What’s Really Killing Liberians At Home & Abroad?
By Rev. Torli H. Krua, Founder-Universal Human Rights International/857-249-9983 tkrua@egc.org
On May 10, 2019, The Liberian Observer published an article captioned; Pres. Weah Extols President Trump for Extending DED (to Liberians). Speaking during the 243rd independence of the United States on May 8, 219, President Weah declared that “Trump’s action (DED renewal) is a humanitarian gesture of great significance to Liberia, its citizens, and the socioeconomic stability of our country.”
President Weah should have known that Trump’s DED renewal followed the flawed Bush and Obama DED policies that benefited only a few Liberians and left thousands of Liberian refugees unprotected.
Instead of praising President Trump for following the heartless, inhumane, unlawful and cruel DED policies of Bush and Obama that put Liberian women and children at risks indefinitely, President Weah should have heeded our request to him and called on President Trump to follow his pledge to put America first by redesignating DED and thus extending protection to all Liberians in the United States, including the Liberian mothers and their American children airlifted to America in 2003 during Operation Shining Express ordered by President Bush.
Contrast Liberian presidents (Sirleaf and Weah) trips to America with presidents from other countries. At the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America, in 2018, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, President Jimmy Morales of Guatemala and Vice President Oscar Ortiz met with Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary Rex Tillerson to request Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for their citizens in the United States.
Something powerful must have muted Sirleaf and Weah from fighting for Liberian refugee women. This is really strange because since J.J. Roberts, most top Liberian politicians secure for themselves and their children United States Citizenship or are United States persons with permanent residency. Is it fear, incompetence or recklessness that are killing Liberians at home and abroad?
Since October 2002, all Liberian refugees who fled to the USA including the mothers of American children airlifted in 2003 continue to be denied access to work permits as well as access to food, clothing and shelter. That is why President Weah’s description of Trump’s renewal of DED as “humanitarian gesture of great significance” is wholly offensive, completely reprehensible and totally inaccurate.
Liberians are languishing for decades across the United States where Liberia’s savage civil war was plotted and financed on the watch of the USA Government and executed by United States citizens and United States persons including Former President Sirleaf who ignored the plight of the women and children in her two terms.
With all due respect to Presidents Weah, Sirleaf and Trump, we wish to express our uttermost rage, disgust, indignation and condemnation of the inhumane, uncivilized, unlawful and reckless abandonment of Liberian refugees across America, especially Liberian women and their American children airlifted by the US Marines to America 16 years ago. We demand an immediate end to this American problem affecting American children!
On July 2, 2018, we wrote President Weah a letter informing him of the plight of the Liberian women and children and our efforts to advocate for the basic human needs of food, clothing and shelter, to no avail. We specifically asked President Weah to urgently call on President Trump to grant all Liberians, including the Liberian women and American children airlifted to America reprieve by redesignation of DED. Like Sirleaf, President Weah also ignored the plight of Liberian women and children.
On July 10, 2018, a copy of our appeal letter to President Weah was published by the Frontpage Africa newspaper in Monrovia. President Weah failed to heed our request. As a result, President Trump, renewed DED for a small minority of Liberians already granted DED, leaving thousands of Liberians denied DED for decades unprotected.
President Weah had countless opportunities to plea for the refugees including his meeting with President Trump.“I was privileged to have had informal personal interactions with your President, Donald J. Trump, the first on the sidelines of the General Assembly meetings, as well as at the World Peace Forum in Paris, France in November, 2018.” He said in his speech.
What we demand for Liberians is exactly what America has granted to other nationals. While Liberians have had TPS/DED since March 1991, many nationals from other countries have been granted TPS/DED and later granted Green card or permanent residency. The 105th Congress (1997-1998) passed legislation known as NACARA. Under this law, 150,000 Nicaraguans, 5,000 Cubans, 200,000 El Salvadorans and 50,000 Guatemalans who have been living in the U.S. since the 1980s are eligible to adjust to permanent residency status. “The 102nd (1991-1992) Congress passed a law which allowed Chinese nationals who had been granted DED after the Tiananmen Square incident to adjust to permanent residency status. Over the next four years, 52,968 Chinese changed their status.”
A statement from Senator Jack Reed-D-RI said. If our government is too busy building mansions we must demand change not from the government but the master. Now is time to directly demand from the master; The USA is the Master of the colony of Liberia. Since America wants to be unfair and racist, we must demand reparation for slavery and the lands stolen from Liberian tribes by force using American ammunition and arms, visa waiver for all Liberians desirous of traveling to America (USA offers visa waivers to many countries) and permits to work for all Liberians (The United States allows citizens from many countries as seasonal workers in the USA).
Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 61/106) of 13 December 2006, the UN Convention on the right of persons with disabilities calls for the promotion, protection and ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.