Why now after wasting 11 years and hundreds of women abused by their male partners?
Some even lost limbs and their lives. This pattern has encouraged the widespread rape with impunity in the country of women and has resulted to the deaths of many Liberian underage girls and women.
Some young women were lured away to far flung places like Beirut, Lebanon and became so slaves while the rapists got away. Two of the young women who were taken to Lebanon under the pretext of going there to work there died there in the cold winter streets of Beirut. Many of the girls became sex slaves of the well politically connected Lebanese business community in Liberia.
Liberian Police raided the homes of Lebanese business perched above their store business in the Gardnerville Chicken Soup community. These homes hosted scores of girls, some as young as 8 years old who were used by their Lebanese captors for the underground pornography movie industry.
And when these societal miscreants were arrested—and the law says they are not entitled to post bond, —the Sexual Violence Court in Liberia and other powerfully hidden hands were busy granting $25,000.00 bonds to each of the suspects and even granted clemency to the rapists. What kind of government treats its girls/women this way?
We hope this belated action of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is not too little, too late, even if one girl or woman is spared, if and when it becomes law. We only wish it had come way too early, years ago.
Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator,
Washington, DC
