As Speaker Agrees to Join Colleagues at Virginia Conference Center, Support Threatens to Smash his Vehicle

The Speaker of Liberia’s House of Representatives, Edwin Snowe and a handful of lawmakers have now agreed with majority members of the House to use the Unity Conference Center in Virginia outside Monrovia as temporary seat of the legislature.
The agreement was reached Wednesday when they met at the capitol building in Monrovia under the gavel of Speaker Snowe and passed a resolution accepting Virginia. Snowe and the minority have been sitting at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion rejecting the Virginia venue where majority lawmakers met recently and obtained 43 votes to remove him as Speaker.
During a brief news conference yesterday, Speaker Snowe said he and his minority group will attend session in Virginia this Thursday. It quotes Snowe as saying the move to Virginia should not be seen as a sign of weakness but strength to move Liberia forward.
The Speaker told the news conference that as much as he and his Monrovia colleagues were on the side of the law, they could not disobey the advice of prominent people.
He commended women groups, prominent people in the society, the U.S. government and traditional leaders for their efforts in resolving the crisis.
Upon his arrival in Virginia, Mr. Snowe is expected to preside over the session, in which many observers believe, lawmakers will again begin the process of removing him as Speaker. To do so, the legislators are expected to act in accordance with the due process of law, and as required by the constitution of Liberia.
A brief sampling of legal opinions conducted by senior writers and commentators of this website seem to indicate that the number of votes obtained recently to remove Snowe could shrink as a result of behind-the-scene maneuverings by the embattled speaker and his handful of followers. The legal implications of this latest move by the minority lawmakers and Speaker Snowe are not yet fully determined, but some Diaspora observers see it as a positive sign towards extinguishing the constitution tension and moving the country forward.

However, today promises to be a dramatic day in the ongoing crisis concerning embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Edwin Snowe. He was removed earlier this year by a majority renegade group because they said his actions brought the House in disrepute. But the Liberian Supreme Court ruled that his removal was illegal.

On Wednesday, Speaker Snowe met with the renegade members and decided that in the interest of peace and political expediency, he would join them Thursday at their meeting place outside the capital, Monrovia. Civicus Barsi-giah is leader of the youth of District Five, Speaker Snowe’s constituency. He said the citizens plan to barricade the Speaker’s house to prevent him from meeting with the renegade members.
“The Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives made a statement Wednesday on the national radio that he will be able to cross the bridge (Gabriel Tucker Bridge) to go and discuss issues with those renegades across the bridge, and we are saying no! It will not happen in the Fourth Republic because as far as we are concerned the Johnnie Lewis (Chief Justice) bench has given us justice that the Honorable Speaker is on the right side of the law. So he will not defy the right side of the law while he has been told that he is on the right side,” he said.
Barsi-giah said the renegade members should instead come to Speaker Snowe if they really want to resolve the matter. “In the interest of Liberia, then of course, they should be able to cross the bridge and value the rule of law because the rule of law has said that everything that will go on there will be illegal. We are not going there, and he will not go there.

We will barricade every area and every zone so that he will not be able to penetrate and go anywhere. We will make sure he stays in his yard and be kept hostage so that the rule of law will be respected in the Republic of Liberia,” he said.
Barsi-giah said the Supreme Court ruled that the speaker’s removal was illegal, and that the renegade members had violated the Liberian constitution.
“The Johnnie Lewis bench did us justice by prevailing and telling us that those across there referred to as the renegade and rebels had gone against and defied the constitution. Besides and above all, it said they had created an affront against the constitution, and because they had done that, there is a contempt charge hanging over them. And in fact, the president of the Republic of Liberia also will be charged for contempt for defying the law,” he said.
Barsi-giah said Speaker Snowe should not join the renegade members at their meeting place in Virginia, outside Monrovia, because he said the Supreme Court has already ruled that whatever the renegade members do there is illegal.
He reiterated that the constituents of District Five, which is represented by Speaker Snowe, intended to barricade the speaker’s house to prevent him from meeting with the renegade members in Virginia, outside Liberia's capital, Monrovia.his supporters have threatened to smash his vehicle if any attempt is made to go to the Virginia conference

FEATURE: Will Charles Taylor Get a Fair Trial?

Culled from New African Magazine
The trial of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, is expected to begin in The Hague on 2 April 2007, but administrative and other bottlenecks have prevented his defence team from functioning properly.

The defence has not yet been given an office or even a correspondence address in The Hague, and it is threatening to pull out if no remedy is immediately found by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) which transferred Taylor’s case to The Hague. Osei Boateng reports on a messy pre-trial period that has brought no honour to the international justice system.
With Saddam Hussein executed after what human rights groups have widely criticised as a “flawed trial”, which itself followed a similarly “flawed trial” of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (Milosevic died before the prolonged trial was concluded), concerned voices have now been raised as to whether Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, who is now in the custody of the ICC at its detention facility at Scheveningen (The Netherlands), will get a fair trial.
His defence team, led by the UK-based lawyer, Karim Khan, has threatened to walk out if certain pre-trial violations of Taylor’s legal rights and the lack of simple basic facilities and time to prepare his case are not immediately remedied.
“We have woefully inadequate resources and we will not take part in a charade unless matters improve,” says one defence team member. “Human Rights Watch [the US-based rights group] have criticised the Saddam trial and the operation of Milosevic proceedings. It seems as if no lessons are being taken on board by the SCSL and ICC, and they seem intent on making it a triumvirate of flawed trials.”

UN Bangladeshi Engineers Contingent Improves Liberia's Infrastructures, Dedicate 3.5 Road Project In Nimba

J. Cholo Brooks/From Ganta

The Force Commander of the United Nations Military Mission in Liberia, Lt. Gen. Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor has called on Liberians to cherish current peace being cemented by the international community and the UN backed Peacekeeping Force in the country.
Speaking in the provincial City of Ganta, Nimba County during the official inauguration of a 3.5 miles road recently rehabilitated by the Bangladesh Multirole Engineers – 5 (BANENGR-5) in the County, Gen. Obiakor said Liberians should be grateful for the restoration of peace, stressing, “today is the dividend of peace and so there should be no more war.’
Gen. Obiakor said once peace reigns, there will be more development in the country, and then called on all Liberians to supplement the efforts of the International Community and the UN.
Speaking earlier, the Contingent Commander of Bangladesh Engineer-5, Lt. Col Md Nurun Nabi praised local authority of the County for been cooperative during the road rehabilitation process, concluding, Col. Nabi said the road project took fifteen working days before completion.
For her part, the City Mayor of Ganta, Madam Nohn Tehsnonneh expressed thanks and appreciation to the Contingent for the level of support in the County, specifically in helping to rehabilitate damaged infrastructural as a result of the Liberian civil war.
She called on the Force Commander to prevail on his men to help the city rehabilitate sixteen (16) streets in the City, adding, “if this is done the road now been inaugurated will be named in honor of the Force Commander,” Madam Tehsnonneh amidst cheers from the audience said.
Following several remarks, the Force Commander who was led to the entrance of the newly completed 3.5 miles road, cut the ribbon which officially declared the road open to the public.

The road which was named Bangla Road was build due to the desire of the people of the County, especially those in that provincial city of Ganta to develop the infrastructure of the City. This road is a link road connecting Monrovia - Ganta Highway and GANTA-Tappita Highway bypassing the City of Ganta.

Some residents of the city who spoke to the GNN after the ceremony expressed happiness over the opening of a new road by the Bangladeshi Engineers UN Contingent, and thanked them for a “job well done”.

According the a prepared statement read by a member of the Contingent during the program said “total length of this link road is 3.5 km, having a width of 11.5 m, which is a two way unpaved road having 3.8 m foot walk both side. It starts from 3.2 km short of Ganta city from Gbarnga and finishes at Coffee House, LPMC, Ganta i.e. right in front of our base camp. This road opens the possibility of setting up new habitation along the road, it also widens the horizon of Ganta city and facilitates the passengers of Tappita to steer clear of ganta city on the way to the capital and vis-à-vis.”
He said few Stages of Construction- Survey and Alignment of the road, Jungle clearance, Pilot cut, Preparation of Base, Filling and grading, Provision of drainage and finally Preparation of Foot walks.
Given detail of the road he stressed, “ 12 men headed by Capt Hafiz took 15 days to materialize this project as well as 1 x Excavator,1x wheel dozer, 2x Track dozer,1x Motor Grader, 4 x Dumpers were also used.”Explaining further he said, “ Bangla road is a milestone for Ganta City development.