Deena Metzger: Blackwater in Liberia

A question of conscience. Who is now recruiting child soldiers and ex-combatants in Liberia and West Africa to fight in Iraq?

I am the Senior Advisor to a small NGO, everyday gandhis, based in Santa Barbara, documenting and supporting grass roots peacebuilding efforts in West Africa, particularly Liberia. The organization was established by Cynthia Travis who co-directs it with her Liberian partner William Saa, an internationally known trauma expert.

Three years ago, everyday gandhis saw the need to extend their efforts to ex-combatants, particularly ex-child soldiers. We have developed a peacebuilding team that includes ex-child soldiers and ex-generals who are committed to their own transformation from fighters to guardians of the earth and of the peace.

Several of our team members in Liberia, including an ex-general, the former General Leopard, (in charge of our youth programs who has brought several of the young people whom he once, to his great regret and shame, coerced into fighting, as well as other former child-soldiers to live in the everyday gandhis house as the core of our peacebuilding team,) have informed us in the last weeks that ex-combatants are being recruited, probably by Blackwater gone underground, to fight in Iraq through offerings of US $10,000 a month. [An offer – not the first - was made to the former general in the last few days.]

Several on our staff, including one of the women who was a coerced commander during the war, were approached to fight in Iraq. This young woman declared she would rather die than return to a life of violence.

In a country where one can survive on a few hundred dollars a month, this is more than a king’s ransom.

Other sources confirm it is Blackwater, but the greater problem is that the people assume it is the United States government. Because Liberia was established by ex-slaves from the US, such recruitment carries greater weight than it might anywhere else.

The implications of a private Blackwater army fighting in Iraq, maybe in Afghanistan, and also for hire in Africa and other countries are more than alarming. The threat to the US war effort from such ‘soldiers’ not under the direct control of US military discipline is clear.

The US is itself challenged by the necessity of meeting the numbers of returning veterans suffering from serious and costly physical wounds as well as unprecedented numbers of veterans suffering head injuries and suffering PTSD. These future veterans, many of whom will also be wounded and possibly dangerous and dysfunctional due to PTSD, will have to return somewhere. The danger to the world from a cadre of untreated and untreatable war wounded arising from those recruited to fight in such wars under the control of unsupervised organizations like Blackwater then returning to economically stressed countries who cannot assume responsibility for them, is unimaginably dire

This is not secret knowledge in Liberia though it is not fully known in the US or may be obscured in its activities and implications. An article in the American Conservative March 8th. 2009 speaks of it: Blackwater (Xe) Scours War Torn Africa For New Hires -

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is doing what she can to stop the recruitment which is public, scandalous, and promulgated on the radio. Blackwater has been banned from Liberia – as announced in January 2009. We understand that it went underground and shifted to Sierra Leone but recruitment continues. Wherever it takes place, it is criminal activity that is dangerous to world peace.

We met the former General Leopard in 2006 when he was a desperate man on his way to Guinea to fight as a mercenary -- a desperate man, in a desperately poor country, without work or the means to support his family; there are thousands like him still. He overheard one of our conversations as we were all stuck in the mud on the road to Voinjama in the north and asked to tell us his story. He turned away from lucrative incentives in order to work for everyday gandhis. The small salary we offered eventually could not begin to be comparable.

One of his first acts for peace in 2006 was to follow up on the rumors of recruiters looking for soldiers to foment disturbances in other areas, including Sierra Leone and Guinea. As soon as he joined everyday gandhis, he revealed the activities to the UN peacekeeping forces and then he went into the forest to speak to the young people to dissuade them from becoming mercenaries; he and our small team, including other former generals and commanders are doing the same now.

Recruiting for on-going wars in West Africa, though tragic, is not unusual. Recruitment by the US to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan is.

When did we authorize a private army to affect and implement foreign policy and global events by its actions in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan?

The Republic of Liberia underwent 14 years of a violent civil war that ended with the signing of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (ACPA) in 2003. This agreement was signed between the Government of Liberia (GoL) and the two other belligerent forces, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and Political Parties. The deployment of the joint ECOWAS and UN Peacekeeping Mission, UNMIL, has sustained the resultant peace and security in Liberia to-date.

In recognition of the perverse violence that characterised the Liberian civil war, the ACPA made significant focus on issues of human rights and promoting a culture against impunity. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia was established as an outcome of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (ACPA) to address transitional justice issues emerging out of the conflict. It is part of a package of measures recommended by the ACPA in Part VI, Section Article XIII, to promote respect for human rights, good governance, the rule of law sustainable peace, unity and national reconciliation.

[It is important to note that some, but not all, of the youth associated with everyday gandhis sponsoring this workshop fought with LURD. Peacebuilding depends on these ex-combatant and child soldier ‘enemies’ coming to healing and restoration together.]

Deena Metzger works with the Everyday Gandhis. She can be reached through her website.

From Republic of Liberia, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Towards /achieving The Mandate: A progress /report(May 2007- September 2007)

Comprehensive Peace Agreement Between the Government of Liberia and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and Political Parties, Accra 18th August, 2003. http://www.usip.org/library/pa/liberia/liberia_08182003_toc.html

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