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Liberia's new leader wants healing process for his country
03378
September 9, 2003

Liberia's new leader wants healing process for his country

By Callie Long
Ecumenical News International

ACCRA, Ghana - Gyude Bryant, a prominent Christian and businessman chosen to
lead Liberia as it emerges from a bitter civil war, has called for support
from the international community to reconstruct his country.

"We are now in transition, and transition costs money," said Bryant, the head
of the interim administration for Liberia scheduled to assume control of the
country on Oct. 14.

"We will be prudent on how we use these funds," Bryant said in an interview
with ENI in Accra, where in August he was appointed to lead Liberia's
transitional government following 78 days of peace talks in the Ghanaian
capital between Liberia's warring factions.

Bryant, who is chairman of the board of trustees of the Episcopal (Anglican)
Church in Liberia, pledged his administration would be "transparent and open"
in the way it used outside assistance.

An estimated 250,000 people have been killed in Liberia's on-and-off civil
war, which began in 1989 when Charles Taylor initiated an armed uprising from
Ivory Coast against Liberia's then leader, army officer Samuel Doe, who had
taken power in a military coup.

Taylor, who became Liberia's president in 1995, went into exile in August
following pressure from the international community to quit and after fierce
fighting between government troops and rebels trying to overthrow his
administration.

Children as young as nine were forced to take part in the combat and Bryant
said a crucial part of the healing process in his country would be to
establish institutions for child soldiers where "these kids can be detoxified
and de-traumatized."

On calls for a truth and reconciliation commission in Liberia along the lines
of the body in South Africa that examined gross human rights violations
committed in the apartheid era, Bryant said this would be "better to have
that than a war crimes tribunal."

"It is better than retribution - let peoples' conscience speak, so that they
say, 'I did this, I am sorry, please forgive me,'" Bryant noted in an
allusion to the South African commission, which was given authority to grant
amnesty to those who admitted violating human rights.

But he acknowledged that when it came to forgiveness, "it is difficult to
talk about grace when you have no food and you are hungry and cannot feed
your children and everything you have has been looted." That is why, he said,
it was important to provide people with their basic needs.

"The situation is not hopeless. We have the goodwill of the international
community and we need to capitalize on that," he said. "Our faith is strong,
rooted in fellowship, prayers and the church."

Callie Long is the communications officer for the global alliance of churches
and related agencies, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.

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