Liberia: Pat Robertson And Liberian Gold

editorial

When reading the response Pat Robertson sent to The Washington Post regarding his business links with the government of Charles Taylor one can but feel the need to write him and inform him about the conditions of Liberia. It is rather strange that a man of the caliber of Robertson claims that he never heard of the atrocities of the bands of criminals and hoodlums Mr. Taylor unleashed on Liberia in the 1990s. Pictures of Liberian men, women and children flashed across television screens day and night before events in the Gulf took over. May be someone needs to bring him old newsreels from the 1990s. We doubt that Mr. Robertson, who recalls that the American Colonization Society created Liberia, could ever miss such atrocities committed against the "Christian Liberia." Unless of course, those who briefed Mr. Robertson may have told him that Mr. Taylor was a descendant of that "Baptist pastor from Virginia" who was on a mission to avenge the "Christian" victims of the mili! tary takeover of 1980.

Mr. Robertson's letter is full of self-serving innuendos. But when reading through, one can see where the pastor's sympathy lies. He accuses The Washington Post of joining the ranks of those vying for the overthrow of the "duly elected" government of Mr. Taylor and goes on to make the prophecy that the demise of the dictator would create a situation similar to that of Congo after Mobutu. It is interesting that among all the nations in Africa, the only one that Mr. Robertson could use as a reference was the Congo. The Congo, like Liberia is a vastly mineral rich country. The Congo, like Liberia, had a tyrant for leader for decades that became one of the richest men in the world while his country became one of the poorest and ill-managed nations of this planet. Like Mobutu, Charles Taylor makes no difference between his private accounts and public money.

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