More ‘Bloody-Tuesday’ Lashes

Diaspora Liberians Demand Police Chief’s Sacking

Nat Bayjay, nat.bayjay@frontpageafricaonline.com (231-77-402737)

Flashback from Bloody Tuesday

Calls for Police Commissioner Marc Amblard to be sacked continue to pour in including some Diaspora-based Liberians. The Association of Liberian Civil Society Organizations in the Diaspora (ALCSOD) has joined in the call, sharply reacting to what it refers to as police brutality against the student population.
“We want the Sirleaf government to immediately dismiss its current police chief and establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the actions of the police and dismiss those officers who were directly involved and responsible for such unlawful and reckless behavior”, says ALCSOD.
The Diaspora Group was making reference to the police’s recent handling of the recent demonstration by students of the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS) where over 20 students were injured and several others arrested but later released.
In a dispatch signed by Jacob Massaqoui, the President of the Holistic Peace Movement, Patrick Nimely-Sie Tuon of the Liberia Human Rights Campaign and Cllr. Frederick A.B. Jayweh of the Liberian Lawyer Association in America, ALCSOD will be seeking to rally a mass citizens action to force the Sirleaf administration out of power if there is a recurrence of the recent incident.
The Association wondered whether it was a crime for the students to protest the underpayment of their teachers which had led to a disruption in their learning.
Believing that the alleged brutal action by the newly formed Liberian police force has shaken the Liberian people’s confidence, not only in the police force, but also in the entire Sirleaf government’s ability to guarantee their freedoms and protect them, the Diaspora Liberians in their dispatch said: “ It is widely believed that the successful holding of the 2005 elections which followed years of bloody conflict and lawlessness, abuse of the rights of others would have been a thing of the past.”
The release quotes the group as saying public confidence in the police will totally erode if police officers involved are not brought to book.
Says the Association: “Hopes had been high that views, no matter what they are, will not be the cause to be threatened, brutally attacked, imprisoned, tortured or even killed, adding that the election of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, herself once a victim of security brutality and other forms of suppression and oppression was seen as offering a sigh of relief such vices.”

Police boss who had since justified the police’s action on the students, describing it as “appropriate and international best practice” has come under pressure from the public and other civil groupings to be sacked.