West Africa – “Liberia having experienced the death and destruction associated with war and conflict is committed to work with all nations, institutions and individuals to promote, ensure and maintain peace, security, stability and democratic governance everywhere particularly in the West African Sub-region.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
“We are therefore proud of Liberia’s role in resolving the political stalemate in The Gambia” – President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Chair, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
At the end of a recent Banjul meeting aimed at getting defeated Gambian President Yahya Jammeh to relinquish his hold on power, aides say Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf pulled newly-elected Gambian President Adama Barrow aside and told him he was flying out with mediators onto Bamako, Mali where leaders of the Economic Community of States(ECOWAS) was about to convene.
He initially conceded the race, before calling into question the election results. He demanded a new vote and appealed to the Supreme Court. He persuaded Parliament to pass a measure extending his term for three months.
The Supreme Court did not have enough judges to hear his case because Mr. Jammeh had fired most of them and had not replaced them, and the international community considers the parliamentary measure to be invalid.
The role of Sirleaf, the reigning chair of ECOWAS in the resolution of the crisis in The Gambia cannot be overemphasized.
The President told FrontPageAfrica at the weekend she is proud of the role: “Liberia having experienced the death and destruction associated with war and conflict is committed to work with all nations, institutions and individuals to promote, ensure and maintain peace, security, stability and democratic governance everywhere particularly in the West African Sub-region.
We are therefore proud of Liberia’s role in resolving the political stalemate in The Gambia”.
Despite her domestic troubles at home, Sirleaf fought off criticisms that ECOWAS under her leadership was adopting a military option to force Mr. Jammeh from power, drawing stinging comparison to long-standing criticism of her role in the Liberian civil war where she has acknowledged raising US$10,000 and what she has described as “a mere drop in the bucket”.
In the same vein, Sirleaf has said that she and others cut off ties to Taylor after they began to raise questions about reports of human rights violations by his troops. “Initially, we had committed ourselves to try to do more.
But within six months or so, i.e. around the middle of 1990, we had withdrawn any support and any connection with Mr. Taylor and his group on account of the serious atrocities which were taking place, some affecting long standing political allies of ours,” Sirleaf is quoted in the Perspective.
So when the forces of ECOWAS, led by Senegalese troops began mounting their presence on the outskirts of the Gambian capital, it became clear that the military option after all was the right thing.
As Mr. Jammeh bundled under pressure after a late dispatch of the leaders of Guinea and Mauritania to convince him to step down from power.
In the end, Mr. Jammeh who had led The Gambia for 22 years, decided to go in peace. In an announcement on state TV, he said it was “not necessary that a single drop of blood be shed”.”
”So just how he came to power 22 years ago, Mr. Jammeh exited without a pint of blood being shed but not without some strong pressure by the Sirleaf-led ECOWAS body.
Additionally, the African Union had ceased to recognize him as president, and the United Nations Security Council had declared its support for Mr. Barrow.
Mr. Jammeh, who was defeated in December’s election by Adama Barrow, seized power on July 22, 1994 in a bloodless coup that ended the reign of Sir Dawda Jawara.
His reign was dogged by secret killings of opponents and journalists, some of whom died in prison, gross violations of human rights, and a brute force that struck fear in the hearts and minds of his people.
He was also fond of declaring that he would decapitate gay people. Following his decision to step down Saturday, his successor, Barrow declared: “It’s very significant (for Africa). I think democracy is growing in Africa and that is positive so we believe it is changing and it is changing positively and that is good for this Continent.
Barrow, who accepted President Sirleaf’s offer of a temporary haven outside The Gambia until the impasse was resolved, was sworn in Dakar last Thursday under a cloud of fear for his own safety.
The president elect was forced to skip the funeral of his son who died after being bitten by a dog. Along with Barrow, a reported 45,000 Gambians had packed up and left as the United Nations warned of a humanitarian crisis along the border with Senegal where many took refuge.
As Mr. Jammeh ponders his future, The Gambia at least for now returns to status quo. Regarded as one of the peaceful countries in the West African sub-region, it was The Gambia which hosted the 13th summit of the Heads of States of ECOWAS countries on May 30, 1990, under the chairmanship of Jammeh’s predecessor, Sir Dawda Jawara.
At that meeting, the member states decided to set up the five-member Standing Mediation Committee with the task of achieving a peace settlement to the Liberian civil war.
On July 6, 1990 at a summit meeting in Banjul, Gambia, the five members of the SMC took an unprecedented step in deciding to send a multinational peacekeeping force into Monrovia.
The mandate for the peacekeeping force stated that they were to, ‘keep peace, restore law and order and ensure that a cease-fire agreed to by the warring factions in Liberia was respected. On the 25th August 1990, 3,000 troops from ECOMOG landed in Monrovia.
Fast forward to 2017, twenty seven years later, Liberia, under the leadership of President Sirleaf is returning the favor as the region appears to have avoided a potential regional nightmare with the exit of Jammeh and the arrival of Mr. Barrow.