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Liberia: Kimmie Weeks Addresses U.S. Congress
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The Inquirer (Monrovia)
19 May 2008
Posted to the web 19 May 2008
The World's renowned Liberian child rights activist, Kimmie Weeks, has warned the United States Congress that the escalation of prices of basic commodities and other staple food would undoubtedly cause a widespread political unrest in Africa which could derail years of progress towards development and stability. Kimmie Weeks raised the concern as he testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, May 13.
While speaking at the Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Kimmie Weeks detailed the difficulties already facing poverty stricken war-torn countries. He painted a picture for lawmakers of the entire nations in Africa without running water, electricity and more importantly where a growing number of people could not even afford to feed themselves. He lamented that "wars, corruption, and environmental degradation cause poverty to the extreme that mothers watch their babies die and can absolutely do nothing about it."
He detailed, how hard it was for the world's poor right now and painted a vivid image of the struggle a majority of the world's people face to live from one day to the next. Speaking extensively about problems facing his native Liberia, Kimmie Weeks noted that more than half of the Liberian population was living far below the international poverty line. "It's already difficult for these people to come up with the $26 to buy a bag of rice to feed their families. What do you think will happen when those people go to the store tomorrow and find that the price of their staple food has more than doubled to $50 or $60.?"Weeks asked.
Weeks predicted that if food prices continue to soar and if food shortages start to become more widespread, turmoil and civil wars would break out in capitals across Africa. Kimmie Weeks noted that outbreaks of turmoil would prove disastrous in efforts to reduce the number of children participating in armed conflicts. He observed: "Children are recruited in every African conflict. If wars breakout, we're guaranteed to see a traumatic increase in child soldiers, human trafficking, and rampant sexual exploitation."
Weeks admonished American lawmakers to begin to take preemptive strikes against global crises due to food shortages. He called for increase in US aid not only in terms of providing food aid, but to provide seeds, technology and know-how to help African farmers to become self sufficient. He said: "If there is ever a need for a preemptive strike, it should be a preemptive humanitarian strike. It should be one that acts now to prevent millions of people from dying in the streets of African capitals from hunger and disease."
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Kimmie Weeks used the hearing to discuss issues around the use of children in armed conflicts, the difficulties surrounding rehabilitation of child soldiers, as well as the trafficking of women and children in conflict areas. His panel included Benjamin Skinner author of "A Crime so Monstrous.
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