Disgraced president Charles Taylor may have quit Liberia but reminders of his violence-wracked six-year rule still haunt war-ravaged Monrovia, where weathered signs bear the sayings he coined to remind Liberians of their civic duties.
Illustrated in bold, bright colours, billboards litter the streets, urging people to ”Put Liberia above your own interests” — bitterly ironic message from the very man who tore the country apart.
”Liberia is all we have: let’s nurture it, cherish it, reconcile it, develop it,” reads another of the many posters plastered throughout Monrovia, dating back to Taylor’s presidential election campaign in 1997.
Taylor, a former warlord who launched Liberia’s first civil war in 1989, was elected president in 1997, the year the civil war ended.
After a brief period of calm in the west African country, rebels launched a new war in 1999 to oust Taylor.
Under intense international pressure, he finally stepped down this month and went into exile. A week later, the rebels fighting him signed a peace pact with a caretaker government, ending 14 years of near-constant warfare during which Taylor battled to acquire and secure his hold on power, at great cost to the civilian population.
Taylor took up an offer of exile in Nigeria, leaving behind him a country in ruins, its economy wrecked, its capital starved of power and water, where the population is dependent on international aid and remains prey to gangs of militiamen.
More than a third of Liberia’s three-million-strong population were either displaced within the country during the latest phase of war or have taken refuge in surrounding west African states, according to the United Nations.
Monrovia was the epicentre of fierce fighting in recent months between rebels and forces loyal to Taylor, until Taylor stepped down on August 11.
Even before the latest outbreak of fighting, only 20% of children were in school, most schools having either been destroyed or turned into makeshift shelters for the displaced, according to the UN Children’s Fund, Unicef.
”In union, strong success is true,” chirps one of the Taylor billboards, while another insists ”It’s all about peace and reconciliation”, messages which hit a nerve as reports still trickle in of clashes between government forces and two rebel groups fighting over what remains of Liberia.
More than 150 years after Liberia was founded by freed American slaves, the United States is a recurrent feature of the billboards, illustrating the importance for political figures in Liberia of having US backing.
”We cherish our friendship,” reads one campaign poster, against a backdrop of the US flag interwined with Liberia’s own, similar national flag.
Another billboard highlights a more strained aspect of that relationship, with a ragged Liberia telling the United States: ”We came a long way Big Brother, but we are still suffering.”
”Is that true?” answers the figure of Uncle Sam, pockets stuffed with dollar bills.
Finally, one billboard, apparently aimed at Taylor’s critics within the media, warns that ”Words can be more harmful than bullets.” Yet bullets, not words, have ripped Liberia apart, and Taylor shares the burden of responsibility. – Sapa-AFP