Priest urges authorities to talk less and do more

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Liberia, Archbishop Michael Francis, has urged the authorities to talk less and do more as Liberia is facing massive problems, the BBC reported on Monday.

He said the national culture of silence born out of fear also had to be changed if human rights were to be improved. The Movement for the Defence of Human Rights in Liberia, (MODHAR) said the government could start to improve its human rights record by establishing a fully functional Liberian Commission for Human Rights. The body, set up in 1997, so far has just two of the six government-appointed commissioners at their posts.

MODHAR told IRIN that the government could also begin to crush the culture of impunity in Liberia by arresting and charging those perpetrators of human rights violations, as well as by retraining security forces on human rights. The security forces are accused of these violations.