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 Liberia:
A country in Sub-Sahara Africa that experienced one of Africa’s
bloodiest civil wars at the end of the twentieth century and the
beginning of the Millennium. Before the civil war, the presence of
American Peace Corps volunteers in Liberia was above average.
From the range of the Wologisi Mountain in the north to the river banks of the Cavalla in the southeast, the American presence was well felt in nearly every towns and villages as well as private and public sectors.
But it all changed on the morning of November 12, 1985 a little town (Zleh Town) 44 miles west of the cavalla River, 23 miles south of the Cestos River, and 27 mile north of the capital of Zwedru in the southeastern province of Grand Gedeh. Zleh Town holds the key to the Liberia Producing Marketing Cooperation (LPMC). It was the home for LPMC largest Oil Palm Plantation in Grand Gedeh. 65% 0f the labor force came from neighboring Nimba County; about 15% from Maryland and Sinoe in the southeast.
From the time of Israelites sponsored company (Agromego) to LPMC; Zleh Town and surrounding suburban towns have always been a boiling pot. Until the morning of November 12, 1985 when heavily armed men from Tuzon (the birth place of the deceased President Samuel Doe) rounded up Gios, Manos, Grebo, Kru and their sympathizers, put them in a tractor and headed for the palm plantation. Tractor loaded with men, women and children headed for the slaughterhouse (surrounding Palm farm). Post that moment, Zleh Town has since never been the same. The bloods of these innocent folks still cry for justice. Now, it is a taboo amongst to express what happened to relatives, friends, and co-workers in Zleh Town. It was not a taboo when Edward Slanger boosted on national TV how he killed Gen. Quiwonkpa or how Col. Julukala told the residents of Zwedru on ELRZ he took care of Julius kesselle the deputy four infantry battalion commander.
According to Pumla Gobodo, forgiveness is often regarded as an expression of weakness, but it can also elevate a victim to the position of strength. But forgiveness doesn’t overlook the deed/issues. It rises the issues above it. It means, forgiveness confronts the fundamental issues, dissolve vacillation between right & wrong; and compromise. This is the recipe for genuine reconciliation in every society. Indeed, we are aware that such idea is very difficult to accept, but it is what it means to be human.
After the military rule and mass tragedy such as the Tuzon backed untold massacre in Zleh Town, Grand Gedeh County, Republic of Liberia; recounts or to prate may help victims to compromise and forgive. To conceal and escape reality is not the panacea/solution. These stories will always be told by individuals who witnessed those incidents. There is no such thing as “mental disposition,” reasons been no amount of punishment can balance what they have done to the victims of the Zleh Town massacre and the character of the township that was once noted for its kindness to strangers. So Mr. Gaye, do not be aggressive and offensive in your utterances as it relate to these issues.
Like lot of elders in Zleh Town, my father helped a lot of those Gios and manos folks to escape to neighboring Ivory Coast. As of this hour, 80% of the residents of Towah Town are Gios, Manos, Bassa, Kpelleh, Kru, et cetera. Have the leadership of NPFL gone after their target, they could have held a lot of help from Grand Gedeans themselves; but they choose the opposite and blunder. So my friend, don’t make it sounds like every Grand Gedeans cooperate secretly to these crimes. I’ve no intention to be personal, but the timeline will enable non Grand Gedeans and Grand Gedeans alike to read between the lines.
Timeline: Sergeant Johnnie Gayechuache -Johnny Gaye(U.S. Army)
* Born in Bargblor Town, Grand Gedeh county, Liberia 1964
* defected from the Armed Forces of Liberia 1990
* Fled to the United States June 1990
* Travel to Burkina Faso via Ghana August 2001
* Engaged Michele Lompoc (Burkinbee) in the International Evangelical Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on July 6, 2002, married same thereafter
* He is a U.S. Army non-commission officer and she is a laboratory technician by profession
Had the leadership of NPFL gone after their target, they could have had a lot of help from Grand Gedeans themselves; but they choose the opposite and blundered. Mr. Gaye, how could you (a man) who served the Armed Forces of Liberia; and the United States army defends an untold massacre in such a fashion? The manner in which you’ve defended this untold massacre reveals to me as if you are knowledgeable about this incident. I mentioned the Armed Forces of Liberia because this institution produced some decent career soldiers. A classic example will be Gen. Moses Wright, who led women, children and his soldiers to safety in the during the heydays of the Liberian civil war. His record speaks for itself. He is from Tuzon, a krahn man, and a Grand Gedean ethnicity.
Not all Tuzon folks are bad people, but most of the bad folks come from Tuzon. If you still maintain to stand by your script: this will be the vacuous and smuttiest remark ever I’ve heard from a person who professed to be an educator and a career soldier. Mr. Gayechuache, Imagine your time in Iraq where you’ve no relatives and friends. The fact you can make a case to compel a legitimate institution of government to a criminal entity (rebel fashion) and justified the untold massacre is dolefully troubling. This massacre appears as inconsequential and justifiable in your world. Not so? Bernard Goah only wrote and spoke about the wrongful death of his father and the political mess left by the junta leader. Whether he was wrong or right; he has the God giving right to express himself and the liberty as citizen of the free world at any time if not any place. On this note, I must highlight for you the conclusion of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), an English economist & philosopher who wrote and spoke widely on the subject of free speech. Here what he has to say:
“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion (and I added critical of every opinion, expression, & person) is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right (or true), they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong (or false), they lose what is almost as a benefit, the clear perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error (or falsity).” Mr. Gaye, I could have ignored this slander, haven’t it been for the record. Moses Goah (Kannah) , James Wahblo (Putu), Myers Nah (Kru), Baker Gaye (Gbarbo) these individuals are more than teachers, fathers, spiritual counselors et cetera to the Zleh Borkey township.
Johnnie Gaye, whatever, your name turns out to be, you’re making the same mistake most of our warlords and political actors made at the TRC hearing. The TRC is not a place to justify your crime, but an institution where perpetrators feel remorse and meet victims to compromise what has occurred in the past. You’ve no compunction about the way you and certain individuals from Gborho most of whom are residents of Tuzon treated others Grand Gedeans; how could you regret the massacre of the Gios and Manos.
(1) Are you giving justification for Killing Gios and Manos?
(2) What was the justification for those krahn, Grebo, and Kru folks murdered also in Zleh Town?
(3) Will it be right for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to murder anyone in Bargblor Town because you are not a member of Unity Party?
(4) What will be the justification for the Lutheran Church massacre?
(5) What is the justification for burying alive of captain Washington Worlu from neighboring Pouh Town? Johnnie! there are things we saw and know, but haven’t said a word. In these question listed above, I believe you will give me one answer. These crimes were committed at the soldiers own volition, but if the government failed to act swiftly they are just as guilty as the criminal/Doe soldiers.
In her book (A Human Being Died That Night) Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a south African clinical psychologist confronted the legacy of Apartheid by seeing evils on all sides. What seems so extraordinary about her work is her willingness to serve on (TRC) without hatred, as a woman who grew up in black south Africa; and yet was able to label all sides as “prime-evils.” comparatively speaking, Mr. Goah was not in Nimba or on the TRC to validate those incidents you called facts; but he was an eyewitness to what happen in his hometown. After you’ve justified the rigging of the 1985 election back to 1826 when there was one party system in Liberia. You mentioned: “I will agreed with Goah that indeed there were blunders by the Doe’s administration.” and you added elsewhere “so, Goah what blunders did Samuel Doe commit that led to Nimba Raid?” Johnnie, I was talking to a friend in Liberia; he said: “you folks in the United States are the only people even talking about Gborho. No one care about them. They have sold all their properties; so your leave them alone to live with their trauma. Col. Julukala now walking from Tuzon to Zwedru.” My closing argument, there is no mental deposition for crime committed against humanity.
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