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Pres. Weah’s Office Raises Questions About US State Department Human Rights Report

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PHOTO: Min. Nathaniel McGill

By M. Neywon Mengonfia mmenginfia@gmail.com

Liberia’s Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel F McGill has welcomed the US State Department 2020 human rights report wherein it created a bleak image of the country.

Appearing on State Radio ELBC on Thursday, April 1, 2021, Minister McGill said what was said in the report is not something that is unique to Liberia.

“Look at what is happening in the United States of America, police officers are being investigated for killing,” the Minister pointed out.

In the 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Liberia, the US State Department speaks of a high degree of impunity, amid repeated human rights abuses both in the past and present.

The US report stated: “Significant human rights issues included: arbitrary killings by police; cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by police; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention by government officials; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; serious restrictions on freedom of the press, including violence and threats of violence against journalists; official corruption; lack of investigation and accountability for violence against women; the existence or use of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults; and the worst forms of child labor.”

According to Liberia’s Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, although the Weah government agreed with the report, but there are portions therein that are not reality.

Mr. McGill indicated that when you speak of arbitrary killings by police it implies that members of the Liberia National Police are in the streets shooting at citizens,but according to him that has not been the case.

Speaking to a particular point in the report that highlighted him, on a law suit against Henry Costal, one of the critics of the Weah led government,

Minister Nathaniel McGill said if seeking legal means to address issues was a violation of human rights then it is a good thing to do as a nation.

If public officials will make use of  legal means and not arbitrarily arresting and incarcerating of those they feel wrong them is then is a good violation.

The minister pointed out that he has power and could have use it to arrest, but choses to report Henry Costal to the law of the land; an institution he said is intended to correct anyone that has gone wrong.

Speaking on other national issues  including  the vandalizing and rioting in Maryland,  the President office boy said President Weah is concern about what is ongoing in that part of Liberia.

He said: “We want to tell our mothers and people in Maryland to listen to their President. Those who are involved with the killing will be brought to Justice.”

Additionally, he said the action of the Marylanders might have been caused by the frequency of the killing in the county and they saw the means of protesting as the way to call government attention.

But he said, “although the women’s intention was not bad, but other people joined them and cause damage of properties.”

But the Minister of State added that those who caused the havoc will be brought to just as the country is a place of law.

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