[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1873-E1874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

HONORING PRESIDENT SIRLEAF OF LIBERIA

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HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

of new york

in the house of representatives

Friday, September 14, 2007

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article
written by George Gedda entitled ``Light in Liberia'' published in
World View. This article is about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who
assumed the office of presidency in Liberia on January 2006 after a
democratic election in a country which in recent years suffered under
the dictatorial rule of Charles Taylor. First Lady Bush and Secretary
of State Rice attended her inaugural ceremony on January 16, 2006.
President Sirleaf is the first African woman to be elected president
in Liberia. She is on a mission to lift her people from the dark
political legacy of ex-presidents, Charles Taylor and Samuel Doe when
fraud, corruption, human rights abuses, and ethnic conflict were
rampant. From 1989 to 1996, a civil war in Liberia claimed the lives of
more than 200,000 Liberians and displaced a million other people in
refugee camps in neighboring countries. President Sirleaf herself
endured torture as a military prisoner of Doe's rebel forces. During
Taylor and Doe's administration over a 25 year period, the per capita
income in Liberia dropped from $1000 to $120 according to the World
Bank.
President Sirleaf's leadership brings hope to Liberia. Seven months
after her presidency, the lights came on in Liberia for the first time
in 14 years on July 26, 2006 and water was turned on in some areas of
the country. During her first year in office, school enrollment
increased by 40%. Additionally, service to 350 health facilities in
Liberia was reported restored. President Sirleaf is also taking a
stance against corruption and increased transparency in her country by
requiring all senior level government officials to publicly declare
their assets.
I praise President Sirleaf for these accomplishments and for her
determination in steering her country towards the right direction. One
of the biggest challenges that Liberia faces is addressing its national
debt which, without relief, will continue to consume an inordinate
amount of resources and cripple development in the country. The United
States is providing support to Liberia. Just earlier this year,
Secretary Rice announced the cancellation of Liberia's $391 million
U.S. debt.
President Sirleaf's tenacity and contribution is inspiring, and I
applaud her for her leadership.

Light in Liberia

(By George Gedda)

How bad off was Liberia after back-to-back civil wars? This
is what President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she found after
taking office in January 2006: ``There was no electricity and
no water. Schools and clinics had crumbled, and roads were
impassable. Institutions of governance had completely
collapsed, and corruption was rampant. Many youths have spent
more time in war than in school. Average incomes had fallen
80 percent. Exports had collapsed. Over three-quarters of our
people lived below the poverty line of one dollar per day.''
In November 2005, Sirleaf became the first African woman to
be elected president. It was a hopeful sign after a
generation of catastrophic misrule and warfare in Liberia.
She brought a genuine commitment to her people and,
seemingly, the wherewithal to make a positive difference. Her
resume included a Master's degree from Harvard and 10 years'
work on development issues at the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the United Nations.
She was a clear pick-me-up for Liberians following the era
of Charles Taylor, responsible for many of the more than
200,000 deaths that occurred during the successive civil
wars. Taylor fled Liberia in 2003 and, as of this past April,
was awaiting trial before an international tribunal on
charges of crimes against humanity for sponsoring a brutal
rebellion in neighboring Sierra Leone. A 15,000-member UN
peacekeeping force has been deployed in Liberia for four
years. Its current mandate expires Sept. 30.
The combination of war and repression forced Sirleaf to
spend parts of two decades outside of Liberia, including most
of the 1980-90 rule of President Samuel Doe. In an interview
with the Los Angeles Times, she recalled the terror-filled
moments when Doe's forces detained her in the mid-1980s:
``I was taken to the military prison. In fact, as we were
going, they told me they were going to take me to the beach
and bury me alive. They started in that direction, changed
their minds, put me through tortures, put matches to my hair.
They said, `We're going to burn your hair off,' but didn't do
it. They would come as close as possible. It clearly was just
meant to terrorize me.'' After her release, Sirleaf fled the
country. In 1990, rebel forces tortured and murdered Doe, the
same fate that befell his predecessor, President William
Tolbert, in 1980.
Sirleaf is now trying to help lift Liberia out of that grim
political legacy and show what responsible leadership can
achieve. With First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice in attendance at her inaugural on Jan. 16,
2006, Sirleaf told her countrymen: ``We know that your vote
was a vote for change, a vote for peace, security and
stability, a vote for individual and national prosperity, a
vote for healing and leadership. We have heard you loudly.''
One of the brighter days of Sirleaf's tenure occurred on
July 26, 2006, when the lights came on in Liberia for the
first time in 14 years, albeit only in a small section of the
capital. The lighting illuminates streets, hospitals and
office buildings. But most Liberians still have to fend for
themselves

[[Page E1874]]

after dark. Those with means use generators. Poorer folks
rely on candles.
Another milestone occurred when water was turned on in some
areas. ``Our children danced in the streets. Some who only
knew that water came out of a bucket realized that it could
come out of a tap,'' Sirleaf recalled.
Seldom has any country sunk as far as Liberia did under
Taylor and the predecessor regime of Samuel Doe. During that
25-year period, per-capita income dropped from $1,000 to
$120, according to the World Bank. Donor countries have been
generous with pledges of assistance to Sirleaf's
government but slow to fulfill them. She says: ``We need
to shorten the road between commitments and cash.''
Health and education have been among Sirleaf's priorities.
Official figures show that during her first year in office,
the government increased school enrollment by 40 percent and
provided school furniture throughout the country. Also,
service is reported to have been restored to 350 health
facilities in the country.
In a speech on March 27 in Toronto, Sirleaf highlighted
other advances: deactivation of 17,000 members of the old
security forces, enrollment of more than 75,000 excombatants
in reintegration programs, accommodating the return of over
100,000 people who had been forced from their homes during
the war, balancing of the budget and increasing government
revenues by 48 percent.
Women are occupying more high government posts than ever
before. Sirleaf, 68 and a grandmother of six, also is doing
battle against Liberia's culture of corruption, requiring all
senior level government officials to publicly declare their
assets.
She has repeatedly told her countrymen that the most
reliable path to prosperity is relief from Liberia's huge
international debt. The subject is discussed on radio talk
shows, street corners, bars and even hospitals.
Except for the periods of civil strife, the United States
has had exceptionally close ties with Liberia, both symbolic
and otherwise, almost from the founding of the country by
freed American slaves in the 1840s. The capital, Monrovia,
was named for James Monroe, the fifth American president.
Liberia uses the dollar as its currency and may be the only
country besides the United States and Burma to shun the
metric system. A Liberian major general named George T.
Washington once served as the country's top military officer.
When the United States entered World War II, Liberia quickly
announced its support. Among African countries, Liberia has
often been among the major recipients of U.S. assistance.
The United States has been eager to help Sirleaf succeed.
Appearing at an international donor conference sponsored by
the World Bank in February, Rice announced the cancellation
of Liberia's $391 million U.S. debt. Other countries
eliminated an estimated $300 million in bilateral debt. When
Sirleaf returned home from the conference, Liberians cheered
her successes as they lined the road on her 30-mile ride from
the airport to the capital. The cancellations reduced
Liberia's debt to $3 billion, the largest share of which is
$1.6 billion owed to international lending institutions.
There is also a $1 billion commercial debt.
For technical reasons, Liberia does not yet qualify for
relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC)
initiative, a 1996 International Monetary Fund-World Bank
program designed to assist poor countries with unmanageable
debts.
Anwarul K. Chowdury, an advocate at the United Nations for
the interests of the world's poorest countries, says Liberia
should be entitled to HIPC benefits because of its ``recent
tumultuous history and current postconflict reconstruction
efforts.''
The Campaign to Cancel Africa's Debt, an activist group,
believes it is an outrage that Liberia is being asked to
continue making payments on the ``odious and illegitimate''
debt accumulated by Sirleaf's authoritarian predecessors.
``Liberia needs 100 percent debt cancellation without harmful
conditions in order to invest in its economy, rebuild the
nation's infrastructure and fund essential public social
services,'' the campaign said in a recent report.
In her Toronto speech, Sirleaf said Liberia's total
liability is equal to over 3,000 percent of the country's
exports. She is urging wealthy countries to come up with a
formula for a prompt easing of the debt burden.
Even with generous debt relief, progress would be slow in
coming. As an example, Sirleaf points to the decay of the
tourism infrastructure. ``The roads, the hotels, the lights,
the water, all of those things that tourists will require for
their comfort are not there yet,'' she says. Also, she adds,
there is no easy path for securing electricity for rural
areas. Painstaking studies will be required just to determine
whether hydroelectric power is the most suitable option.
Sirleaf believes that Liberia could become an agricultural
power, citing its abundant fertile soil and rainfalls.
Liberia has been a principal world market supplier of latex,
derived from rubber trees. The country also is believed well
suited for rice, oil palm, pineapples, cassava, citrus,
coffee and cocoa. Other potential revenue producers are gold,
iron ore, timber and diamonds. And U.S. investors are showing
interest. A one-day conference on private investment
opportunities, held in conjunction with the donors conference
in February, drew an overflow crowd of 400 registrants.
Exports of timber were banned during Taylor's government by
the U.N. Security Council because revenues were being used to
finance the war in Sierra Leone. The ban was lifted last
year, opening the way for a potentially lucrative market for
Liberia. A Security Council prohibition on diamond exports
remains in place pending certification that the stones are
not used to finance conflict--as they were under Taylor's
rule.
Shortly before Sirleaf's visit to Washington, she welcomed
China's president, Hu Jintao, to Monrovia. There was no
official account of the outcome but a Liberian official said
beforehand that plans called for the signing of commercial
agreements involving rubber, timber and minerals. Further
demonstrating China's interest in the resource-rich country
is the presence of 500 Chinese peacekeepers in Liberia.
Sirleaf says she's happy to receive assistance from China, so
long as it doesn't increase her country's debt.

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