I, Timothy Blaye, Chairman of the Youth Department of the Rock Church of Liberia, also known in Liberia as Rock Church International, a member of the church for the past 19 years, a graduate of the Rock International Christian Academy, which is a Ministry of the church, currently a Broadcaster and Producer on Liberian Christian Broadcasting Network (LCBN), I hereby write this Testimonial to appeal to the United Stated of America for clemency in the disposition of the case referenced above. To proceed, please permit me to give you a brief history of Elder Woewiyu and our Church:
Elder Woewiyu started this church in what was known as greater Liberia during the heat of the civil conflict in our country between 1989 and 1997. In addition to his role as spokesman, Chief Negotiator for the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and Minister of Defense of the National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government (NPRAG), Elder Woewiyu was intensely engaged in Christian activities leading to the initial formation of the Prayer Group in Gbarnga, central Liberia, that later became the Rock Church of Liberia. It is common knowledge in Liberia that Elder Woewiyu was very instrumental in bringing Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran Relief organization and other none governmental agencies to begin distributing reliefs in greater Liberia which was then 90% of the Liberian nation.
Elder Woewiyu passionately narrates his motivation for starting this church as his “realization that there were powerful anti-Christian forces perpetuating the war in Liberia with the aim of minimizing the dominant Christian Heritage of the country .That if Liberians did not re-enforce the Christian foundation upon which their nation was founded, at the end of the civil conflict, Liberia would be surreptitiously converted to another West African nation dominated by a religion other than Christianity.” He concluded.
Elder Woewiyu took his zealous vision, that “Christianity was being threatened by a protracted civil conflict in Liberia to the larger Christian Community in the United States. In 1992, he was introduced to Bishop John Gimenez, Head of the Rock Church of Virginia Beach and Rock Church International Missions. The Elder who was then the Defense Minister of the NPRAG, was invited to the Rock church’s annual conference attended by more than 5,000 persons. He was introduced to the conference as a Liberian Defense Minister with a message to Christians everywhere, especially in the United States. When the Elder spoke, he told the congregation that “Christianity was at stake in Liberia,” a country whose first President, Joseph Jinkins Roberts, a Methodist Preacher was born in Norfolk, (next to Virginia Beach) Virginia. The Elder laid out his vision regarding the threat to Christianity in Liberia. He concluded with an enthusiastic request. “I have come today not to ask for military assistance. I have come to ask for Christian re-enforcement. The message was received by the congregation with a vivacious enthusiasm.
News of this clarion call by a so-called rebel leader from Liberia got around the Christian Community in the United States with a precipitous speed and momentum. On that very day, Dr. Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the proprietor of Regent University had a meeting with Elder Woewiyu. Dr. Robertson wanted to know what exactly the Elder thought the Christian Community in the United States or outside Liberia should do.
What can we do to save Christianity in Liberia? Dr. Robertson and Dr. John Gimenez asked the Elder. Let us use the same tool that Jesus Christ used 2000 years ago to establish his Kingdom here on Earth. That tool has made “Christianity the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents.” That tool is “EVANGELISM AND THE SUSTAIN EDEXPANSION OF THE CHURCH THROUGH PREACHING AND TEACHING. The Elder told the Christian leaders that Liberia needed:
Dedicated Christian Radio and Television Networks to saturate the country with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Enhanced Christian Schools and Education Systems, Re-enforce Church Facilities around the Country, Relief and Aids to the Liberian People to cope with the current situation.
Bishop John Gimenez immediately began sending large amount of rice and other needed relief items to the prayer groups and others in Gbarnga. Bishop John Gimenez was so passionate about the Church in Liberia; he provided a scholarship for an individual to study at a Seminary in the United States to lead the envisaged Rock Church in Liberia. Dr. Robertson in turn introduced Elder Woewiyu to other Christian leaders, such as Bishop T. D. Jakes of the Potter’s House Ministries who was also ardently sold on the Elder’s visions and pleads after their initial meeting at the CBN in Virginia Beach. At that meeting, Bishop Jakes made a $10,000.00 donation which started the fund raising for the Rock Church Mission in Liberia. By the time the mission construction started, in 1995, Bishop Jakes made other donations of more than $35,000.00 to the Liberia Project through Bishop John Gimenez and the Rock Church of Virginia Beach.
Between 1992 and 1994 While Elder Woewiyu was still with the NPRAG, in Gbarnga, He spent a substantial time visiting with Christian congregations around the United States advocating his Liberian Christian Vision. The Elder was frequent guest with the Seven Hundred Club, Televangelical Show, the Pastor Benny Hinn Televangical crusades, Evangelist, Joyce Myers, Pastor Juanita Bynum, etc.
By 1995 the Rock Church of Liberia was incorporated and began operating from the conference room of the Ministry of Labor where the Elder was a Minister. 1996, the first edifice of the church was established at the Parker Estate near the Red-Light District of Paynesville, Monrovia
In 1996, Elder Woewiyu opened the Rock International Christian Academy with an ambitious educational goal for the children of Liberia including myself who was fortunate to attend the institution from junior high school I graduated with the help of ELDER WOEWIYU and DEACON D. ULYSSES BARCHUE who saw the need to help me at the time when I couldn’t afford to settle my tuition at the time. From the beginning to present, the school has conducted classes from kindergarten to senior high school. Rock International Christian Academy (RICA) is one of the outstanding schools in the country as determine by the results of the West African Examination Council annual testing for the 6, 9, and 12 grades. In more than 20 years, some of RICA’s graduates have gone on to become government ministers, university professors, preachers, teachers and outstanding members of the Liberian society.
Yielding to Elder Woewiyu’s request for mass media evangelism, sometime in1996, Dr. Pat Robertson and his Operation Blessing sent into Liberia two complete television stations containing an Analog and a Digital transmitter, studio equipment and cameras, etc.He also sent in a 5000 Watts FM Radio transmitter with pre-built-in frequency of (F.M 102.3). Included in the package was also an AM Radio Transmitter. Today, this F.M. frequency is licensed by the Liberian Government to The Liberian Christian Broadcasting Network, (LCBN) owned by Elder Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu. This station has been broadcasting Christian preaching and teaching exclusively for more than 20 years. I am blessed to have been one of those young people given a career opportunity in broadcasting with the approval and support of Elder Woewiyu. I have worked at (LCBN 102.3 FM\SW 11.515) as Announcer and Producer for more than eleven years.
1997, in response to Elder Woewiyu appeals for medical assistance, Dr. Pat Robertson through his Operation Blessing delivered a 707-Airplane load of specifically needed medication including malaria drugs, cholera medication, etc. to the Rock Church of Liberia for onward delivery to health institutions in the country. Most of the medication was delivered to the Ministry of Health for dispensing.
My Plead to the American Government and People
I am perplexed by the prosecutors’ determination and insistence to sentence Mr. Woewiyu not to level of punishment commensurate with the specific immigration violation which, according to the prosecutors’ own sentencing Memorandum is 15 to 21 months imprisonment of which Mr. Woewiyu has already served seven months in jail and four and a half years under house arrest. Instead, the prosecutors want Mr. Woewiyu imprisoned for 30 years. In the published Prosecutors’ Sentencing Memorandum, it is stated, “To be clear, the government is not asking the Court to sentence Woewiyu to thirty years imprisonment for being a war criminal but because his lies were the most egregious violations of the offenses of conviction conceivable.” The Memorandum goes on to say, “ A thirty-year sentence is required to achieve just punishment and to deter other perpetrator from finding sanctuary in the United States, much less the privilege of U.S. citizenship, which among other things, is granted only to persons of “good moral character.” How does someone who has openly lived in the United States as a legal resident with a stellar political-activist history for 50 years seek to find sanctuary simply by an application to change immigration status? We do not believe that his motive was to hide what he did not do in Liberia.
As a young and upcoming Liberian political activist, I know that Elder Woewiyu has been a Liberian political activist and leader for many years and that he was a participant in the Liberian conflict. However, no one in Liberia has accused Elder Woewiyu of war crime or crime against humanity. Imprisoning a man for the rest of his natural life for a crime he did not commit, merely as a deterrent does not look or sound like American Justice. Furthermore, it serves no relevant purpose to the cause of the Liberian people who suffered the unforgettable consequences of the war and loss of thousands of their fellow citizens. Our collective quest to obtain justice and thereby some modicum of closure from this national tragedy is dashed by the kind of selective justice that the western powers are engaged in by arresting and prosecuting innocent Liberians in their sanctimonious belated showing of concerns for human rights in Liberia for occurrence of 30 years after the facts.
Liberians are yearning for the enforcement of the Truth andReconciliation Commission’s (TRC) findings as contained in its report. (Which was admitted into evidence in its full content during Elder Woewiyu’s trial) We are grateful that the United States Congress has passed a resolution supporting the establishment of a War Crime Court in Liberia to enforce the TRC findings. We urge the International community including the United States to defer to the Republic of Liberia by supporting a comprehensive process as it relates to crime committed against the people and the Republic of Liberia be it WAR CRIME OR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, which the TRC has investigated and prescribed specific remedies in accordance with Liberian and international laws that will lead to Justice, the rule of law and a deterrent to criminal impunity, peace and closure from the dreadful events of civil wars and internal conflicts over many decades.
We also urge the International Community including the United States of America to desist from sanctimonious-selective justice by arresting Liberians such as Elder Woewiyu for allegedly violating U.S. Immigration laws but proceeds to prosecute him for war crime and crime against humanity supposedly committed in Liberia more than 30 years ago, even though there is no evidence to such allegation against Elder Woewiyu from either the 20,000 Liberians who testified before the TRC or the report itself.
In closing, I hereby say to the Greatest Democracy in the World, these are the things we Liberians who were in our country during the war and conflict know factually about Elder Woewiyu. He is a dedicated family man; a professional person ; he is highly religious; a humble, modest and a compassionate person. Let him go so that he can continue his lifetime work of putting the welfare of his fellow Liberians first. Let him go so that he can participate in the process of finding a lasting solution for peace and stability in Liberia. Let him go to continue to educate his fellow Liberians for the benefit of generations to come. Let him go so that he can continue re-enforcing the Christian Heritage and foundation of the Republic of Liberia.
Respectfully,
Timothy Blaye
Youth chairman
Rock church of Liberia inc.
0777589506