Dispatch From Camp Clara

THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE IRISH EXAMINER NEWSPAPER IN ….

Michael O’Farrell
Political Reporter in Monrovia

JUST a few years ago Hotel Africa, situated nine kilometeres outside Liberia’s capital Monrovia, was a focal point for West Africa’s illicit diamond and arms trade.
It was from here that former Liberian President Charles Taylor and his close-knit inner circle – including Hotel Africa’s owner Dutchman Gus van Kowenhoven – carved up the wealth of Liberia’s people and pillaged neighbouring Sierra Leone.
The hotel’s busstling casino and famous Africa-shaped swimming pool were once thronged with Rolex- wearing arms dealers such as former KGB officer Viktor Bout. A UN investigation into Liberia’s gun and diamond running even named Hotal Africa as the base for Viktor Bout’s pilots.
Legendry in West Africa due to his gun running, Viktor Bout even set up an Irish shelf company based in Dublin’s Clanwilliam Terrace to register the aircraft he used to smuggle in vast amounts of ex-Soviet arms from Eastern Europe.
But with Charles Taylor and his cronies banished and in hiding since last Summer, the now burned out shell of Hotel Africa has a new link with Ireland.
Amid tall palm trees and numerous ransacked villas belonging to the hotel, an Irish Oak tree planted in December, is surrounded by the tents and equipment of 430 Irish UN peacekeepers.
The largest villa, situated on the picturesque sandy beach where the St Paul river meets the Atlantic Ocean, was once the favourite of Charles Taylor himself. It is now a bar and recreational room for Irish soldiers.
Hotel Africa, home of corruption and greed, has become Camp Clara from which Irish troops now provide an emergency response service to other UN troops in war-torn Liberia as well as patrolling all four corners of the country.
“It has been tough. We’ve operated into areas where situations have been quite tense at times,” says Commandant Jim Byrne an operations officer from Athlone. “It was certainly a war-torn area. It has been devestated for the last 12 years and we feel this is a very worthwhile mission.”
But the most important mission here is carried out silently and has nothing to do with the modern guns and weapons these troops carry.
It is reflected by the salaries given up to support local charitble homes and the time spent voluntarily with those who have suffered so long.
One soldier, who prefers to remain anonymous, was even preparing to adopt a local baby suffering from AIDS before she unfortunately passed away. These gestures and the impact they have on the impoverished Liberian people does not go unnoticed by locals.
“In Africa when we see the white man we believe the white man give some sort of stability. So thanks to the Irish soldier and thanks to the Irish Government for taking their time to send these people to come here to make the peace keeping mission in Liberia a success,” said Oliver who is employed by the army as a labouerer in Camp Clara.
Oliver, who does not want to reveal his family name, is like many in Liberia, still untrusting of the country’s fragile peace and is reluctant to talk of the war. “A lot of people got injured, a lot of people got killed, a lot of people got hurt. Liberia has been suffering for so long,” he says.
Another local, Moorre Horton, saw his friends killed in an infamous morter attack on a US Embassey-owned compound in an area of the city called Greystones. “I experienced a lot of trouble. Some of my friends and relatives, I saw them die. I was traumirised by the war. When the morter dropped at Greystones, I was there. I saw the people get killed. Even some of my friends were killed right in front of my eyes.”
Taking a break from his job in the camp washroom, Bruno G. Frieeman tells of his home town village in the countryside outside the capital.
“It was very bad. There was a lot of destruction to us. I went home yesterday. My house – everything – is down, destroyed. Things were rough the rebels destroyed everything. I do not want to go back there again,” says Bruno who lost his eldest brother to the war.
Bruno’s children still can’t get used to so many white people around. “They say – ‘Oh Papa look at the white man, look at the white people’ – and I tell them they are here for peace.
“My oldest son can still remember when there was no UN and things were very rough. Now he sees the guns and says; ‘Oh Papa these are the guns the people used to be shooting.’ I say yes but they are here for peace. They brought freedom to you and our family.”
Like every other local Bruno is not sparing in his praise. “For the people in Irish Land, I first of all thank God for their troops in Liberia. Really I would ask them to do more if they can to bring peace to this nation and I tell them thank you for the job they are doing for us in Liberia. I wish for my children to see Irish Land one day to see the people who rescued them.”
When asked about Charles Taylor his voice becomes angry. “Charles Taylor, he spoilt our future. He spoilt a lot of the youth. I got no good thing to say about him – just that he should remain where he is and not come back here.”
But Bruno is too wise to become bitter. “I will forgive but I won’t forget. I went home to my village yesterday and I saw the destruction and I saw these little boys who were with the rebels still in my village. Thay said; ‘Oh big brother we are ready to give our arms.’ I gave them a little money and said; give your arms than we will live peacefully.
“We just have to forget about it because if we think over it, it cannot bring what we lost back. I won’t forget – it’s a pain we went through – but we just have to forgive.”
ENDS