Government expects agreement with investors by late May

Project meant to help meet growing domestic and export demand

(Reuters) - Ivory Coast is near a deal with foreign investors to build a 330-megawatt thermal power station near the commercial capital Abidjan as part of wide-ranging efforts to boost energy production, a senior official said on Wednesday.

A final agreement between the West African state and the yet unnamed investors will be signed by the end of May, paving the way for construction of the plant in Abatta to be completed by 2016, Sabati Cisse, energy director for the country's ministry of mines and energy, told Reuters.

"Capacity at the Abatta thermal power station will come in 110 MW stages and will reach its final phase by 2015-2016," Cisse said on the sidelines of a visit to a newly renovated substation in Abidjan.

Cisse said building of the station would be a joint project between state oil and gas company Petroci and the investors. The project's cost would be announced later, he said.

Unlike many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ivory Coast usually has an enviably reliable power supply and exports power to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Mali, all on the same network. It currently has plans to add Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to its grid as well.

But consumption is rising. In 2010 it increased by 3.5 percent to 4,010 gigawatt hours and the government has launched ambitious plans to upgrade the power sector and keep up with domestic and export demands.

The world's top cocoa producer is recovering from a decade long political crisis that resulted in years of economic stagnation and a civil war last year.

Under new President Alassane Ouattara, the government said last July it would pour $500 million into power generation by 2015 and in November announced plans to build a 275-megawatt hydroelectric power station in the west of the country to be completed in 2015 or 2016.

"Today, our annual production is around 6,000 GWh. We estimate that in the two to three years to come, we will grow gross production by around 10 percent," said Dominique Kacou, who heads Ivory Coast's national power company, the CIE.

"Our needs are enormous. We've had major delays in investment. We urgently need to invest 275 billion CFA francs ($550.92 million). Then afterward, we can return to normal investments of 30 billion (CFA) beginning in 2014," he said.

Ivory Coast's six hydroelectric stations and three thermal stations have a total production capacity of around 1,000 MW, but weather has made hydroelectric output unreliable.

Cisse said on Wednesday London-listed short-term power supplier Aggreko {AGGK.L} would also soon boost its production in Ivory Coast from 70 MW to 100 MW. ($1 = 499.1680 CFA francs).

Taylor verdict takes aim at Africa Big Man impunity

(Reuters) Begging outside a supermarket in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, Tamba Ngaujah has little doubt who was behind the Revolutionary United Front rebels who, 20 years ago, gave him "short sleeves".

"They put my arms on the sticks, took machetes, and cut them ... They only thing I can tell you about Charles Taylor: I heard from the RUF who amputated my hands that they were supported by Charles Taylor," 46-year-old Ngaujah said.

On Thursday, a special court in The Hague will give its verdict on just what level of responsibility former Liberian President Taylor had in these war atrocities. Taylor himself denies any responsibility.

In an 11-year conflict which by 2002 left over 50,000 dead and become a byword for gratuitous violence, "short sleeves" was the macabre tag used to distinguish amputations like Ngaujah's at the elbow from less drastic "long sleeve" cuts at the wrist.

Prosecutors allege Taylor, from his base in neighboring Liberia, directed and armed the Sierra Leonean rebels and so bears responsibility on 11 counts including murder, mutilation, rape, enslavement, and recruitment of child soldiers.

Whether Taylor is found guilty or not, the verdict will be the first in a court of this kind against a former head of state on serious violations of international law.

Yugoslav ex-leader Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 before the judgment was due in the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal, also in The Hague.

In 2009, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has ordered his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide related to the conflict in Darfur. Bashir rejects the charges.

"The Sierra Leone conflict was brutal, and Charles Taylor was seen as a 'Big Man' in the region," said Elise Keppler, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch of the slowly dwindling club of those ruling with impunity in Africa.

"Regardless of the verdict, this will send a clear signal that people implicated in the worst crimes will face justice no matter how important or powerful they are," she said.

'STRANGE TO US'

Since Taylor's indictment in 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone - a so-called "hybrid" court staffed by both international and Sierra Leonean personnel - has produced testimony ranging from the horrific to the titillating.

As prosecutors sought to link Taylor to the locally-mined "blood diamonds" which helped fuel the war, the court heard the bafflement of supermodel Naomi Campbell at the uncut diamonds - or "dirty little pebbles" in her words - delivered during the night to her hotel room after a 1997 charity dinner with Taylor.

It also featured victims of amputation who displayed remains of mutilated limbs, and graphic accounts of massacres, torture and cannibalism as the prosecution called 91 witnesses whose accounts are included in almost 50,000 pages of transcripts.

Typical is the description by one such witness of the mutilation and execution of his brother by rebels.

"They cut off all his 10 fingers," Patrick Sheriff said. "They put them in (a) cup, then they shot him."
Another witness described fighters betting on the sex of a pregnant woman's child. According to the prosecution: "The rebels shot the woman dead, opened her belly, took out the baby... The baby cried and then died."

For prosecutors, the challenge is to show a link between Taylor and such crimes. Much depends on the evidence of seven radio operators who allegedly kept him in touch with rebel groups. Taylor does not deny atrocities, but does deny any role.

"We did hear of certain actions that were going on in Sierra Leone that ... were a little strange to us, because these things were not happening in Liberia," he said at the trial.

MENACE TO STABILITY

Former Special Court of Sierra Leone lawyer Sareta Ashraph argued that even if a link between Taylor and RUF rebels is demonstrated, it would be harder to show he had a clear planning or command role in the late-1990s period covered by the court.

"It difficult to see the motivation for putting himself in charge of the RUF," said Ashraph, who is writing a history of the Sierra Leone war.

"He was already president of Liberia, was making money off them and would have realized the best the RUF were going to do is force the government into a stalemate."

Rebels and government signed a 1999 peace deal but fighting continued for nearly three years until the RUF was defeated with military help from ex-colonial power Britain and U.N. forces.

While Taylor, 64, was deemed enough of a menace to West Africa's stability that his trial was moved to The Hague after his March 2006 arrest during exile in Nigeria, his present-day influence is harder to define.

The region is still plagued by mercenaries like those who created havoc two decades ago. But militant Islamists such as Nigeria's Boko Haram or al Qaeda agents in the Sahel zone are now the bigger threat, alongside the growing narcotics trade.

Nonetheless, acquittal for Taylor would be an uncomfortable prospect for Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who became his arch-enemy after withdrawing support for him early in the Liberian civil war of the 1990s that brought him to power.

"I never speak about Charles Taylor," Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters during her successful re-election campaign last year. Yet while he is abhorred by many of Liberians, Taylor remains a local hero and symbol of national pride for some.

"The best president I have seen in my time is Charles Ghankay Taylor. He is better than Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf," 40-year-old farmer Karhn Dayplay told Reuters.

"Taylor must come back here to rule this nation. We are waiting for him," said the resident of Karnplay, one of the Nimba County towns from which Taylor launched his 1989 rebellion to unseat the then President Samuel Doe.

OLD ENEMIES

A man used to giving orders, Taylor has wanted to be closely involved in shaping his defense, taking the witness stand for seven months with confident, forthright performances.

As he awaits the verdict, he has immersed himself in study of the Jewish faith to which he converted before arriving in The Hague. He has regular visits from a rabbi and does not receive his lawyers on the Sabbath.

His library - now put in storage - had occupied an entire room at the seaside detention facilities used by the tribunal and the International Criminal Court, where he is said to maintain cordial relations with old enemy Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast leader transferred there last year to face charges of crimes against humanity.

His defense team reports that he is reading "Strategic Vision," the latest book by former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and that Taylor followed last year's upheavals in North Africa with avid interest.

He has benefited from the company of other African detainees including Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo to go through legal briefs and cook home favorites together - one domestic option he may lack in the British maximum security prison due to house him if found guilty.

While some Africans see the long list of countrymen due to be tried in The Hague as evidence of bias in the international legal system, others see the Taylor verdict as one step towards breaking down the impunity many of its biggest criminals enjoy.

Liberia itself has made little progress in prosecuting those responsible for crimes in its war, while abuses committed by northern rebels who backed Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in last year's conflict have yet to be fully investigated.

"This is part of a global process of increasing accountability for the worst crimes," said HRW's Keppler. "In the world of justice versus impunity, justice is still young."

The Wish Center Sponsors A Law Suit to Replace Major General S.A. Abdurrahman with a Natural Born Liberian

The succession of a Nigerian General, Yusuf by his countryman, Major General Suraj Alao Abdurrahman in June 2007, as Commander of the Armed Forces of Liberia, is not only damning and denigrating for one of Africa’s oldest nations, it defies all international legal wisdoms. Under Article VII of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the Armed Forces of Liberia along with other security agencies were to be restructured under a new command. The call to restructure Liberia’s security apparatus came from concerns held by a group of Liberian politicians, including Madam Sirleaf on the “brutal role” of security units under previous Liberian governments. This thirst to institutionalize Liberia’s security units was to ensure that, never again in the history of Liberia, would any government or politicians use the security to protect their political interests. 

In all fairness, the rebuilding of new security machinery for Liberia not only restored its lost dignity, but that process completely removed the pariah status which it inherited from prolonged years of civil unrest. Nonetheless, how worthy is the sovereignty of a nation whose security apparatus is headed by a foreign national? There remains to be seen, how Nigeria would allow Ghana or Liberia to head its security apparatus, because it was prosecuting a bloody Biafaran War; or neighboring Sierra Leone or the Ivory Coast subjecting its sovereign pride to a regional counterpart, from political differences?

The intentions of rebuilding a new Liberia, including its security sector may have been well intentioned. But the subjugation of its security responsibilities to foreign nationals puts the process aloof. Would an Amos Sawyer or a Boima Fahnbulleh allow a UN sanctioned foreigner to head Liberia because both men vigorously prosecuted a progressive struggle against the Samuel Doe regime? Should Madam Sirleaf be excluded from the presidency of Liberia because she admittedly, contributed ten thousand dollars to a rebellious process which dissipated Liberia? 

It can be said that, yes prior to the takeover of Liberia by a military junta on April 12, 1980, the security sector served in détente, or an ease of relationship with its political masters, one that resulted into a trust-deficit. This strange relationship largely sanctioned a very popular indigenous struggle. Some contended that, “the Liberian security sector was used as instrument of coercion by politicians,” and not the reverse. Would a discharged weapon which resulted to the death of someone be blamed instead of its user? Should the courts find a vehicle used in a felony drive by, guilty, and not the operator? Bluntly put, the security apparatus exists at the wills and caprices of the state. In fact, where praises belong, the Sirleaf administrations, previous and now have done well to institutionalize Liberia’s public sector, to include the security. On the contrary, the condoning of Nigerians and other nationals to head the Armed Forces of Liberia in particular, indignantly risks the territorial integrity of the once proud lone star nation, Liberia.

The basis for this unlawfully ignoble arrangement, which lends authority to a Nigerian national to preside over the Armed Forces of Liberia, arguably came from the “Comprehensive Peace Agreement of Accra,” signed by MODEL, LURD, and the then willy-nilly government of Mr. Taylor. Part IV, Article VII (A&B) of the CPA mandated the disbandment of irregular forces (MODEL and LURD), restructuring of a citizenry binding Armed Forces, one which is proportionally represented with a new command. While this provision vaguely mandated a Nigerian, Ghanaian, or other foreign national to serve in advisory capacities, the intention was to mostly oversee the transitioning of the AFL and other security units. But the CPA did not grant the subordination of the AFL to the Republic of Nigeria, or any other ECOWAS member countries. 

Moreover, Urias Pour of the Liberian Policy Research Group argued that “key stakeholders of the Liberian civic society, including the Legislature, were excluded from the dialogues and vetting aspects of the security sector reforming process.” Pour further claimed that, efforts to reform the AFL and the Liberian National police without the full participation of the Liberian people are fundamentally flawed, if they are to serve as pillars of a very weak democracy. 

To say the least, the reform process has not only moved at a sluggish pace, it continues to condone the unconstitutional heading of the AFL by Nigerian and Ghanaian nationals. Under the two term presidency of Madam Sirleaf, the Armed Forces of Liberia continue to struggle with a number of transformational issues, key among, is size. The current strength of the AFL for a nation of almost four million people is ridiculously less than 2,500. In addition, reports have pointed to the unattractively low wages to security personnel, as the hallmark for a weaker security apparatus. Some of these reports argued that, the prevalence of corruption within the security sector is largely to a very unattractive severance package. But the argument can also be made, that a third of the lofty benefits given to nationals from foreign nations, could be given to Liberians with equal or better leadership skill set. 

It can be said, that there is abundance of qualified Liberians with post graduate education, including PhD, and extensive military and, or security knowledge from the United States Armed Forces and others, who can ably preside over the Armed Forces of Liberia, and other Liberian security entities. Undoubtedly, some may believe that the presence of a Nigerian General as head of the AFL is in itself, a way of playing it safe. 

Yet, others may argue that, in the event of an insurgency, or civil strife, the Federal Republic of Nigeria will commit Nigerian troops to quell down that rebellion. While this may sound pleasing, under international law, there is something called, pacta sunt servanda—this is a Latin phrase, which means that promises or agreements must be kept. It is a private contract which in tandem implies that non-fulfillment of respective obligations is a breach of an international pact.

But history shows that, these types of private pacts are nominally unfulfilled. The fact remains that, under such agreements, both parties have to constitutionally evaluate the financial and human costs of committing troops to foreign crises. Under a totalitarian administration, Nigeria may have little or no struggle in meddling in a foreign strife. However, it may not be that easy under the current democratic atmosphere, where containing its own Islamic insurgency posed by Boko Haram continues to present Nigeria’s security apparatus, as a feeble entity.  

On the part of Liberia, this pact has never been ratified or approved by our Legislative branch? And because of that, Madam Sirleaf is in violation of the Liberian Constitution, which clearly grants the responsibility to head the Armed Forces of Liberia under Article 86, to a Liberian citizen, who is to be commissioned by the Liberian National Legislature. 

Besides, under the same international protocol, there is a subsequent law, which excuses parties to such pacts from execution. Under Clausula Rebus Sic Stantibus—things thus standing: is such that whenever there is a fundamental change of circumstance, which was not anticipated by the parties, other than what otherwise existed, may not be enforceable.  And unless the change is objectively essential to the obligations of the agreement; and the instance wherein the change of circumstances has had a radical effect on the obligations of the treaty, it is unenforceable. For instance, under President Tolbert, a similar pact was signed between his government and the late President Sekou Toure’s. What happened in 1980 at the behest of a military junta takeover? Guinea could not fulfilled its side of a similar agreement, because of the occurrence of a Liberian coup d’état, which was not factored into the Tolbert-Toure’s Pact. Dejavu! 

Are we implying that within one of the oldest nations, there is no capable Liberian other than a Nigerian to head the AFL? Where in twenty-first century Africa is this possible other than Liberia? Sometimes, I wonder whether there exists any civil legal body in Liberia, to take on such unconstitutionally irrational decisions. Such a move will protect Liberia’s brittle democracy. Nonetheless, a few weeks from now, a group of Liberians lead by The Wish Center, a human rights organization, will sponsor a law suit in our Liberian courts, with the hope of replacing Major General Suraj Alao Abdurrahman with a natural born Liberian. Stay tuned.

Sources:

 http://www.ssrnetwork.net/ssrbulletin/liberia.php

http://www.usip.org/files/file/resources/collections/peace_agreements/liberia_08182003.pdf

Edmond Gray is a Liberian national residing in Minnesota, and can be reached at remiegray@gmail.com .