[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 136 (Friday, September 14, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1873-E1874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING PRESIDENT SIRLEAF OF LIBERIA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 14, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article 
written by George Gedda entitled ``Light in Liberia'' published in 
World View. This article is about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who 
assumed the office of presidency in Liberia on January 2006 after a 
democratic election in a country which in recent years suffered under 
the dictatorial rule of Charles Taylor. First Lady Bush and Secretary 
of State Rice attended her inaugural ceremony on January 16, 2006.
  President Sirleaf is the first African woman to be elected president 
in Liberia. She is on a mission to lift her people from the dark 
political legacy of ex-presidents, Charles Taylor and Samuel Doe when 
fraud, corruption, human rights abuses, and ethnic conflict were 
rampant. From 1989 to 1996, a civil war in Liberia claimed the lives of 
more than 200,000 Liberians and displaced a million other people in 
refugee camps in neighboring countries. President Sirleaf herself 
endured torture as a military prisoner of Doe's rebel forces. During 
Taylor and Doe's administration over a 25 year period, the per capita 
income in Liberia dropped from $1000 to $120 according to the World 
Bank.
  President Sirleaf's leadership brings hope to Liberia. Seven months 
after her presidency, the lights came on in Liberia for the first time 
in 14 years on July 26, 2006 and water was turned on in some areas of 
the country. During her first year in office, school enrollment 
increased by 40%. Additionally, service to 350 health facilities in 
Liberia was reported restored. President Sirleaf is also taking a 
stance against corruption and increased transparency in her country by 
requiring all senior level government officials to publicly declare 
their assets.
  I praise President Sirleaf for these accomplishments and for her 
determination in steering her country towards the right direction. One 
of the biggest challenges that Liberia faces is addressing its national 
debt which, without relief, will continue to consume an inordinate 
amount of resources and cripple development in the country. The United 
States is providing support to Liberia. Just earlier this year, 
Secretary Rice announced the cancellation of Liberia's $391 million 
U.S. debt.
  President Sirleaf's tenacity and contribution is inspiring, and I 
applaud her for her leadership.

                            Light in Liberia

                           (By George Gedda)

       How bad off was Liberia after back-to-back civil wars? This 
     is what President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she found after 
     taking office in January 2006: ``There was no electricity and 
     no water. Schools and clinics had crumbled, and roads were 
     impassable. Institutions of governance had completely 
     collapsed, and corruption was rampant. Many youths have spent 
     more time in war than in school. Average incomes had fallen 
     80 percent. Exports had collapsed. Over three-quarters of our 
     people lived below the poverty line of one dollar per day.''
       In November 2005, Sirleaf became the first African woman to 
     be elected president. It was a hopeful sign after a 
     generation of catastrophic misrule and warfare in Liberia. 
     She brought a genuine commitment to her people and, 
     seemingly, the wherewithal to make a positive difference. Her 
     resume included a Master's degree from Harvard and 10 years' 
     work on development issues at the World Bank, the 
     International Monetary Fund and the United Nations.
       She was a clear pick-me-up for Liberians following the era 
     of Charles Taylor, responsible for many of the more than 
     200,000 deaths that occurred during the successive civil 
     wars. Taylor fled Liberia in 2003 and, as of this past April, 
     was awaiting trial before an international tribunal on 
     charges of crimes against humanity for sponsoring a brutal 
     rebellion in neighboring Sierra Leone. A 15,000-member UN 
     peacekeeping force has been deployed in Liberia for four 
     years. Its current mandate expires Sept. 30.
       The combination of war and repression forced Sirleaf to 
     spend parts of two decades outside of Liberia, including most 
     of the 1980-90 rule of President Samuel Doe. In an interview 
     with the Los Angeles Times, she recalled the terror-filled 
     moments when Doe's forces detained her in the mid-1980s:
       ``I was taken to the military prison. In fact, as we were 
     going, they told me they were going to take me to the beach 
     and bury me alive. They started in that direction, changed 
     their minds, put me through tortures, put matches to my hair. 
     They said, `We're going to burn your hair off,' but didn't do 
     it. They would come as close as possible. It clearly was just 
     meant to terrorize me.'' After her release, Sirleaf fled the 
     country. In 1990, rebel forces tortured and murdered Doe, the 
     same fate that befell his predecessor, President William 
     Tolbert, in 1980.
       Sirleaf is now trying to help lift Liberia out of that grim 
     political legacy and show what responsible leadership can 
     achieve. With First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State 
     Condoleezza Rice in attendance at her inaugural on Jan. 16, 
     2006, Sirleaf told her countrymen: ``We know that your vote 
     was a vote for change, a vote for peace, security and 
     stability, a vote for individual and national prosperity, a 
     vote for healing and leadership. We have heard you loudly.''
       One of the brighter days of Sirleaf's tenure occurred on 
     July 26, 2006, when the lights came on in Liberia for the 
     first time in 14 years, albeit only in a small section of the 
     capital. The lighting illuminates streets, hospitals and 
     office buildings. But most Liberians still have to fend for 
     themselves

[[Page E1874]]

     after dark. Those with means use generators. Poorer folks 
     rely on candles.
       Another milestone occurred when water was turned on in some 
     areas. ``Our children danced in the streets. Some who only 
     knew that water came out of a bucket realized that it could 
     come out of a tap,'' Sirleaf recalled.
       Seldom has any country sunk as far as Liberia did under 
     Taylor and the predecessor regime of Samuel Doe. During that 
     25-year period, per-capita income dropped from $1,000 to 
     $120, according to the World Bank. Donor countries have been 
     generous with pledges of assistance to Sirleaf's 
     government but slow to fulfill them. She says: ``We need 
     to shorten the road between commitments and cash.''
       Health and education have been among Sirleaf's priorities. 
     Official figures show that during her first year in office, 
     the government increased school enrollment by 40 percent and 
     provided school furniture throughout the country. Also, 
     service is reported to have been restored to 350 health 
     facilities in the country.
       In a speech on March 27 in Toronto, Sirleaf highlighted 
     other advances: deactivation of 17,000 members of the old 
     security forces, enrollment of more than 75,000 excombatants 
     in reintegration programs, accommodating the return of over 
     100,000 people who had been forced from their homes during 
     the war, balancing of the budget and increasing government 
     revenues by 48 percent.
       Women are occupying more high government posts than ever 
     before. Sirleaf, 68 and a grandmother of six, also is doing 
     battle against Liberia's culture of corruption, requiring all 
     senior level government officials to publicly declare their 
     assets.
       She has repeatedly told her countrymen that the most 
     reliable path to prosperity is relief from Liberia's huge 
     international debt. The subject is discussed on radio talk 
     shows, street corners, bars and even hospitals.
       Except for the periods of civil strife, the United States 
     has had exceptionally close ties with Liberia, both symbolic 
     and otherwise, almost from the founding of the country by 
     freed American slaves in the 1840s. The capital, Monrovia, 
     was named for James Monroe, the fifth American president. 
     Liberia uses the dollar as its currency and may be the only 
     country besides the United States and Burma to shun the 
     metric system. A Liberian major general named George T. 
     Washington once served as the country's top military officer. 
     When the United States entered World War II, Liberia quickly 
     announced its support. Among African countries, Liberia has 
     often been among the major recipients of U.S. assistance.
       The United States has been eager to help Sirleaf succeed. 
     Appearing at an international donor conference sponsored by 
     the World Bank in February, Rice announced the cancellation 
     of Liberia's $391 million U.S. debt. Other countries 
     eliminated an estimated $300 million in bilateral debt. When 
     Sirleaf returned home from the conference, Liberians cheered 
     her successes as they lined the road on her 30-mile ride from 
     the airport to the capital. The cancellations reduced 
     Liberia's debt to $3 billion, the largest share of which is 
     $1.6 billion owed to international lending institutions. 
     There is also a $1 billion commercial debt.
       For technical reasons, Liberia does not yet qualify for 
     relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) 
     initiative, a 1996 International Monetary Fund-World Bank 
     program designed to assist poor countries with unmanageable 
     debts.
       Anwarul K. Chowdury, an advocate at the United Nations for 
     the interests of the world's poorest countries, says Liberia 
     should be entitled to HIPC benefits because of its ``recent 
     tumultuous history and current postconflict reconstruction 
     efforts.''
       The Campaign to Cancel Africa's Debt, an activist group, 
     believes it is an outrage that Liberia is being asked to 
     continue making payments on the ``odious and illegitimate'' 
     debt accumulated by Sirleaf's authoritarian predecessors. 
     ``Liberia needs 100 percent debt cancellation without harmful 
     conditions in order to invest in its economy, rebuild the 
     nation's infrastructure and fund essential public social 
     services,'' the campaign said in a recent report.
       In her Toronto speech, Sirleaf said Liberia's total 
     liability is equal to over 3,000 percent of the country's 
     exports. She is urging wealthy countries to come up with a 
     formula for a prompt easing of the debt burden.
       Even with generous debt relief, progress would be slow in 
     coming. As an example, Sirleaf points to the decay of the 
     tourism infrastructure. ``The roads, the hotels, the lights, 
     the water, all of those things that tourists will require for 
     their comfort are not there yet,'' she says. Also, she adds, 
     there is no easy path for securing electricity for rural 
     areas. Painstaking studies will be required just to determine 
     whether hydroelectric power is the most suitable option.
       Sirleaf believes that Liberia could become an agricultural 
     power, citing its abundant fertile soil and rainfalls. 
     Liberia has been a principal world market supplier of latex, 
     derived from rubber trees. The country also is believed well 
     suited for rice, oil palm, pineapples, cassava, citrus, 
     coffee and cocoa. Other potential revenue producers are gold, 
     iron ore, timber and diamonds. And U.S. investors are showing 
     interest. A one-day conference on private investment 
     opportunities, held in conjunction with the donors conference 
     in February, drew an overflow crowd of 400 registrants.
       Exports of timber were banned during Taylor's government by 
     the U.N. Security Council because revenues were being used to 
     finance the war in Sierra Leone. The ban was lifted last 
     year, opening the way for a potentially lucrative market for 
     Liberia. A Security Council prohibition on diamond exports 
     remains in place pending certification that the stones are 
     not used to finance conflict--as they were under Taylor's 
     rule.
       Shortly before Sirleaf's visit to Washington, she welcomed 
     China's president, Hu Jintao, to Monrovia. There was no 
     official account of the outcome but a Liberian official said 
     beforehand that plans called for the signing of commercial 
     agreements involving rubber, timber and minerals. Further 
     demonstrating China's interest in the resource-rich country 
     is the presence of 500 Chinese peacekeepers in Liberia. 
     Sirleaf says she's happy to receive assistance from China, so 
     long as it doesn't increase her country's debt.

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