Monrovia – The Community Watch Forum of Liberia (CWFL) has boasted that 45% of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) achievements in the country was due to the collaborative community policing agreement struck between the two organizations in 2004, a year after the arrival of the international intervention troop.
Speaking July 3, 2016 in Paynesville at the gathering of zonal, district and county coordinators of the CWFL from around the country, the National Chairman of the organization Mr. I. Nyenati Kaffey enumerated several security interventions made by members of the CWFL across the country during UNMIL 13 years stay that resulted into the resolution of conflicts that had the potential to derail the peace.
Mr. Kaffey, who paid tribute to zonal, district and county leaders of the CWFL that did not live to see the departure of UNMIL named some of the inventions as mediation forged between Police and locals in May 2005 following the burning down of a Police station by angry citizens in Bong Mines, Bong County.
He also reflected on the restoration of peace in Tappita, Nimba County by his group following the burning down of a Police station there and the peaceful mediation of conflict in Cotton Tree, Buchanan Highway following the burning down of another Police station by locals opposed to Police conducts in the community.
The CWFL boss who said the gathering was aimed at appreciating leaders of sub branches of his organization from the 15 counties, further named the discovery and turning over to Police authorities several bodies of victims of a land dispute in lower Margibi County involving a sitting senator as well as the settlement of a bloody land dispute between two tribal clans in Maryland County.
“Our members in the Paynesville area also defused a potential attack on foreign guests and their Liberian host in 2010, hours to the hosting of the International Women Colloquium at the SKD by alerting UNMIL and Liberian security authorities that former AFL and other serviceman had planned to disrupt the program because of claims of unpaid benefits,” Mr. Kaffey noted.
After revealing that his group collaborated with the national Police by deploying 5,000 members across the country to help monitor and prevent violence during the 2005 general and Presidential elections, Mr. Kaffey told his zonal, district and county coordinators that with the departure of UNMIL, the real fight to prevent crimes and maintain peace has just begun.
“During the alarming days when gender-based violence was on the rise, the CWFL gathered 3,000 women in Montserrado County and environs and 2,700 in rural Liberia to fight the scourge, something that led to the drastic reduction of the menace.”
Meanwhile, the National Executive Council of the CWFL has declared that all of its 400,000 members across the country are required to pay a monthly due of LD$25.00 for the sustenance of the organization.
The Council, during Sunday’s meeting, announced the restructuring of its board of Directors with Atty. Asatu Bah-Kanneh remaining as Chair of the Board, mentioned that as they await response from national government for financial and logistical support, members of the organization are constrained to institute due payments to enhance and effectuate their operations.