Monrovia — The long standing controversy over the sale of the residual of iron ore at the Port of Buchanan is gradually deepening as six human rights and pro-democracy institutions have accused the Transitional Government of undermining the rule of law by its failure to adequately inform the public about government's operations reference to the iron deal

The Liberia Democracy Watch, Foundation for International Dignity, National Human Rights Center of Liberia, Association of Environmental Lawyers of Liberia(Green Advocates), Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy and Center for Democratic Empowerment have been in the vanguard to ensure that the NTGL provides the Contractual Agreement it signed with the Chinese company about the sale of the iron ore.

In pursuit of their advocacy, the groups petitioned the Supreme Court for a Writ of Prohibition restraining further shipment of the iron ore out of the country. But the Transitional Administration ignored the court's order and went ahead with the shipment.

At a joint press conference in Monrovia Thursday, the six civil society organizations accused the NTGL of undermining the rule of law in the iron ore case as evidenced by its "outright refusal" to honor a Writ of Prohibition from the Supreme Court.

Reading the statement on behalf of the six groups, the National Coordinator of the Foundation for International Dignity (FIND), Sam Hare, said the actions on the part of government is reminiscent of the past, which they observed resulted in the break down of respect for the rule of law, thus creating conditions that led to a bloody civil war in the country.

The groups wondered, "How can a self-respecting government ignore the decision by the Supreme Court, which they appointed? Does such a government have any basis for expecting the ordinary citizens to be law abiding? By this act, the Chairman of the NTGL and have government has singularly undermined the rule of law in this country, thereby undermining the effectiveness of our Judicial and legal system."

Mr. Hare told reporters that they were interested in knowing the quantity of the iron ore that is being sold, the terms of the contract, the buyer of the ore, quality and grade and the level of official consultations that were undertaken in order to have the ore sold.

The Pro-democracy and Human Rights Institutions questioned as to whether the sale of the iron ore was sanctioned by the National Transitional Legislative Assembly.

They indicated that they would press forward to know whether revenues generated from the iron ore deal were deposited into an approved government account, in accordance with Executive order number two, which mandates a centralized deposit of government revenues at the Central Bank of Liberia.

We specifically requested the government to provide us with the sale contract, communication relating to the entire transaction, deposit slips or certificates establishing deposit of proceeds from the sale of the iron ore into the Government of Liberia's account, among others, but no official of the NTGL has responded to these inquiries, they claimed.

The spoke of how the government permitted the second ship, Kang Shun, with iron ore on board to leave Liberia on August 28, 2004 at 5:30 pm in defiance of the Court's order. Additionally, they alleged that the government allowed the third ship, Dubai Faith, to berth at the Port of Buchanan on September 9, 2004 in continuous defiance of the Court's order.

In violation of the Supreme Court's mandate, the six organizations are calling on the United Nations to impose mandatory sanctions on the NTGL, beginning with a travel ban on senior officials and other measures that would compel the NTGL to practice good governance.