Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Liberia Peace Deal QUOTE OF THE DAY "Each time an elder dies, it is as if a library has burned." - - An African Proverb KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JULY 1791 - - Benjamin Banneker sends a copy of his just-published almanac to Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along with an appeal on behalf of African-Americans' "humiliating condition (slavery)..." 1848 - - The New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California 1945 - - William J. Clinton, 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001), was born. 2000 - - Pres. Clinton signed the Global Aids and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000. It included a trust fund to care for African AIDS patients. AIDS was killing 6,000 people a day and had orphaned 15% of the children in the worst affected cities. RHINO HERE: Did anyone catch Janeane Garofalo on CNN's Crossfire Monday? If not, she'll be hosting the show, as they say, "From The Left", all this week. Rhino sez, "Not only is she smarter than Tucker Carlson, she's also way better looking! Go Gettum Girl." As widely reported by the tri-letter media, a peace deal has been brokered between the warring factions in Liberia. The BBC article below tells that story. But there are many stories behind that story. For instance, there's the one about the Pentagon team that went to Liberia to assess the situation and reported back to the shrub gang while shrub was on his African tour. The report recommended sending a few thousand troops in, post haste, to stop the killing that was intensifying daily at that time. The shrubies choose to do nothing and thousands more people were killed. Finally, after weeks more killing, they sent 200 Marines in. And now they want everyone to think they did the right thing, & Rhino thinks they're assuming lots of African Americans will now vote for the Repub's next chance they get. That story is today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE from Sunday's L.A. TIMES For those not familiar, Liberia was founded by freed African-American slaves. Here are a few links for background info should you want to delve deeper: (Thanks to MoveOn.org for their research gathering on the topic) BET's timeline of recent Liberian history is posted at:, http://www.bet.com/articles/0,,p389gb6914-7717,00.html A Village Voice chronicle of the relationship between the U.S. & Liberia is at: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0328/mondo1.php Human Rights Watch report on abuses by the Liberian government & LURD; the rebels. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/liberia/liberia0402.htm Liberian foes sign peace deal - Rebel fighters have been pulling out of Monrovia BBC News, 8/18/03 The warring factions in Liberia have signed a power-sharing agreement ending four years of civil war. The deal calls for the government to share power with rebels for two years as the country prepares for elections in 2006. The factions could begin naming members of the transitional administration as soon as Tuesday, negotiators at the talks in Ghana are reported to have said. Meanwhile, life in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, is slowly returning to normal after the main rebel group withdrew from the port area last week... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3158647.stm Another story behind the story of Liberia that's yet to be revealed is where will Charles Taylor end up & will he ever have to pay for what he did. Idi Amin died just this last Saturday having never faced the music for the hundreds of thousands he murdered. For that matter, how many dictators who were responsible for torturing and killing thousands of their people are now living in exile? To read a Human Rights Watch backgrounder on exiled leaders, go to the web site below. Sorry, that piece doesn't tell how many of them were either initially propped up and/or supported by the US government. Human Rights Watch Report on exiled dictators http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/07/torturers072103-bck.htm 8:36:30 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Team in Liberia Sought Fast Aid Team in Liberia Sought Fast Aid Pentagon specialists sent to the African nation called for rapid U.S. intervention to restore order. A revised report made it to the president. By Maggie Farley, Ann Simmons and Paul Richter, LA Times, 8/17/03 WASHINGTON -- As Liberia's humanitarian crisis was approaching its peak this summer, the Pentagon quashed a report by its own team of specialists calling for an immediate U.S. intervention to stop the fighting and permit the delivery of emergency aid. The Defense Department had sent a team of 31 military specialists to Liberia on July 7 "to make recommendations for an appropriate level of intervention," according to the group's mission statement. After assessing the situation on the ground, the team completed its analysis and delivered it within 72 hours to Air Force One during President Bush's Africa trip that week. The team urged that the United States immediately deploy a 2,300-strong Marine Expeditionary Unit to stabilize the country and protect civilians amid a vicious civil war, said several U.S. officials familiar with the report. Two hundred Marines arrived in the country Thursday, five weeks after the call for urgent action... ...before the president saw the report, Pentagon officials pulled it back. "The Pentagon squashed it," an administration official said. "It was way too strong for their liking." READ THE REST AT: http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-intervene17aug17,1,3823806.story "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 6:20:08 AM    comment

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