Liberia History & Information

COPLA: Why is it taking so long to achieve your goal?

 JW: For us, we are not interested in quick-fix solutions to the Liberian crisis. It was the same quick-fix solutions that certain ECOWAS leaders sought when they forced Mr. Taylor down the throats of the Liberian people after killing their mothers and their fathers.

We are also fighting the confusion in West Africa about the true nature of the Liberian civil conflict. This is the one conflict in which every citizen of West Africa has wasted his blood. This is a regional war that is being fought in Liberia and is now spreading into other countries. Mr. Taylor has turned our country into a springboard for visiting aggression, terror and intimidation on Sierra Leoneans, Guineans and La Cote d’Ivoireans. Our fight is also for regional security. We believe that until Mr. Taylor is thrown into the past tense of the grammar of West African politics, the whole region is not safe, because Mr. Taylor depends on the inexhaustible arsenal and finance of Colonel Khaddafi and has decided to take parts of Sierra Leone that are diamond-rich to sponsor ambitions that extend beyond Liberian territory. Any West African leader who does not understand this ought to be ashamed of himself.

COPLA: Reports have it that Guinea is helping LURD forces in your liberation struggle. What can you tell us?

JW: Guinea has never helped LURD forces in fighting Taylor. Like I stated in earlier interviews, LURD is a homegrown political-guerilla movement that gets its ammunition, its food and other supplies right from the enemy. Guinea is not in the picture. When we become a government one day, we hope, of course, to restore the cordial and friendly relationship that existed between the people of Liberia and the people of Guinea for more than 50 years before Taylor came on the scene.

COPLA: Before we end this conversation, is there anything else you might want to say?

JW: I want to use this occasion to appeal to the United Nations, the OAU and ECOWAS that their strategy and policies on Liberia have to be rethought. From now on, anybody doing business with Mr. Taylor in Liberia is doing it at his own risk. We ask all those who love human beings to isolate this monster so that his downfall would be quickened.

Our cause is just and God is on our side. Victory is certain for the Liberian people. After Mr. Taylor is overthrown, we are going to call the Liberian people in the shortest possible time to elect their own leaders through the ballot box.

COPLA: Thank you.