Liberia: Salala Residents Say Green Advocates Does Not Represent Their Interest

MARGIBI COUNTY – Residents of 71 communities near Salala Rubber Corporation, (SRC) in Margibi County have disassociated themselves from claims made by Green Advocates International (GAI) that the company forcefully evicted people from their lands to extend its plantation. 

GAI in a statement issued on May 29, 2020 said it represent 22 communities in Margibi and Bong Counties and that it has filed a complaint with the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) on their behalf against the operations of SRC.  

 CAO is the independent watchdog and accountability mechanism for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), of the World Bank Group.

Green Advocates said the complaint relates to series of gross human rights abuses perpetrated against the indigenous people in SRC’s concession areas, ranging from: land grab and forced eviction, lack of free prior and informed consent of the indigenous people (FPIC), destruction of their ancestral graves and sacred sites, economic displacement and loss of livelihood, pollution of their waters, poor employment conditions, and labour rights violations by the company, limited access to schools and health facilities, threat on their lives, reprisal and intimidation of community members, sexual assault, all being allegedly perpetrated by SRC against the people. 

But, the NGO’s claim has backfired with residents of 71 communities including the 22 community members whom NGO’s claim to be complaining about the company has disassociated themselves from the statements and the complaint filed with the CAO last year. 

 The citizens in a notarized statement signed by chiefs and elders of 71 communities said “Green Advocates and its partners do not represent their communities, and that they are aware that GAI representatives have raised false accusations among our people, and have even gone on to collect money from them by selling tickets to our people”. 

The citizens said GAI and her partners including the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), Natural Resource women Platform, (NRWP) and Youbamah National Congress for Human Rights, (YNCHR) used propaganda to tarnish the hard earned character of the company, which will be appropriately addressed by them (citizens) in order to allow SRC carry out her work. 

The citizens’ letter was presented to a team from the CAO that came to Liberia last year to assess the complaint filed by GAI; but interestingly, CAO never made reference of the citizens’ rejection of GAI in its report of March 2020.  

A prominent citizen of the area, Rev. Henry George, Senior Pastor of the Gibi Lutheran Church in a letter addressed to the CAO Vice President expressed dissatisfaction over the form and manner in which the CAO team conducted its assessment here.  

Rev. George said the team was led to their community by GAI staff and noted “this didn’t go down well with us because GAI has caused too much confusion in the minds of our people based on lies and false promises.” 

“GAI has been involved in taking money from our people and giving them tickets telling them that they (GAI) will fight the International Financial Corporation (IFC) and the SRC to give plenty money to our people and return the land to them. This has caused much problem in our communities,” Rev George added.

Rev. George’s statement was corroborated by former Cinta Commissioner, William B. S. Julye, who disclosed that in Ansa Town, Green Advocates through her local staffs, Abraham Penneh and Abraham Kamara sold tickets for the amount of US$ 10 each to locals, who were misled and promised that SRC would pay crops compensation to only holders of the ticket. 

He explained that citizens including residents of communities outside the concession areas, who were also sold tickets, provided tickets they bought from GAI to CAO’s local mediators during their visit. 

Two other citizens of the area John Banks and Stanley Kerkulah, who are surviving heirs of Garjay also told the team that “during the Liberian Civil war from 1993 to 1995, the people left from there, (Garjay Town) and migrated to other towns and villages due to the soldier’s constant harassment and beating of peaceful citizens in the area and that it was not the Salala Rubber Corporation that drove them there”. (Garjay Town as was contained in the complaint). Mr. Kerkula, happens to be a direct descendant of the original Garjay Town owner.

During an interview on one of the field visits, one of the CAO local mediators called two of the NGO members by the name of Paul Larry George and Milton Gweh near a parked vehicle and (CAO mediator) again asked them saying, “Didn’t you tell us that Garjay town was damaged by the Salala Rubber Corporation?” Then, Paul Larry George replied saying, ‘it was Milton Gweh that gave me the information’.  

Then the CAO local mediator asked Gweh to verify the information, he replied saying that “what the two men, (Stanley Kerkulah and John Banks) said are the actual facts because they are owners of Garjay Town and the information they provided were all true and correct and that I am very sorry for misleading you”, he also revealed. 

Citing another instance, Rev. George also stated that during another meeting, the CAO did not want us as opinion leaders but were interested in talking to people that have been brainwashed by GAI. 

Rev. George said he was kicked out of a meeting held in Bluomu town to give way for one Fulton Kolleh, (who was tutored by the GAI) to lie on the company but thecitizens seriously objected to the CAO’s action denied him the right to speak at that meeting, and he was later allowed to participate after their intervention. 

“Mr. Fulton Kolleh was trained to lie to the CAO visiting team that the Salala Rubber Corporation burnt down eight villages to plant rubber, leaving them with no place to live but his statement was swiftly rejected by the other community dwellers in attendance, because he was lying”, Rev. further explained. 

“Quite frankly, our people left their villages due to constant harassment from rebel fighters during the 14 year civil crisis in Liberia and we all returned to our respective villages after the war”, he also stated. 

His statement also corroborated with statement made by the heirs of old man Garjay, (owner of Garjay village), Stanley Kerkulah and John Banks testimonies given to the CAO but was also not accepted by them, (CAO team).

Speaking on the issue, SRC said although it cooperated fully with the CAO, the company has significant misgivings with the manner in which the CAO conducted its assessment, and by that it had no assurance of an impartial outcome at the end of the assessment.

“Despite several attempts to resolve the issues, SRC said it has no confidence in the CAO’s ability to oversee an independent and impartial dispute resolution process, and therefore has decided to enter into a compliance review as an available alternative under the CAO process. 

The company cited conflict of interest as a key reason behind its decision and noted that both mediators selected by CAO to assist with the assessment process had prior links to Green Advocates International and its founder, Alfred Brownell, in violation of the CAO’s Operational Guidelines.

Section 1.3 states: “The credibility of CAO staff and consultants under its employ is critical to CAO’s work.”  

“If a CAO staff or consultant has a conflict of interest in relation to a particular case, that person will withdraw from involvement in that case,” SRC said. 

According to the company, evidence of the lack of the local mediator’s impartiality was provided in written testimony by community members and presented to the CAO after the assessment visit.  

“However, the CAO failed to recognize the evidence and produced 2 draft assessment reports, which included sections from a ‘Company Perspective’ that were in the words of one IFC observer, “written with a definite slant,” SRC added. 

According to SRC, Green Advocates’ claimed that they represented 22 communities within the ‘concession area’. 

The CAO was presented with evidence that as early as 2014, community members were complaining about Green Advocates’ claim to representation. 

Furthermore, the community leaders presented the CAO with a position statement dated 30th September 2019, which clearly stated that Green Advocates and her partner do not represent their interests. 

At no point in the draft assessment reports did the CAO acknowledge the communities’ objections to the allegations and support of SRC. 

The CAO did not limit its assessment to the SRC plantation or the communities that were directly impacted by the IFC project.

Instead the CAO accepted the NGOs allegations against the establishment of the original plantation in 1959 and the historical concession area of 155 square miles. 

Despite the company’s request for clarity, both of the CAO’s draft assessment reports referenced the concession area, which has no relevance to the SRC plantation. The plantation covers 23 square miles, including the 6 square mile expansion project that was financed by the IFC in 2008  

“From our point of view, the CAO failed miserably in its objective to act as an “independent and impartial mechanism for accountability”, having failed to give due weight to the evidence provided by SRC and the community members and hence opted for compliance review. 

The company further noted that on 20th of February 2019, a Swiss German Television directed by the International NGO Bread for All and GAI, produced a documentary on our activities in Liberia.

Also on 21st of February 2019, the same NGO’s released a report denouncing the impact of the Socfin Group’s activities in Liberia.

They even brought international journalists to our plantation to sell the fake story of SRC bulldozing a village called “Tartee Town” comprising of 15-20 houses in 2010.

The channel broadcasted the story but later removed the content as the satellite imageries of the time proved that there were no houses present in the location.

The communities also confirmed through their written testimony that there were no villages existing in that place in 2010 and that it was the creation of the NGO’s. Further, the international NGO removed their publication from the website and three months later reappeared with a change in content.

SRC maintain excellent relations with the community members. The Company has a Community liaison team and a functional grievance mechanism in place whereby complaints are sent to the management through the community liaison team. The plantation communities are divided into 7 clusters with the cluster heads been elected by the community members. Each cluster has 10-12 villages/towns and each village/town is headed by the chief, elder, and a women and youth 

 “It can be recalled that the concession of the Salala Rubber Corporation, (SRC) was created by the State of Liberia in 1959 and between 1990 and 2000, it was completely destroyed by the civil wars that ravaged the country”, which SRC explained at the time of the CAO’s visit. 

“In 2007, Agrifinal merged Weala Rubber Company, (WRC) factory and Salala Rubber Corporation, (SRC) plantation. The Socfin Group subsequently acquired the SRC plantation and invested to optimize its plantation output and improve social infrastructure, in full compliance with the applicable regulations/laws in the country at that time”, the company further stated.

It also disclosed that all communities surrounding the plantation have not only undeniably benefited from the Socfin Group’s significant investments to rehabilitate the plantation, but also from collective facilities such as roads, schools and medical services.  The company has been providing employment opportunities to 700 citizens, providing education to some 2,500 students around the communities and run the only health centre in the Gibi district.