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OLM 2007 Election Commission

November 20, 2007

Mr. Edmond Gray, AFL

Champlin, MN
Dear Mr. Gray:
The attention of the Election Commission has been drawn to your involvement in an altercation that led to the Brooklyn Park Police visiting the Board of Directors debate at least twice. On Sunday, November 18, you caused disturbance during the debate when you attempted to stop Mr. Benoni Grimes, a facilitator of the 2007 OLM Elections Debate Committee from taking photos. In spite of the fact that you were warned by commission members that Mr. Grimes had been invited to perform said function and, that it was not your place to prevent Mr. Grimes or anyone from taking photos, you persisted with your action to prevent him from taking photos, in a manner that caused disturbance to the extent that police had to be invited twice. This action on your part, amounts to taking the law into your hands during the debate and led to the Liberian Community loosing the chance of holding the December 2, 2007 elections at the facility of the North Hennepin Community College. Your action has further helped to ruin the reputation of the Liberian Community in Minnesota and is in direct violation of article VI section 4.1 regarding the conduct of voters.
Article VI Section 4.1, which qualifies voters, requires all members to be in good standing and conduct. Your action to physically and/or, verbally attempt to restrain Mr. Grimes from taking photos, to the extent that caused police intervention does not represent the standard required of a member in good standing and conduct of the guideline.
Concerned that your action could further intimidate peaceful participants of the Liberian community from participating in the elections, and, in view of all of the above, the Election Commission has reached the unanimous decision to suspend you from further participation in the 2007 Election exercises of the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota.
Please be informed that this communication has been sent to the Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center Police Departments and that their assistance has been requested in the event where you insist on not complying with the terms of this communication. Your are further warned to stay away from the November 25, 2007 Debate which is scheduled to be held at the Brooklyn United Methodist Church, the election process and all remaining processes of the elections, including the voting hall, and voting on December 2, 2007. Your failure to adhere to the terms of this communication would leave the Commission with the option to take the necessary action to protect the election process.
Sincerely yours
Joseph Simmonds, Chairman
Rules & Grievance Committee
Approved: Francis K. Zazay, Chairman
Election Commission
cc: Brooklyn Park Police
Brooklyn Center Police
Mr. Abdula Kiatamba
http://www.liberiahumanrightsproject.org/ OLM 2007 Election Commission

DO NOT VOTE FOR A REBEL LEADER???

KERPER DWANYEN

Dear Minnesota-Liberians,
I bring you sincere greetings in the name of God our Father, and it is my fervent prayer that He continues to grant us peace, tranquility and long life.
Following my last communication, I received numerous calls and emails, many of them extolling me for providing a clearer picture of the Kerper Dwanyen fiasco. Let me say this now: It is not my intention to take credit for anything. The challenge I have taken here, is to ensure that at the end of the day, Liberians in this great state of Minnesota would make the right choice on December 2, 2007. And that choice is NOT to vote for Kerper Dwanyen, a soon to be indicted war lord (however petit he may have been).
Kerper Dwanyen has lied to many of his current followers just like he lied to young men and women of Nimba County , when he promised them "the good life", only to take them to their early graves. It is more than important to point out to the current group of Liberians following this war lord that they are doing a disservice to themselves, their kids, their community and their country. Many of these fine Liberians would never vote for Charles Taylor, Prince Johnson, Paul Vaye, Benjamin Yaeten, George Dweh or even George Boley to be president of Liberia . Why then would some of these same Liberians opt to vote for Kerper Dwanyen to be the head of our community? Kerper is a war lord, and if you will not vote for a war lord to be your country’s president, please, please do not vote for one to be the president of our community. Search your conscience my people, and do what is right!
The painful aspect of this whole situation is the arrogance being exhibited by Kerper Dwanyen. First, he claims that his rebel group did not commit atrocities. What a lie!! On that fateful Saturday night, around 10:30pm on February 28, 1992 his rebel Nimba Redemption Council (NRC) stormed villages in and around areas of Logahtuo and Gbainta, kicking doors open and dragging women, children and the elderly out in the brutal night, shooting and blasting thatch homes to pieces in the process.
Fathers, mothers and young children ran helter-skelter blindly into the dark night in the paths of bullets. Can you imagine sleeping, and I mean fast asleep, and you are awakened by the overwhelming sound of heavy gun fires outside your door, and terrifying looking men stepping your doors down and ordering you out, whether you were naked or scantily clothed? That was the scene that night! Those who attempted to resist where considered NPFL rebels and shot, execution style.
In a couple of hours following Kerper Dwanyen’s rebel group entry into Nimba County, through the porous Ivorian border, his mentor Charles Taylor sent in a counter reinforcement group from Yekepa, headed by the late Cassius Jacobs. As the NPFL forces fought and drove Kerper ‘s NRC out of the area, his retreating rebels grabbed women and children to use as human shields as they fled in the bushes and back towards the Ivory Coast . And some of those people never made it back home!
Additionally, as Kerper’s retreating rebel forces tried to cross into Ivory Coast , those who made it alive to the border were arrested by the Ivorian authorities. There are numerous accounts that those young men and women were tortured, lying on their backs and facing the hot sun. They were brutalized and those who lived through the agony were returned to Charles Taylor. Your imagination is as good as mine about what Taylor did to those young men and women.
Meanwhile, Kerper Dwanyen was heard on BBC’s Focus on Africa , boasting of how his NRC forces (a group that lasted for less than a week) had captured Logatuo, Gbainta and other surrounding villages, and that he would take Nimba away from the NPFL. All this time, Kerper Dwanyen was sitting in Lagos (Nigeria) and partying "under the tree", offering money to people to speak to the international press for his rebel group. He had the comfort of a warm bed, and he had food to eat while talking rubbish and sending other people’s children to suffer and die for nothing! A grave injustice was done to the people of Nimba County by the likes of Kerper Dwanyen, and no well-meaning Liberian must reward such people with leadership.
Kerper Dwanyen also lied that his rag tag Nimba Redemption Council was sponsored and supported by IGNU and ECOWAS. That’s complete nonsense! But even if as he claims (and just for the sake of argument), that ECOWAS asked him to take up arms and shoot his own people in return for a "piece of the pie", didn’t he have the sense of pity for the poor people of Nimba who had already gone through so much? What kind of leader takes up arms and shoot his own people to death, just to make a statement to another criminal? What kind of justification is that?
Fellow Liberians, our adopted country, the USA offers us so many virtues that we need to apply to our community and our country as a whole to make them better. This great country is as strong as it is because, among other things, it never gives state leadership or power to criminals and evil men. In this country, if you are a criminal, you forfeit your right to vote! And the people don’t turn around and grant you the esteemed privilege to run for an elected office and to lead them. Why are we then even contemplating doing this injustice to ourselves? Our children are watching us! The younger guys are watching us! What message are we sending to them? We must not be that cruel to our own community!
My final word toady goes to those decent Liberians who were thinking about throwing their votes behind Kerper Dwanyen. Please, I trust that you have thought hard about this and will make the right decision. You are being patriotic to this community and your country Liberia by saying NO to rebel leaders who continuously crave for power. Stand firm and say No! Do not let others point fingers at you for blatantly disregarding the suffering and death of our people, and for betraying the confidence and trust of those who are not able to speak out against those rebel leaders who bear greater responsibility for the mass murdering of our people and the wanton destruction of our country. Speak for those who were killed in Logahtuo and say NO to Kerper Dwanyen. Speak for the pregnant lady who was shot dead on that dreadful night and say NO to Kerper Dwanyen. Speak out for non-violence in Liberia by voting NO to Kerper Dwanyen! Do the right thing so you can be able to walk with your head up high. It’s your votes, but let it speak for the voiceless!!
Thanks for this opportunity once again to speak to you.
Very truly yours,
Nathan Vleh-Karnweay
Burnsville , MN
nvkarnweay@yahoo.com


THE GRIMES’ COMMISSION CLEARED OF FALSE ALLEGATIONS – “…Audit Report incomplete and unrealistic” -Says SARC-
 BY PEOPLE’S VOICE STAFF REPORTER
RAMSEY, MN/08-17-07 The 2005 OLM Election Commission headed by Mr. Benoni Grimes has been cleared of all false allegation made by Gigson Keypoe Audit Committee. The Special Audit Review Committee (SARC) set up recently by OLM leadership to probe and bring to closure the findings of an “audit” conducted on the financial activities of the Commission.
In their report, the SARC, which was headed by Mrs. Georgette Gray states that their decision to clear the Commission of these charges was predicated upon the fact that the audit report was “incomplete and unrealistic”  
In their findings, the SARC maintains that there exists no evidence to support the Keypo’s Audit Committee’s assertion that Mr. Grimes or the election Commission refused to cooperate with the audit process.    
 “We (SARC) has also determined that the conditions on which the findings were based, including variances analysis (differences between the first and second report) were not obtained during the audit , due to scope limitation by the Election Commission,” the report  further stated.  
 
The Report also noted that it could not establish the fact that the Audit Committee formally or informally contacted the leadership of the erstwhile Election Commission during the conduct of its financial activities because the Audit Committee could not produce any shred of evidence (emails, returned letter, etc.,) to validate its claim that it did indeed contact Mr. Grimes and that he refused to cooperate.
It can be recalled that few months ago a news article appeared on the Bushchicken website quoting Mr. Gibson Keypo,  head of  an OLM’s Audit Committee  accusing the Election Commission of financial improprieties, after what it termed as an ‘audit report’ of  the Commission’s financial activities during the conduct of the 2005 elections.
In its reaction to the news report, the Chairman of the erstwhile 2005 Election Commission, Mr. Benoni Grimes questioned the authenticity of the audit report and insisted that the Commission had no prior knowledge of the audit. Mr. Grimes than challenged the Audit Committee to produce any documents or records; circumstantial or evidential to substantiate that the Commission was an active partner in the conduct of the audit, consistent with professional auditing standards.  
However, in the wake of claims and counter- claims, a 3-man Special Audit Review Committee (SARC) was set up by the Board of Directors of OLM to probe the audit with the view to bring the issue to closure.  
Meanwhile , as part of its recommendation, the SARC has requested the erstwhile Election Commission to forward all documentations to the Committee to enable it assume  responsibility of reviewing all financial activities related to the conduct of the 2005 OLM Elections.
The SARC position comes against the backdrop of a recommendation from the Auditing Committee to recluse itself from any further review of the financial activities of the Commission because it members are engaged in “intensive academic pursuits.”
Finally, in its findings, the  SARC than expressed appreciation to the erstwhile Election Commission and the OLM Audit Committee for their contribution in bringing closure to the audit report.