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50,000 Stranded at Guthrie

Liberian Observer (Monrovia)
NEWS
September 19, 2006
Posted to the web September 19, 2006
Monrovia
The Director of Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Recovery (RRR) at the United
Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), Mr. Andrea Tamagnini, has disclosed that
about 50,000 men, women and children are presently stranded and seriously
suffering at the Guthrie Rubber Plantation in Western Liberia.
Mr. Tamagnini said constant harassment by ex-fighters at the plantation and the
lack of health and educational facilities were some of the main causes of this
situation.
"The people at the plantation do not have any water, no good schools, no clinic
and the ex-fighters are still harassing them on a daily basis. Thus, for us,
this is unfair to the citizens," the RRR boss pointed out.
Mr. Tamagnini further noted that the ex-fighters at the plantation, under the
leadership of Sumo Dennis, a former rebel general of Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), had generated about US$15 million during a
three-year period of their occupation of the plantation at the expense of the
ordinary citizens on the plantation.
Despite the amount realized, he added, not a single facility on the plantation
or in the country was maintained or properly kept.
The UNMIL RRR director recently made these assertions when he spoke to the
Daily Observer in Clay, Bomi County.
Mr. Tamagnini also said that he had been discussing with the ex-combatants to
stop violence and the exploitation of the plantation and lamented that only a
few of them had started cooperating.
"I told them that they can be employed with the new management team or sent
back to school. Whatever they desire to do they should bring it forward and we
are willing to address them," Mr. Tamagnini disclosed.
He said since his promise of reintegration of the ex-fighters into normal
society, some of the ex-combatants had begun registering at his office.
The RRR boss also said that his aim was to see those residing on the plantation
live decent and good life like any other citizen in Liberia.
"Right now," he pointed out, "there are a few schools operating on the
plantation, but lack of books and other teaching and learning materials is
posing a serious problem for school children in the area. Over the past, not a
single cent or equipment has been supplied to schools on the plantation and I
cannot see how money generated by the ex-fighters in the area is being used."
Guthrie Rubber Plantation is the country's third largest plantation, located in
Western Liberia, (Bomi and Cape Mount Counties).
The Government of Liberia recently appointed a management team to begin legal
purchase and sale of rubber at the plantation.
The ex-fighters responded by asking for a 90-day grace period before leaving
the plantation and the payment of what they called their resettlement benefits.
A few days later and after Government had rejected their demands on September
5, 2006, the ex-fighters reportedly ambushed a Weala Rubber Company (WRC)
vehicle at Harmon Hill, about three kilometers from Morick Camp and made away
with US$20,320 intended for rubber purchase.
UNMIL Force Commander, Lt. Gen. Isaac C. Obiakor, recently declared the two
leaders of the ex-fighters, Sumo Dennis and Joseph Nyumah, as wanted men.
Latest reports say that one of the leaders, Sumo Dennis, has since turned
himself over to UNMIL.


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