Illicit Tapers take on Police in Firestone

Despite regular patrol by members of the Liberian National Police on the Plantation of Firestone in Margibi County, illicit tapers have again commence their devilish act by taken the lives of innocent people on the Plantation.
A group of illicit tapers at Division Thirty-One in Firestone early Friday morning shot and wounded two personnel of the Liberia National Police and the company’s Plant Protection Department.

The illicit tapers according to report fired at patrolmen Stephen Williams and James Jallah when the two men attempted to stop them from loading stolen latex.
Speaking to reporters Friday, the Commander at the RIA Police Detachment, Susanah Blackie said three persons have been arrested with a single barrel gun.

For the past months the plantation has been a battle ground between security of the company and illicit tapers who are constantly taken away the company's latex.

UNHCR's Goodwill Ambassador Visits Liberian Children

Liberian refugee children welcome UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, George Delaras to their Camp in southern Sierra Leone

FOYA, Liberia (UNHCR) – For years, he sung for refugees and gave them a voice through fundraising performances. Now, the echo is reverberating, loud and clear, as the refugees welcomed Greek singer George Dalaras on his first field trip as the UN refugee agency's newest Goodwill Ambassador.On a five-day visit to meet refugees in West Africa, Dalaras met with Sierra Leonian President Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabah and was greeted in the country's refugee camps on Tuesday by screaming banners, music and dances. At Jembe camp in southern Sierra Leone, Liberian girls burst into an exuberant welcome dance for him, their bare feet coated in dust like tan-coloured socks. Sitting under a palaver hut in nearby Tobanda camp, refugee women in their Sunday best listened attentively as he spoke, while little girls with specially braided hair darted around outside, their yellow eyes shining at the prospect of visitors.

"The world stood by and let refugees suffer," Dalaras said, acknowledging, "Whatever we can do is probably less than what you need and deserve."
Dalaras became UNHCR's Goodwill Ambassador in October 2006, but is a long-time supporter of refugee rights. Himself the son of a refugee from Asia Minor, he took part in UNHCR's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2001, recorded a special CD to raise awareness of refugee issues in 2003, and in January this year, played two sold-out concerts in Athens to raise funds for UNHCR's programs for refugee children in Africa.
"We cannot claim to be civilised if we close our eyes to what's happening in Africa. It's a moral obligation," said Dalaras' wife, Anna, who also volunteers for the UN.

The mood was festive and infectious as they paid their first visit to refugee camps since Dalaras became UNHCR's Goodwill Ambassador, joining the ranks of Barbara Hendricks, Adel Imam, Angelina Jolie, Giorgio Armani and Julien Clerc.
"I don't know why they came, but it's made everyone happy, so I'm happy too," said Baidu Fambulleh, a seven-year-old Liberian refugee at Jembe camp.
"They are alright ['great' in Liberian lingo]," said Fatou Sana, an 18-year-old woman from Lofa county in northern Liberia, balancing a baby on her hip. "They came all the way to see us. They are the people who help us."
On Wednesday and Thursday, Sana joined a return convoy of 284 Liberian refugees on an overnight journey led by Dalaras from Blama way station in south-eastern Sierra Leone, to Foya district in northern Lofa county.
"Congratulations to all of you for your courage and commitment to coming back home to help rebuild your country," said Abid Mir, UNHCR's Deputy Representative in Sierra Leone. "We know you're in safe hands, and wish you all the best."
Sierra Leone hosts an estimated 27,365 refugees, including 21,696 Liberian refugees living in eight camps across the country. Now in Liberia, the Goodwill Ambassador is expected to complete his regional visit on Friday.

By Needa Jehu-Hoyah

In Lofa county, Liberia

NOTORIOUS WOMEN RAPIST RE-ARRESTED

The most wanted notorious women rapist, Varney Gangarmah who broke jail a month ago has been re-arrested by security forces in Bomi County. Speaking to a local radio station in Monrovia, the Superintendent of Bomi, Mohamed Massaley said Varney Gangarmah was re-arrested between Sinje and Medina in Grand Cape Mount County.
Superintendent Mohamed Massaley said Gangarmah was re-arrested by women and children while trying to cross the border to Sierra Leone. Superintendent Massaley said Gangarmah initially gave a false name to those who confronted him but was soon recognized and held hostage.
Gangarmah was convicted to ten years imprisonment by the Circuit Court in Tubmanburg but broke jail along with six others. He was convicted for raping up to fifty women in Bomi County.

Guinean Community In U.S. Protest Against Pres. Conte

GUINEANS IN NEW YORK

New York City : - The Guinean Community in America held a peaceful protest in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York to voice out grievances toward the current ruling government led by President Lansana Conte. Conte, a former colonel who seized power in 1984 in a coup now in his 70’s and living in deteriorating health is one of the region’s longest-serving rulers.
Chants like "America Please Help Us” rang in the air as the members of the community marched and circled in New York’s 30-degree cold.
‘Our demands are simple, we want the so-called president to step down period and then nominate a new prime minister and give him power to run the country’ This was according to President of the community Mohammed Diallo.
‘This is neo-colonialism’, shouts a protester who would only id entify himself as Leonard. ‘This is exactly what France wants, to continue to lead Africa through leaders that are dilapidated and dead’
Guinea’s spiraling national economy, high cost of living, growing inequality and rampant corruption have put the nation on the brink of the same kind of institutional failure that plunged its regional neighbors like Liberia and Sierra Leone into civil war.
The unprecedented 18-day strike, which shut down nearly all business and activity in most towns and cities and led to violence and shootings on the streets of major provinces have won support of Guineans both at home and abroad, as well as human and civil rights organizations worldwide.
A similar protest was held in Washington D.C last Thursday during which the community called on the U.S State Department to intervene on the growing crisis.
On President Conte’s last official visit to the U.S in 1999, a similar protest was staged. ‘That was inefficient, it yielded no results and he refused to listen then’, says Diallo. Hopefully the unrest in the country in the last month will jump-start the small West African country and its 9.5 million citizens to a more positive future.

- Oyiza Adaba, International Correspondent