~ OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE~
ATLANTA, GEORGIA:
News reaching us from Monrovia says that guns were fired at CDC’s headquarters today. According to a Reuters’ witness, “Sporadic gunfire broke out in the centre of Monrovia on Monday after Liberian riot police fired tear gas to disperse several hundred supporters of presidential challenger Winston Tubman.” In the same news article reported that, “A Liberian police officer said both the police and Tubman's CDC party supporters had fired but it was not possible to confirm the information.”
A VOA correspondent on the scene said that at one point, United Nations peacekeepers charged with securing the scene took defensive positions against Liberian riot police.
Based on S-CLOPD’s contacted in Monrovia, five persons were killed and twenty-five others injured.
According to reliable sources, the police that did the shooting did not look like Liberian riot police; suggesting that they may have been foreigners.“This is April 14, all over again”, shouted a bystander our source says.
On April 14, 1979, a rally to protest the increase in the rice price ended when the police provoked the PAL members who had peacefully assembled at their headquarters. The rally had intended to discourage the importation of rice (Liberia's staple food) and to encourage the production of locally grown rice. The incident is wrongly referred to as “Rice Riot”.
The authorities went berserk; arrested members and non members of the opposition – PAL, along with their leader, the late Gabriel Baccus Matthews. Mr. Matthews’ crime was – he called for a massive demonstration throughout Monrovia. When the dust settled, some say, hundreds of people were killed and several hundred were wounded. As in this case where President Johnson-Sirleaf took on the airwave to denounce the rally, a week prior to the rally in 1979, the Tolbert administration carried out several public service announcements against planned rally.
A renowned observer who commented on what is unfolding in Liberia said, “Most wise corporations agree to settle employee lawsuits OUT-OF-COURT, in the interest of peace and move on… So, for Liberia’s political impasse where CDC boycotts the “Run-Off “ of November 8, 2011, Ellen must consider the option of peace rather than victory, and consider to postpone the run-off to a later date until all the legal issues raised by CDC are addressed. So, ECOWAS/US/UN reading ‘Riot Act’ on CDC is unhelpful”.
We will provide more information as we receive them.
