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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: LURD leader Dweh chosen as speaker of parliament
MONROVIA, 20 October 2003 (IRIN) - Liberia's new transitional parliament elected George Dweh, a controversial representative of the LURD rebel movement, as its speaker on Monday, despite allegations by protest demonstrators thathe was a murderer.
After Dweh's name was mentioned for the post of speaker last week, more than 100 women relatives of a man called Johnny Nah, dressed in white, staged a demonstration outside the parliament building on Thursday claiming that Dweh had helped to murder Nah and his entire family during the 1990s.
They urged the 76 nominated representatives not to choose Dweh as their leader.
However, he was elected by an alliance of 36 representatives of LURD, MODEL, a smaller rebel movement, and the National Patriotic Party of former president Charles Taylor.
Eddington Varmah, who served as Justice Minister under Taylor, was elected as deputy speaker.
Both men were unopposed and won 64 percent of the total votes cast. The representatives of some civil society groups, including women's organisations, youth groups, pro-democracy institutions and the trade union movement, abstained.
Dweh is a founding member of LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), which took up arms against Taylor in 1999, He was a prominent member of its negotiating team in the Accra peace conference which led to the signing of a peace agreement on 18 August. He is also a first cousin of former president Samuel Doe, who was captured and murdered by rebels in 1990.
On Sunday, the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) expressed concern about the naming of discredited cronies of past leaders to posts in the broad-based transitional government, led by Gyude Bryant, which took power last week.
"Those appointed or elected to the new government must be individuals of high moral character and integrity, with untainted past records. Every effort should be made to ensure that all members of the new government are appointed or elected based upon their professional abilities," UNMIL said in a statement.
Those chosen to lead Liberia to fresh elections in 2005 would have to place the interests of the people ahead of any personal interests, it stressed.
Taylor's former defence minister Daniel Chea, was one of several controversial figures nominated to serve in the new cabinet last week. More than 150 soldiers staged a protest against Chea's retention in the post, saying he failed to pay them.
On Sunday LURD nominated two younger brothers of Doe, an army sargent who came to power in a 1980 coup, for top jobs in the new government
It proposed Jackson Doe as Minister for Presidential Affairs and Cheaye Doe as managing director of the National Port Authority.
LURD also nominated Aliyu Sheriff, its military chief of staff to serve as chief of staff of the Liberian army, even though that position was not allocated to any of the warring parties in the August peace agreement.
Themes: (IRIN) Governance
[ENDS]
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