Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Interview Part 1
Friday, October 30, 2009 8:51
Ellen Sirleaf
“To Kill Innocent People is Unforgivable,” Sirleaf Observes
Palava Hut: Welcome to our microphone and thank you for affording us the opportunity to conduct this interview for our readership both here and at home. As you may be aware, disarmament is taking place in Liberia, but less than 10,000 combatants have been disarmed. Skeptics suggest there may be less than 60,000 fighters as their respective leaders would have the world believe. What do you make of the disarmament process, and the idea that there may be less rebels than we have been told?
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: We are encouraged by the efforts which are now being made by ECOMOG, particularly by the new force commander, General Malu, whom we understand is very resolved and committed to the disarmament process. Although he has yet to receive the full range of support which the international community has promised, he has moved to deploy major parts of the country, and thus has been able to get the disarmament process started. We expect that with the support that he will be getting over the next month or so from the international community, this effort will be even more greatly enhanced. Also, we at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), along with others, will be putting into effect schmes that hopefully will lead to a higher level of voluntary disarmament on part of the combatants. So while the process is slower than we all would want to see, I think some progress is being made. We need to support that effort a bit more. About the size of the forces, I believe that that is a moving number. We do not have real armies by these factions. There are young civilians coming from the villages, coming from communities, that go and join these groups as a means of survival, sometimes out of fear. And so it is very hard to know what the exact numbers are. I suspect that a larger number would be claimed by factional heads than really exists. I believe that the weariness of war may cause many of the young people to abandon the war if they could find alternative means of support and survival. I hope all of these things will come clear in the next two months when disarmament would have moved swiftly along the way.
Continue to part 2.