AFRICA/LIBERIA - MISSIONARY FATHER ARMANINO, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE SERVING LIBERIANS, EXPLAINS UNSOLVED PROBLEMS AT ROOT OF CIVIL CONFLICT

Monday, 2 February 2004

Rome (Fides Service)- “As always different factors intervene and interact in civil conflict and genocide as in the case of Liberia” Father Mauro Armanino, SMA Superior General in Liberia told Fides. Liberia is trying with great difficulty to find the way out of a tragic civil war of which the latest stage began in 1999, but which in fact has lasted since 1980. In April 1980 a coup led by Sergeant K. Doe put an end to centuries old rule of “Afro-Americans descendants of former slaves deported to the United States who returned to Africa to found Liberia in the 19th century.
“The long ‘Afro-American’ rule was one of those pre-conditions which fomented violence” Father Armanino said. “The history of Liberia is in fact a story of foreign minority oppression over a local people regarded and treated as non-persons”.
Later, in addition to the old division between “Afro-American” and “locals” Liberia also suffered from ethnic rivalry among tribes. People grasping for power exploited these divisions. Father Armanino said: “Ethnic conflict was manipulated for reasons of power and naturally the consequent massacres did the rest causing a spiral of violence”. In the late 1980s the state began to lose its legitimacy and become a tool of abuse in the hands of criminal to exploit the country’s resources. “Criminalisation of the state filled the void left by the massonic-clientel management of various presidents up to the 1980s. In the 1990s the collapse of the state produced a capillary criminal network which systematically excluded or manipulated the people” Father Armanino told Fides.
“All this must be inserted in a regional context of Mafia-like complicity and international intrigues to control resources (diamonds, iron, timber…). The international community intervened in Liberia’s recent history without having a clear vision of the region, also due to interests of certain countries (Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Libya, France, United States) one way or the other involved in the crisis” said Father Armanino, adding: “But, due to a diverse international conjuncture, with time awareness and denouncement of criminal ties increased. Organisations such as Global Witness, International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, contributed largely to unmasking the criminal aspects connected with Liberia’s civil war”. However this was not enough to stop the war the missionary said: “It is of little use to set up committees to make reports on trafficking of arms or diamonds. What is lacking is the ability and the will to intervene effectively on the transformation of social structures, the only way to help Liberia exit from the spiral of violence”.
With regard to the role of the Catholic Church in Liberia, Father Armanino says: “There are many Protestants in Liberia, especially Pentecostals, and although they offer an important service of ‘consolation’ they completely overlook the ‘transforming’ aspect of the Gospel. With rgeard to the local Catholic Church, it was the community which took the most critical position towards regime of President Taylor (charged by a United Nations’ Court with crimes against humanity), but the time for work was very short and two out of three dioceses suffered greatly in the last crisis”.
“For me it has been a privilege to walk the path of these people. The suffering and fear of Liberians, particularly during the war, became my own. My service gradually became simply being here, believing that only from the weakness of defeat and indeed starting from defeat, the people of Liberia will see some change” concludes the missionary. (L.M.) (Fides Service 2/2/2004, lines 51 words 643)


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