allAfrica.com: Liberia: Misdeeds of Doe Rule (Page 1 of 3)

Former Liberia's President Samuel Kanyon Doe is gone but his deeds, whether good or bad still live on. Since his demise in September 1990, Liberians are managing to cope with the aftereffects of his administrative character.

Though many people don't outrightly rule him out for the many contributions he made in Liberia given his limitations in statecraft, some of those who shared the corridors of power with him are now cast long shadows on the rule of SKD - phenomenon that they term as the misdeeds of Doe.

One person who was opportune to witness the alleged "Doe's misdeeds" has been explaining his shock and stress to the TRC.

Witness Rancy J. Borkay told TRC Commissioners and administrators of the transitional justice mechanism that his cousin, a former patrolman in the Liberia National Police (LNP), was brutally murdered with the alleged acquiescence of the former army officer.

The Analyst looks at the statement cued from the TRC Public Hearing.

At the TRC Public Hearings in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, a witness explained how his cousin was sent to his early graves in Tuzon, Grand Gedeh County apparently with the knowledge and approbation of former President Samuel Kanyon Doe.

Doe, the first original native President of Liberia who took power in 1980 after a bloody coup, hailed from Tuzon in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County.

Rancy J. Borkay, the sixth witness to take stand during the Hearing explained that before the elections of 1985, they (he and his kinsmen) were given an opportunity to organize political party.

Having reached a consensus, he said one of the elders, Amb. Peter Johnson, who hailed from his area defected and took a different turn in the political stand. By this, he said Johnson pledged his support to the Liberia Action Party (LAP) of the late Jackson F. Doe instead of the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL), the party of the then president.

"He became the first campaign manager of LAP. That became an offense to the regime of Samuel Doe and there was elimination against his family and himself," witness Borkay recalled.

He said during the aborted coup by Quiwonkpa, Johnson was arrested while hundreds of Doe's soldiers move in their area, not too far from Tuzon, the home of President Doe.

When the soldiers got in the area, he claimed they brutally handled the people, and that some of parents escaped to the Ivory Coast while some eventually died in the process of their (soldiers) occupation during that time. Witness Borkay told the TRC that following the foiled coup, President Doe returned to Zwedru and called a town meeting.

In Tuzon, the venue of the meeting, he said was a first cousin of his, Washington Wolo a patrol man at the time. "My cousin was asked to serve duty that night though that was not his time to serve the guard.

The motive behind it was that the first Land and Mines Minister under Doe regime died and according to the people of Tuzon, it was customary that when ever great man died they have to carry someone with him but that person has to be alive.

So they buried the patrol man Washington Wolo in the grave near the coffin of Willie Nebo. This thing caused problem and we tried to get the actual story from the then president Doe but it proved futile," Witness Borkay told the TRC hearing.

Apparently due to the rather puzzling manner in which Wolo lost his life, he said the people of Tuzon owed them (people of Zleh Town) an apology "for burying our brother with Willie Nebo".

According to him, they have serious problem with the people of Tuzon and that until they can apologize for whatever happened at the time, they will never forgive their brothers and sisters from Tuzon, adding "We hope they will come to tell us what happened actually".

The Doe regime was marred by human rights abuses, especially after the 1985 foiled coup. Most Liberians were killed while others fled the country surreptitiously to eschew being killed by loyalists of the former President.

Giving the revelation from a citizen of Grand Gedeh County, the home of the president, that someone from the county was buried alive, observers say there is likelihood that citizens from other counties suffered most.

According to them, such is one of the many misdeeds of the Doe era which they claimed led to the outbreak of the war which left the country decimated.

Excerpts from his testimony

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