Global Policy Forum

A Post-Colonial Storm, and America's Blind Spot

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By Somini Sengupta

New York Times
date, 2002

At a popular restaurant here on the water's edge, the dinner menu offers a rare item: a vegetarian version of the traditional West African groundnut stew. Vegetarianism is anathema in this part of the world. But adjustments have had to be made in Sierra Leone because the world is here. Tens of thousands of foreigners have come to help restore peace in this tiny West African country. Pakistani peacekeepers patrol the streets. Norwegians are putting up houses for amputees (the most compelling casualties of Sierra Leone's decade-long war). The Bangladeshis have built a "friendship school." War criminals are to be tried in a new courthouse, under construction now, courtesy of foreign donors. Already, 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers, the largest such force in the world, have disarmed the warlords and drug-addled child soldiers who carried on this country's decade-long war. Some people call this the United Nations of Sierra Leone.


Today, Sierra Leone makes a strong case for international intervention. What makes it all the more remarkable - and fragile - is what stands next door: a portrait of neglect, an American invention called Liberia.

The contrast is striking. The World Food Program can no longer deliver food aid to much of Liberia because its workers keep coming under attack by armed thugs. Liberian refugees have rushed by the hundreds of thousands into neighboring countries. Liberian mercenaries have ranged across West Africa, in search of new conflicts and attendant looting opportunities. Liberian enemy factions - the government of President Charles Taylor in one corner and rebels in another - have made deadly alliances with rebel leaders and heads of state in next-door Guinea and Ivory Coast. These are foul wars of revenge and greed. The misery they produce cannot be healed without ending the carnage in Liberia, analysts of the region agree.

But Liberia gets scant international attention. That negligence is a product of Liberia's peculiar history. The British took the lead in corralling international intervention for Sierra Leone, its former colony on this patch. The French have had 4,000 soldiers planted in Ivory Coast, its former colony. Liberia does not have a conventional colonial history. It was founded by freed American slaves in 1847; "the love of liberty brought us here," the Liberian coat of arms reads.

For nearly 150 years, Liberia remained a virtual American colony, and during the cold war it ranked among Washington's most useful allies. The memory of that strategic alliance sits on the outskirts of the capital. It is called the V.O.A. refugee camp, named after the Voice of America radio transmitter that once stood there. The United States has never recognized itself as an imperial power, let alone a colonial one. Even the title of "occupying power" is worn uncomfortably today in Iraq, where the now frayed term "liberator" has been the label of choice.

So America's former virtual colony seems to be nowhere near the top of Washington's priority list; in fact, not even on the Africa list. "The end of the cold war produced a strategic disengagement, and Liberia is Exhibit A in terms of the consequences," said Chester A. Crocker, the Reagan administration's point man on African affairs. "There isn't a sense of strategic interest or a sense of historic responsibility that makes us take a more forceful stand."

The International Crisis Group, a research and advocacy organization, calls Liberia "the eye of the regional storm." The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Ruud Lubbers, on a swing through the region last week, called it the "epicenter" of the human crisis in West Africa. Mr. Lubbers described Liberia's predicament as an emblem of the world's inattention to the continent. "It is an icon of the problem," Mr. Lubbers said of Liberia, "the violence, the gross negligence of the international community."

The United States has been reluctant to endorse peacekeeping missions in Africa. But it has quietly supported the Sierra Leone war crimes court, which is investigating the role of the Liberian president in the conflict and suggests that it may indict him. The United States also gives military aid to Guinea, an ally of the rebel group now gunning for control of the Liberian capital. Rebels are said to control some 60 percent of Liberian territory. Fighting continues unabated.

The Liberian war's backdrop is international neglect. The relationship between Africa and the outside world has almost always been an unhappy one. A little more than 100 years ago, in the scramble for Africa, as it was called, the European powers sat down together to bargain and parcel out the continent's riches. Today, a mixture of self-interest and historic ties compels the British and French to re-engage in their former colonies. Perhaps they and the other traditional power in West Africa, the United States, should follow the lead of the 19th-century imperialists and sit down to bargain again. Only this time the object should not be to divide the spoils but to bring a measure of peace to this ravaged place.

The Security Council was scheduled to send a mission to the region last week, but other matters, namely the debate over sanctions on Iraq, detained them. The mission has been postponed for next month, or the month after.


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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.