Monrovia – Rev. Dr. Kortu K. Brown, Pastor of New Water in the Desert Assembly, Apostolic Pentecostal Church says there is no justification for another round of violence in Liberia, sending a chilling warning to some politicians making threats of violence ahead of the upcoming presidential and legislative elections in Liberia.

“I think the lingering proposal for a war crimes court for Liberia should not be out-rightly rejected or taken off the table. I think we need a deterrence here to ensure that the democratic gains so far, peace and stability of the nation are protected.

The rule of law is the foundation of any democratic state. That is why the electoral college system takes precedence over the majority vote system in the United States of America even to the displeasure of many of her citizens”  – Rev. Dr. Kortu K. Brown, Pastor of New Water in the Desert Assembly, Apostolic Pentecostal Church

In a statement Tuesday, Rev. Brown said Liberia has already seen unprecedented political violence in the last 40 years than probably any other country in West Africa thus it is important for Liberians to dismiss any form of threat regarding the upcoming presidential elections.

“From the agitation for rights in the late 70’s to the rice riot in 1979 to the bloody coup of 1980, the Nimba Raid in 1983 to the post-elections invasion in 1985 culminating into the fifteen-year civil war that begun in 1989, Liberians of all persuasions of life pray for a better day when the country will be peaceful and stable and their government will operate under the rule of law.” 

The clergyman, however, said that in post-civil-war Liberia, it is an irony that when an argument breaks out on anything of national consequence.

“Some Liberians who may feel directly or indirectly “aggrieved’ will always want to threaten to result in violence as a means of resolving such questions or issues. A case in point is the ongoing debate on the application of the Code of Conduct for people seeking public office.”

“In the hall of intellectual and legal arguments, violence is inimical to sustaining the rule of law and/or consolidating peace and democracy in a post-war country like ours.” 

Rev. Brown further noted that the reason why more than 250,000 Liberian men and women died during the 15 years of a senseless fratricidal war was to ensure the rule of law and the placement of the common good over and above personal preferences, among others.

“No nation can succeed without the application of the rule of law even if that process affects some of the perceived “nobles” or “untouchables” of the state,” he averred.

The clergyman stated: This is why in the Bible book of Exodus Chapter 20, God Almighty gave Israel the Ten Commandments and other subsequent laws. Because of the critical nature of the 2017 Presidential and Legislative Elections, I believe we should do everything within our powers to ensure that the process is peaceful and the results are reassuring.”

Rev. Brown said he believes that if any politician in Liberia premeditates – and/or incites – electoral violence because the law or code of conduct disqualifies him or her from running for public office at this time. “I think the lingering proposal for a war crimes court for Liberia should not be out-rightly rejected or taken off the table.”

“I think we need a deterrence here to ensure that the democratic gains so far, peace and stability of the nation are protected. The rule of law is the foundation of any democratic state. That is why the electoral college system takes precedence over the majority vote system in the United States of America even to the displeasure of many of her citizens.” 

Recently, Rev. Brown explained, that in the Republic of Kenya and the Islamic Republic of Iran for example, potential candidates for high office in those respective countries were disqualified from running for public offices because the vetting councils ruled they were ineligible to run for offices in their countries.

“There was no violence in their streets as a result of those verdicts!!! Why should there be violence in Liberia if anyone is disqualified in accordance with law from running for public office?

The code of conduct, for example, was proposed by the Executive Branch of Government in 2011, debated for 3 years and passed by the Legislature in 2014 and subsequently signed into law by the President of the Republic of Liberia.”

“It was in 2017 upheld by the Supreme Court of Liberia as being consistent with the Constitution of Liberia. Why are people then inciting to violence over an issue that they should go to court to seek legal redress?”

Rev. Brown added: “The law, like the code of conduct mandated by the 1986 Constitution, is the law until it is repealed by the Legislature or reviewed by the constitutional court which is the Supreme Court of Liberia.”

“We, therefore, encourage all potential candidates to commit to respecting the rule of law and consolidating peace and democracy in the country whether or not they participate in the October 10, 2017, polls. Liberia is NO one person property or corporation. That Title is held by over four million people as ordered by God.”

He then called on Liberians to stand up for the rule of law in the interest of the country.

“Those who may not contest the 2017 polls can do so in subsequent elections when they qualify. It is troubling to even hear sometimes elected and/or appointed leaders of the country who sworn to uphold and protect the Constitution and Laws of Liberia, argue that if the code of conduct is applied, it could lead to violence.”

“Why then did they propose and advocate for passage of this law in the first place?  

“Maybe it is high time that Civil Society vigorously champions calls for the extension of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate incidences of electoral violence in Liberia. 2 Samuel 10 verse 12 calls on us “… to be strong for our people and for the cities of our God…”  

It was the United States 32nd President, Harry Truman who said, “The buck stops here.”

“Leaders cannot lead without taking responsibilit –  I also appeal to ECOWAS, African Union, United Nations, European Union and our traditional partner, United States of America to stand with the people of Liberia in ensuring that the rule of law is consolidated in this country and to also take cognizance of all those who are premeditating – and/or inciting to violence through their utterances and actions and help ordinary Liberians employ the necessary safeguards and mechanisms to ensuring peaceful, free and fair elections, and a stable country.”

Rev. Brown lamented that the International community has sacrificed a lot to help us get where we are at the moment. 

“Liberians want no more war! Officials of Government and Leaders of political parties who are arguing that if the law is applied, it could result to violence in the country are in fact inciting and/or advocating violence in the electoral process. This kind of violence seems to be premeditated and it is unacceptable.

“We should be focused on building instead of erasing the gains our country has made in the last 14 years since the cessation of hostilities.”

The clergyman averred that an “unjust” peace is better than a “righteous” war especially if it is a war based on selfishness, greed for power and a disregard for the plight of ordinary Liberians who have suffered so much over the past 40 years.

“Let us also think about the young children going to school in the country at the moment while some of the people who claim they deserve to run for public office have their children in foreign countries where they will run if violence was to break out in this country.” 

Liberia has been generating a lot of buzz regarding war crimes lately following the arrest of several key figures of the civil war era.

The Special Court of Sierra Leone indicted former President Charles Taylor. Taylor was arrested on March 29, 2006, in Nigeria and transferred into the custody of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

He was charged with 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.

On April 26, 2012, he was convicted of all charges and sentenced on  May 30, 2012, to 50 years in prison. In March 2015, Taylor was ordered to serve the rest of his jail term in the UK, after losing a request to be transferred to Rwanda.

The former President had argued that he was being denied his rights to a family life because his wife and children had not been granted UK visas. The judges rejected this argument, saying they had not properly applied.

Since Mr. Taylor’s conviction, several other prominent figures of the civil war have been apprehended on foreign soil.

Among them are George Boley, the former leader of the Liberia Peace Council who was arrested, charged, tried, found guilty and deported to Liberia.

A U.S. Judge found sufficient evidence that that the former LPC leader had been involved in killings and recruited children to fight in the bloody civil war.

Martina Johnson, a commander of The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel group during Liberia’s first civil war, which took place from 1986 to 1996 was arrested last year in Belgium.

As a member of the NPFL, Johnson is suspected of having participated in and/or have been involved in many different crimes, including being suspected of participating in, or even having organized, “Operation Octopus”.

Octopus was the name given to the attack on the capital city of Monrovia carried out during October 1992 with the aim of getting Charles Taylor into power. Five American nuns were killed during Operation Octopus.

These nuns were members of the “Adorers of the Blood of Christ” order – a Catholic order based in St Louis in the USA – who were acting as missionaries in Liberia but were also carrying out humanitarian work. Johnson is suspected of being involved in their deaths.

Also last year, the United States Attorney in Philadelphia unsealed an indictment against 49-year-old East Lansdowne resident Mohammed Jabbateh, claiming that he was a Liberian war criminal known as “Jungle Jabbah.”

He faces fraud and perjury charges stemming from his immigration to the United States in the late 1990s.

Charles McArther Emmanuel, also known as Chuckie Taylor is the son of former President Taylor.

During his father’s presidency, Emmanuel became the commander of the infamously violent Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU), commonly known in Liberia as the “Demon Forces”.

He is currently serving a 97-year sentence back in Florida for his role in human rights violation.

Last January, authorities in Canada denied Cindor Reeves, brother of Agnes Reeves Taylor even though he was instrumental in providing testimony that led to the indictment of former President Taylor.

He entered Taylor’s household as a teenager after Taylor married Reeves’s sister, Agnes.

He also helped Taylor smuggle guns and diamonds between Liberia and Sierra Leone.

But Reeves secretly turned against Taylor and began co-operating with the Special Court for Sierra Leone, helping the international tribunal build its case against him.

Amid the interest to arrest war crime figures outside Liberia, some Liberians have taken their government to task for its delay in bringing suspects to book.

But in a recent FrontPageAfrica interview, Ambassador Tiina Intelmann, the head of the European Union delegation in Liberia says only Liberia can decide the best route to achieving reconciliation and implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations.

The envoy, who has previously worked as President of the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court, the first woman in that capacity; speaking in an exclusive interview with FrontPageAfrica recently, said the void in the reconciliation process is noticeable.

“When you look at the United Nations Security Council resolutions you’ll see very frequent and strong references to reconciliation and that it is basically job not done, ” the Ambassador averred

Ambassador Intelmann added: “You cannot fail to notice that the job of reconciliation still needs to be pursued and it would be to the benefit of all Liberians, so I fully agree with the United Nations Security Council and with more experienced colleagues who have been here for a longer time that you need to invest in reconciliation.”

“Our judicial systems are very resilient and they will be able to deliver judgments that are sound. Yes, I have quite a long background in accountability issues from the International Criminal Court.”

“You may, however, remember that there was also a Special Court for Sierra Leone that was established by the United Nations Security Council in connection with the war that took place in Liberia and Sierra Leone and certainly some very good judicial work has been done there.”

Asked for her views on the concerns many Liberians have over how strange it is that the post-war nation has been lukewarm to implement its TRC while figures of the war are being arrested in Europe and America, the envoy said, it is up to Liberians to decide what they want to do.

“At the end of the day, it is up to Liberia as a nation itself and to the  government to decide what they want to do, how they want to do things “

The envoy added: Having been involved with international criminal justice, I have also learned that sometimes when the jury delivers a guilty verdict, it orders the person to apologize. So, there are all kinds of ways of healing, not only putting another person in prison but also a Palava hut or a simple apology.

Ambassador Intelmann suggested that there are all kinds of ways of healing, not only putting another person in prison but also a Palava hut or a simple apology.”

“I think I am old enough to understand that the world is not black and white but clearly more would need to be done for Liberia, for you yourselves to feel comfortable. I have to say that Liberia is not the only country that has had a very difficult history,” When I look back at my own country, we were subjected to 50 years of a very brutal regime where we had no say about our future.

“A lot of people were also killed. There were extrajudicial killings, deportations.”

“When all of that ended, there was accumulated anger and frustration among the population. A lot of nations all over the world have had to heal, the better you do it, the more deeply you do it, the better it is for the nation.”

Recently, Dr. Alan White, the lead prosecutor who spearheaded the arrested and indictment of Taylor, confirmed a FrontPageAfrica report last week that Senator Prince Johnson, a former warlord who headed the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia, a breakaway from Taylor’s NPFL, is currently under investigation into the death of an American woman during the height of the civil war.

Said Dr. White: “This is one particular individual that has a historic past – the recent revelations and witnesses that are coming forward and eyewitness account allegedly of him executing an unarmed American is just an unthinkable crime – again now it’s for the Americans but also for the Liberians and the historic past we have, we couldn’t tolerate this so we’ll let justice play out”.

Monrovia – A man without a country has a friend in Brewerville minister Kortu Brown, who made a personal cause of stateless people.

Report by Zack Williams, News Contributor

The Pentecostal Minister of the Gospel represents Liberia in an international church effort to ensure that all Africans have a nationality.

The 54-year-old Prelate plans to assemble leaders from the government, UNMIL and other churches next month to confront the issue.

In the meantime, he spreads the word about the effort by inviting a dozen local journalists for a July 21 meeting at the Presbyterian Church of Liberia in downtown Monrovia.

He spoke of the worldwide problem of statelessness and how Christian churches can make a difference by leveraging their influence.

“The church is the eye and the ear of the community,” Brown said in an interview.

“The church has such a huge influence in Liberia so a campaign like End Statelessness … will be more effective in Liberia through the intervention of the church.”

The World Council of Churches met last month in Addis Ababa to determine actions that would aid a UN initiative to end statelessness by 2024. That plan encourages reforms to nationality laws, resolution of ongoing cases of statelessness and better collection of data on vulnerable populations.

There is only one verified case of a stateless person in Liberia. A man of Burundi origin came to Liberia years ago but has no legal status in any country.

His lack of official documentation places him in a legal limbo where he lacks the same rights as other residents. But he is not alone. A similar problem affects about 10 million people worldwide.

Stateless people differ from refugees. The latter fled their homes because of war or natural disaster whereas stateless people often live in the country of their birth — but with no official status.

Sometimes this happens because parents brought a child to a country that was not their own. Nationality laws differ country to country but many — including Liberia —afford citizenship by blood rather than birthplace. Twenty-seven countries don’t allow a mother to automatically pass citizenship to her children.

Large populations also become stateless through government discrimination. This happened to Jews in Nazi Germany as well as about 1.3 million Rohingya people in Burma.

A 1982 law denies the Rohingya citizenship, which means children from the Muslim minority struggle for access to basic education. Royingya girls fare worse than boys with only 4.8 percent of them completing primary school, compared to 16.8 percent of stateless boys. More than 40 percent of Burmese children complete primary school, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Overall, about a third of stateless people are children, according to the UN. They often have no record of their origins and are vulnerable to exploitation because of their status. Without help, their children eventually continue the cycle of statelessness.

 “You never know when you will overcome it,” Brown said in an interview. “You’re helpless. You need someone to speak out for you. You need someone to care about you.”

The role of statelessness in the instability in Cote d’Ivoire is one reason that Liberians should remain concerned about an issue that doesn’t directly affect them, according to Brown.

Many people in Cote d’Ivoire remain under unclear legal status, according to the UN report titled “Ending Statelessness Within 10 Years.”

Their status played an important role in the civil wars that only ended in 2012. Reforms the next year allowed hundreds of thousands of people to acquire citizenship through an application process.

Among them was Bere Tassourmane who the report said ran for government office after receiving citizenship. Five of his friends also prevailed in local elections, according to the report.

A spirit of reconciliation can accompany resolution to the problem of statelessness, suggests the report, allowing people to participate in a society that formerly spurned them. The experience of victimhood does not have to recur and can be used to make a society more equitable in general, according to Tassourmane.

 “We are working for the well-being of our community out of love because we ourselves were marginalized,” he said, according to the report.

Brewerville, Montserrado County – The Bishop of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church is proposing radical reforms in the political system of the country to ensure continuing peace, harmony and development in the country.

“As a small country”, Rev. Dr. Kortu K. Brown says, “Liberia doesn’t have to hold direct elections for Senators because the country needs to find a way to protect its peace, stability and democracy.

Elections is just one factor in the process but finding the right people to move the country forward and keep the country safe,  stable, should be the pre-occupation of all Liberians. There has to be safe-guards in democracy”, he warned Liberians.

Bishop Brown was speaking at the Divine worship service at New Water in the Desert Assembly in Brewerville on the Theme: “The Authority Test” with Scripture Text from Romans 13:1-7 on Sunday, April 17, 2016 celebrating the conclusion of the 11th general annual conference of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church.

A special statement was read from Rev. Michael Fabe of the Mike Fabe Ministries based in Texas, USA expressing appreciation for the conduct of the conference, regrets for his absence and hope that the decisions of the conference will be implemented.

Safe-Guards in Britain, United States, etc

The pastor argued that Great Britain doesn’t directly elect members of the Upper House, The House of Lords who are sometimes known as “Senators” in Canada.

In arguing his case for Canada to continue to maintain this approach and drawn some lessons from Britain, Tom Flanagan, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, said, “Britain has an independent House of Lords Appointment Commission, which names non-partisan members to the House of Lords.

This helps to reduce the partisan warfare in and around the upper house, which is so much in evidence in Canada at the moment. We can’t copy the British appointment system exactly because their House of Lords differs in key respects from our Senate.

It doesn’t have a definite size, it still has some hereditary members and it doesn’t have the function of regional representation, as the Canadian Senate does. But we could draw inspiration from their system and apply it to Canadian realities”

Similarly, the tough-talking cleric said, “Liberia can also draw lessons from advanced the democracies and economies like Great Britain, Canada, etc. where the protection of their institutions and countries is paramount to the politics of pettiness and self-destruction”, adding, “even the great United States of America doesn’t elect President on popular vote.

A candidate has to win the majority of the Electoral College vote to be declared President. The Electoral College is what we called in Liberia our Constituency. That’s how George Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000. Al Gore had about half a million popular or one-man-one-vote above George Bush but Bush won the electoral-college vote”

[The Electoral College in America is made up of 538 electors who cast votes to decide the President and Vice-President of the United States. When voters go to the polls every four years, they also choose which candidate receives their state’s electors.

The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes (270) wins the Presidency. The number 538 is the sum of the nation’s 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and 3 electors given to the District of Columbia]

Other countries like Germany, Israel, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands even Great Britain and Canada, amongst others, do not directly elect their heads of states through popular vote. “Queen Elizabeth has been Head of State of England since 1952, about 64 years now and the country still progresses”, he added.

Constitutional Amendment

Bishop Brown argued that any constitutional amendment should help ensure that Liberia continues to live in peace and harmony. He said that Liberians must find ways to reduce tension in the country through the holding of unnecessary elections which sometimes don’t produce the desired results and waste the country time in focus and development.

“We need people of character, nationalism and commitment to transforming the plight of the ordinary people to man our institutions of government so that the country moves forward”.

He suggested that reducing tenure of elected leaders be reviewed in light of the frequencies of elections and their impact on the treasury and the stability of the country.

The immediate past vice president of the Liberia Council of Churches then suggested that Liberians consider a system of choosing their senators that will bring committed and experienced Liberians into governance to help move the country forward, mostly non-partisan Liberians who have their country at heart through their work in, and for, the country.

He suggested that a caucus or electoral-college-like system to include civil society, communities, religious leaders, elected representatives, etc. could be the driver for future selection of senators who will ably represent the State.

Indiscipline in society

Bishop Brown decried the level of indiscipline occurring in every facet of life in the country whether at the family, church, community or national level. “It is a sad day for the country”, he exclaimed, “to see the country degenerate to the current level of indiscipline we see even in government.

No respect for national or elected leaders and even elected leaders or government officials, don’t respect one another. Some give money to others to insult others in society”, adding, “God expects that children will obey their parents, students their teachers, employees their masters, followers their religious leaders and citizens their governing authorities” in accordance with Romans 13:1-7.

He called on all Liberians to join the bandwagon to help restore discipline or moral values in the Liberian society which is fast in decline. “No more respect for the elderly”, he concluded.