Monrovia — As the country gears toward the 2023 General and Presidential elections, Heads of Foreign Missions including international organizations in Liberia are concerned about the maintenance of peace during and after the election.
Dr. Jakob Haselhuber is the German Ambassador to Liberia. He told the audience at a dialogue hosted by the French and German Embassies near Monrovia that the lesson for Liberians in the run-up to the elections is that all parties should renounce violence.
That way, he says, will enable Liberia to consolidate peace, security, and development during and after the election.
The dialogue was held at the Capitol Hill campus of the University of Liberia (UL).
Ambassador Haselhuber stated that peace is not just the absence of violence. He said: "It is something that has to be worked for and fight for."
He recalled a violent clash that occurred near the United States Embassy on July 26, 2022, when protesting students of the University of Liberia were brutalized by a pro-government group.
"So these acts of violence must be prevented. Liberia risks a lot going back to the dark times," Amb. Haselhuber said.
He added: "Peace is the absolute objective which must prevail in Liberia."
The dialogue was part of a series of engagements being held based on the concern, encouragement, and motivation expressed by international partners who work and live in Liberia, seeking to help Liberians walk a strong and peaceful journey to the 2023 elections.
At the start of the dialogue, both the German and French Ambassadors made separate presentations and shared lessons with the audience on how to consolidate peace, security, and development.
French Ambassador Michael Roux speaking says Liberia should be a good example of a peaceful nation
He noted that after years of conflict, the country has embraced peace something he wants to be maintained.
ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia, Josephine Nkrumah, explained that Africa has had its fair share of wars and wants post-conflict countries in Africa to learn from a good example of the way France and Germany forged ahead after their conflicts.
The ECOWAS Envoy said, "This can be achieved if we have a mindset ... that allows us to appreciate each other's difference, each other's diversity, each other's unique experience, each other's unique culture, language, way of eating, way of dressing."
Amb. Nkrumah added: "I would like to urge everyone to appreciate their diversity and begin to think constructively that Africa is one continent. We are one people, and we possess so much in terms of human resources and natural resources."
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According to the ECOWAS Ambassador, if Africans can appreciate their diversity, Africa indeed is the future.
Adding up, the President of the University of Liberia, Dr. Julius Nelson, Jr., said the University was privileged to have served as the platform for the dialogue hosted by the French and German Embassies in Liberia on peace, security, and development.
"The focus of these dialogues on peace, unity, and security, reconciliation, development are in the best interest of the University of Liberia, and the People of the Republic of Liberia," said Dr. Nelson.
Giving a background of the dialogue, Prof. T. Debey Synde, Director of the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation, explained that international partners who work and live in Liberia have expressed their concern, encouragement, and motivation to help Liberians walk a strong and peaceful journey to 2023 elections.
He said the dialogue started sometime last year through a series of engagements with members of the diplomatic corps and international partners.
