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Keep
a watchful eye on the criminals
Friday,
March 23, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
I don't have any problem with Liberians
returning home to work for government or the private
sector, in order to contribute to the rebuilding of
their country.
President Sirleaf made that plea shortly after
she was inaugurated and during her many foreign
travels, for competent and capable Liberians to return
home to contribute to the development of their
country.
I strongly believe in that call to duty because
it is the right call and the right thing to do; and
because it is also the God-given right of those
Liberians and their children born in foreign countries
to return to their country of birth or their ancestral
home to do just that.
Rep. Ketterkumehn Earl Murray
Benedict "Ben' Matalda
After all, some of us often dreamed of
returning home one day, yes, one day to use whatever
talents we have to help contribute to the rebuilding
of Liberia and make a difference.
I don't have any problem with Liberians who did
not commit a crime elsewhere but were deported,
anyway, to their native country for violating their
immigration visas, and wants to seek employment upon
arriving in Liberia with the hopes of earning a living
and contributing to society.
What I have problem with are those Liberians
who were deported from a foreign land for committing a
crime or crimes, or those that fled from justice
knowing they would be arrested and prosecuted; and
once in Liberia begin to work in government or in the
private sector without fully disclosing their shady
past.
Rep. Ketterkumehn Earl Murray, who led his
colleagues to impeach then-Speaker Edwin Melvin Snowe,
and whose actions almost created a national crisis in
January, when he and his colleagues ignored the ruling
of the Supreme Court to reinstate Mr. Snowe, is
believed to have fled from justice years ago when he
was about to be arrested for a crime he allegedly
committed in North Carolina.
According to the “most wanted” list of the
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a warrant
for Murray’s arrest was first issued in 1997, and
later in 1999, after it was alleged that he attempted
to rape a 13-year old girl in Mecklenburg County,
North Carolina.
After he fled to Liberia, Ketterkumehn Earl
Murray joined the camp of Charles Taylor during the
time the dictator unleashed his terror campaign on the
Liberian people. Snowe and Murray would later team up
to become a formidable presence in the Taylor camp.
Mr. Murray is now a member of the House of
Representatives and Chairman of the powerful standing
committee.
Benedict (Ben) Matalda served as President of
the former Liberian Community Association of Georgia
in the late 1990s, after he relocated from
Pennsylvania to metro Atlanta. After his arrest for
alleged spousal abuse, shoplifting and violating his
immigration status, Mr. Matalda was deported to
Liberia from the United States in the early 2000s.
After she became president in 2006, it was
widely rumored that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf appointed
Matalda Deputy Minister at Transport, and later as an
assistant at Water and Sewer.
Matalda served at one time as chairman of the
current Education Minister’s Joseph Korto’s
Liberia Equal Rights political party (LERP) during the
presidential election, flirted with running for the
Senate in his native Nimba County in 2006, and was
active in the politics of the United Nimba Citizen’s
Council (UNICCO).
The late Emmett Russ served in the U.S. army
when he lived in the United States. It is believed he
even served in “Operation Desert Storm,” or the
first Iraq war.
Mr. Russ fled to Liberia after he was wanted by
U.S. law enforcement authorities on charges of
possession of drugs. After he arrived in Liberia,
President Charles Taylor appointed Emmett Russ
Assistant Minister of Defense, and served as the
dictator’s henchman later in his young life.
Mr. Russ died on the battlefield in 2002, after
his boss, Mr. Taylor dispatched him to the former
Gbapolu district, Lofa, County to check on rebel
activities in that area.
The “Reverend” Dortus C. Doe formerly of Deliverance
Life Tabernacle Church in Dekalb County, Georgia, a
suburb of Atlanta, was deported to Liberia few years
ago for financial identity fraud and forgery.
According to Dekalb County police, Mr. Doe used
church member Karen Belten’s social security number
and birth date to establish an account in both their
names without Ms. Belten’s knowledge. Dortus Doe is
now in Liberia running a church group.
Let it be clear that The Liberian Dialogue does
not intend to go after Liberians who fell on hard
times and were deported to Liberia from the United
States for violating their immigration status.
It is unfortunate that those Liberians
overlooked something as essential as their immigration
papers and were not aggressive enough to renew their
status, which caused their eventual deportation. We
feel their collective pains.
The Analyst Web site recently published the
names of Liberians who were deported from the United
States to Liberia for different reasons, but did not
make it clear as to why others were deported.
However, The Liberian Dialogue will only go
after individuals who were deported for engaging in
criminal activities while living in the United States,
and the fugitives who fled from justice and are now
working in the Liberian government and the private
sector. Why? Because we want the Liberian
people to know who's living among them, so as to
protect themselves against any possible criminal
activity from those individuals.
If Liberians are serious about putting a dent
in corruption and are clamping down on individuals
with manufactured degrees from overseas’
universities that don’t exist, it is also in the
interest of the country for Liberians to keep a
watchful eye on the criminals in their midst, and
should also do a background check on individuals who
are occupying jobs under false pretense while good
men and women who are living by the rules are
unemployed.
We cannot rebuild Liberia when we refuse to
police others and ourselves because of the
close-knitted relationships and emotional ties we have
with the man or woman next door.
If reconstruction means building
infrastructure, it also should mean attitude
adjustment and getting away from the way we did things
in the past, because a fugitive who fled from justice
or who was deported for committing a crime elsewhere
is capable of doing the same anywhere.
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