Liberia’s Women Warn Male Presidential Candidates: Keep the Peace
- 7 years ago
Liberia’s Women Warn Male Presidential Candidates: Keep the Peace
Then there are Prince Johnson, a former warlord who videotaped himself ordering his forces to cut off the ears of the former president Samuel Doe while Mr. Johnson sipped a beer; Benoni Urey, a former ally of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president who is serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison after being convicted of war crimes;
and George Dweh, another former warlord with six children, named Georgetta, George, George, Georgina, George Jr. and Georgecee.
She and other female activists have been distributing copies of the documentary "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" across Liberia as a reminder to men
that if they act up again and take the country back to war, the women who harassed, demonstrated and organized for peace — and then got Mrs. Sirleaf elected president — will galvanize again.
In 2005, Liberian women, fed up with the widespread rape and indiscriminate killing
that was a calling card of the civil war, staged a democratic coup, using means both fair and foul to put in place Mrs. Sirleaf as president.
But across Monrovia, there is a palpable unease about whether the new president can build
on one certain accomplishment of Mrs. Sirleaf: keeping the country out of war.
Mr. Cummings, the former Coca-Cola executive, said last week that if he were elected and the House passed the new rape law, he would veto it.
Then there are Prince Johnson, a former warlord who videotaped himself ordering his forces to cut off the ears of the former president Samuel Doe while Mr. Johnson sipped a beer; Benoni Urey, a former ally of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president who is serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison after being convicted of war crimes;
and George Dweh, another former warlord with six children, named Georgetta, George, George, Georgina, George Jr. and Georgecee.
She and other female activists have been distributing copies of the documentary "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" across Liberia as a reminder to men
that if they act up again and take the country back to war, the women who harassed, demonstrated and organized for peace — and then got Mrs. Sirleaf elected president — will galvanize again.
In 2005, Liberian women, fed up with the widespread rape and indiscriminate killing
that was a calling card of the civil war, staged a democratic coup, using means both fair and foul to put in place Mrs. Sirleaf as president.
But across Monrovia, there is a palpable unease about whether the new president can build
on one certain accomplishment of Mrs. Sirleaf: keeping the country out of war.
Mr. Cummings, the former Coca-Cola executive, said last week that if he were elected and the House passed the new rape law, he would veto it.