By Our Reporter
Liberia is again heading for another buildup of tensions and a standoff between the government and the Council of Patriots (COP) over its insistence on staging a mass protest on Monday, January 6, 2020, instead of the internationally-brokered January 5, 2020.
With the latest position of the COP announced at a news conference in Monrovia on Thursday, January 2, 2020, it is not known whether its rival Independent Council of Patriots (ICOP), who have been given 12 January for its counter protest, would not want to yield to this date. And then, the head-on collision feared by foreign diplomats may ensue.
In its wake, many are afraid of possible street clashes between pro and anti government supporters in which the Liberia National Police could be overwhelmed triggering acts of vandalism in a country already going through serious economic crisis.
“The COP will like to state here categorically that if we were to agree on the desired date of government, the COP will be setting a bad precedent,” said the group’s chairman Henry Costa, vocal radio talk show host.
In a joint statement on the eve of the called off December 30, 2019 COP protest, the ambassadors of the United States, the European Union, ECOWAS and the UN Resident Coordinator in Liberia had said that January 5 and 6 were problematic for holding a peaceful assembly.
“To accommodate the desire of the people for immediate redress, this leaves Saturday 4th of January 2020 as the best viable option, and maybe retained as such and that in line with the experience of the peaceful assembly that was held on June 7, 2019, at the Capitol Hill, the 4th January 2020 peaceful assembly would also be approved to be held in the same venue,” the statement noted.
“In this context and in the interest of general public order and safety, we respectfully call on the Government to provide appropriate security protocol guidelines and measures for the event as was done for June 7, 2019,” the ambassadors’ statement added.
However, the COP insists on not falling in line with the foreign diplomats’ compromised January 5, 2020 date.
“It will mean that in the future and going forward, anytime any citizens wish or desire to protest, they will have to wait for the consent of the government, will have to wait for the government to dictate to them when they can assemble and that will undermine our constitution. Therefore, the COP has decided to stick to the alternative date that was pronounced on December 30, which is January 6, the date that we decided to peacefully assemble.”
“We are afraid that our country is slipping into abysmal [state] of ruthlessness, lawlessness, and disregard of the Constitution. The COP does not want to be an active participant in the violation and abuse of our Constitution. We are giving in too much and being given nothing. Therefore, we maintain and respectfully insist on our international partners that we do not, and will not assemble on January 4. When the CDC (ruling party) was in opposition, they did not write the government to request to assemble but we are better than that. However, we will not allow ourselves to be subservient to the whims and caprices of the powers that be,” Costa said.
“We are giving in too much, the government asked that we do not protest on December 30th, the international community intervened and we gave in. We have exercised the highest level of reasoning, we have been cooperative, we have been respectful to our international partners and we think it unfair to us and beyond that, the government has to decide on what date the citizens have to express themselves,” he asserted.