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a prominent opposition politician and former Citibank vice president whose case drew substantial attention in the United States. In a broadcast, General Doe said the pardon was an "act of mercy" to show "that we harbor no evil intention against any of our citizens, including those who may wish us ill."

Source: New York Times

LIBERIA GOVERNMENT FOE IS INDICTED FOR TREASON

A grand jury indicted Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a leading opposition figure, on treason charges today for her reported involvement in an attempt to overthrow the President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, last year.

The indictment was made public after a 42-day session. It means that Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf - Finance Minister in the former William Tolbert Government as well as a Harvard-educated economist and former Citibank representative in Nairobi, Kenya - will be tried by a criminal court.

She could receive the death penalty if found guilty. No date has been set yet for the trial.

Source: New York Times

AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS FREED IN LIBERIA

Liberia's vainglorious President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, may not care a whit about American protests over his five-year record of repression. But he plainly cares about the Reagan Administration's suspension of $25 million in economic aid, which those protests triggered.

To placate Washington, he has now ordered the release of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and 16 jailed students, evidence that financial pressure works.

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf had returned recently to Liberia to challenge General Doe in a presidential vote next month. She was clapped in jail, charged with sedition and drew a 10-year sentence from a military tribunal. Her case attracted attention because she is a Harvard-trained economist and vice president of Citibank, unusual credentials for a seditionist.

But her plight also drew attention to General Doe's erratic despotism. Having promised elections, he eliminated rival parties, altered his birthday so that he will be 35, the required age, and jailed opposition journalists. Still in custody are Momolu Sirleaf, a relative of Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, and Klon Hinneh, both on the staff of Footprints Today, Liberia's only remaining independent daily.

Until all such prisoners are freed, and newspapers are unmuzzled, why free that suspended aid money?

Source: New York Times

FORMER LIBERIAN OFFICIAL IS SENTENCED TO PRISON

A former Liberian Finance Minister was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday night after a military court found her guilty of sedition. The former official, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 46 years old, an international banker who at one time represented Citibank in Nairobi, Kenya, was quoted by the Liberian press agency as thanking the military court for the manner in which the trial was conducted. She also pleaded to the military leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, for mercy, saying Liberia needed all its resources to tackle the many problems it faced.

Miss Johnson-Sirleaf, who served as Finance Minister under President William Tolbert in the late 1970's, called members of the present military-led administration "idiots" while on a speaking tour of the United States last July. She told the tribunal Friday night that she had spoken out of frustration because her political party at the time faced problems in getting legal recognition.

Source: New York Times

Less Liberty in Liberia

Unhappy Liberia has its own version of one man, one vote. There, only one man's vote matters. The man is Samuel K. Doe, the former sergeant who at age 28 ensconced himself as president in 1980 after his soldiers bayoneted a civilian predecessor. Mr. Doe is now a five-star general whose most conspicuous victory is over the calendar. He has added two years to his age so that, officially, he will be 35, as required by the Constitution, when the people of his West Africa country choose him as president in November's election.

To assure that result, all serious opposition parties have been ruled ineligible, their leaders jailed, their newspapers silenced. His most formidable challenger is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, candidate of the Liberal Action Party. Harvard-educated and a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf has been Citibank's representative in Nairobi. In a speech she gave recently on a visit to Philadelphia, she faulted Liberia's lavish public spending. For this, she was arrested on her return to Monrovia, accused of endangering stability. Last week, incredibly, she was put on trial for sedition.

All this cries out for more than a routine response from Washington. Americans have special historic ties to Liberia's two million people. Liberia was established in 1822 with American help as a haven for freed black slaves. Its use of English, its Constitution and even its flag reflect this history. But the promise of liberty has never been realized. Liberians have endured poverty and corrupt misgovernment, and General Doe's erratic despotism now outdoes his predecessors'.

Nonetheless, since his coup, U.S. foreign aid to Liberia has quadrupled, to $83 million this year, the highest per capita figure in Africa. To induce him to hold the elections he promised, $250,000 of this aid was earmarked to help pay the costs. General Doe denounced Washington for interfering and vowed to return the money. Wholly in character, he hasn't.

The general seemingly assumes that the Reagan Administration will put up with anything so long as he makes anti-Communist noises and causes no trouble about a vital Voice of America transmitter. But jailing a Citibank representative for preaching fiscal conservatism shows neither scruple nor sense. If Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf and other challengers are barred from Liberia's elections, a healthy cut in Liberian aid - especially $13 million in military aid - is one vote that America can cast.

Source: New York Times

LIBERIAN CITIBANK AIDE ON TRIAL

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