Nailing the American dime

Newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will address the US Congress on Wednesday in what will be a crucial opportunity to secure funds to rebuild a country left battered by war. Underlining the close historic link between Liberia and the United States, Sirleaf will be the first African leader to address a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives since South African President Nelson Mandela more than a decade ago. As Africa’s first female president, Sirleaf may grab extra media attention for the plight of Liberia. Her invitation to meet Congress comes as women ascend to leadership worldwide, with Chile swearing in its first female president Michelle Bachelet after Germany won its first female chancellor, Angela Merkel. While some Americans might not be able to pinpoint the tiny West African nation on a map, Liberians hope the historic address will help ease their country out of poverty. “War really destroyed our country and we alone cannot be able to rebuild it,” university student Joel Johnson told IRIN on Tuesday. “It would require a helping hand from our international allies especially America, because the founding of this country can be traced from America,” he added. Liberia was established in the 1800s in a move to settle freed American slaves in West Africa. Today the country’s flag is a single-starred version of the Star-Spangled Banner and the main language remains English, with some claiming to speak with the remains of a deep south drawl. But the special relationship, which peaked during the Cold War era in the 1980s, came adrift when the “Wall” crumbled. Meanwhile coups and conflict reduced Liberia too to rubble. After Liberia’s 14-year on-off conflict, a peace deal was drawn up under international pressure in 2003 and the UN shortly after sent in 15,000 peacekeepers to restore security and oversee elections. Last year, with Liberia again at peace, veteran politician Sirleaf won elections and now heads a government charged with the Herculean task of rebuilding the country. In her address before Congress, she “is expected to present her vision and policies for Liberia’s recovery, as well as the role of the USA and the international community in facilitating it,” a government statement said on Monday. Sirleaf will hope to tap into growing support within the US government for increased financial support for Liberia. On Capitol Hill, pro-Liberian groups are touting Sirleaf’s accomplishments from her first weeks in office - including a 20-percent rise in government revenues over January 2005, even though her government only took office mid-month. Congress for its part will be looking for assurances that funds sent to Liberia do not end up in private bank accounts. At her inauguration speech 16 January, attended by US first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sirleaf promised to tackle corruption and is likely to repeat that pledge before Congress on Wednesday. Paying for past plunders Sirleaf’s Finance Minister Antoinette Sayeh - a former World Bank official who, like all Sirleaf’s new ministers, had to undergo a personal audit before taking her post - says corruption and ensuing debts in previous administrations hamper government efforts to secure financial backing other than bilateral grants and aid. “We took over [an] economy that has been broken and saddled with huge debts accumulated as a result of rampant corruption that was practiced by past regimes,” Sayeh said in Monrovia. And many of those debts were recently acquired. When the shelling and gunfire stopped with the signing of the 2003 peace deal, the financial plundering of government resources did not, according to Sirleaf and her ministers. In a recent interview on Talk Radio in Monrovia, Sirleaf said that her government was struggling to cope with the millions of dollars of unpaid wages run up by the outgoing transitional government. “We’re trying to just catch up with salary arrears just from the transitional government, not even thinking about arrears that go back beyond 2003. The total of that right now is something like US $18 million. If we were to honour that, we would not be able to meet current operations,” Sirleaf said. At the same time, Finance Minister Sayeh has uncovered a grossly inflated payroll packed with phantom workers paying themselves “fabulous salaries”. Another problem Sirleaf inherited from that period are massive tax evasions run up by foreign businesses to the tune of US $8.5 million. “Those failing to refund the money will be prosecuted,” Sirleaf warned. Tough talk, tough action And the two-month old government has already followed up on its threats. Last week the finance minister fired three top custom officials assigned to the Liberian-Guinean border because they could not account for some revenues collected since February. “I will not tolerate corruption in this ministry and I will do my best to dig it out where I can, and to make sure that people who are involved in it are held accountable,” Sayeh said after the sackings. Sirleaf’s success in tackling corruption could determine how quickly the UN lifts sanctions on the export of timber and diamonds, in place since 2001. The sanctions followed UN findings that Liberian rebel-turned-president, Charles Taylor, was using both sectors to arm rebel fighters in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Taylor on trial? The fate of Taylor, too, could be up for discussion during the United States visit, if not before Congress, then during a private meeting with President George Bush scheduled for 21 March. Taylor has been indicted for war crimes by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone. But Nigeria, which has given Taylor exile, has always maintained it would hand him over only on an official request from an elected Liberian government. One of Sirleaf’s first official visits since taking office was to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and according to Nigerian government officials, the two presidents raised Taylor’s fate. Despite the lack of official details on the Obasanjo-Sirleaf talks, the meeting has ignited a flurry of speculation in Monrovia. The issue is a thorny one for Sirleaf who last month said her government “will ensure that those culpable of crimes against humanity will face up to their crimes, no matter when, where or how,” but at the same time has repeatedly said that her first priority will be rebuilding Liberia.