Peace Corps Online: July 14, 2003 - Naples News Press: RPCV Stephen Grogoza says U.S. should aid Liberia

July 14, 2003 - Naples News Press: RPCV Stephen Grogoza says U.S. should aid Liberia

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2003: July 2003 Peace Corps Headlines: July 14, 2003 - Naples News Press: RPCV Stephen Grogoza says U.S. should aid Liberia

By Admin1 (admin) on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 9:10 am: Edit Post

RPCV Stephen Grogoza says U.S. should aid Liberia

Read and comment on this story from the Naples News Press that RPCV Stephen Grogoza says the U.S. should aid Liberia. Liberia has been ruined under Taylor’s corrupt regime and the United States should take steps to ensure his departure as soon as possible, Grogoza said. “I was there three years ago. Everybody had a horrendous story to tell of torture, death and starvation,” he said. The attorney said he saw hundreds of orphanages for children whose parents had been killed in the civil unrest.

Because of strong historical and sentimental ties, U.S. assistance would be welcomed with open arms by the Liberian people, a contrast to the mixed and still often violent reaction to the presence of our country’s forces in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, Grogoza said. “I know that the Liberian people look up to us. They consider the United States to be the big brother of Liberia,” he said. Read the story at:

U.S. should aid Liberia, says Naples lawyer*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.

U.S. should aid Liberia, says Naples lawyer

Ex-Peace Corps member says it would be welcome

By DENES HUSTY III, dhusty@news-press.com

The United States should intervene to end the bloodshed in strife-torn Liberia because of the close historic ties between the two countries, a Naples attorney said.

“I think they would respect us and like us,” attorney Stephen Grogoza said.

Grogoza spent a few years with the Peace Corps in Togo and Liberia in the late 1970s after graduating from college.

Grogoza last visited Liberia three years ago.

He said he traveled to the region last month to help monitor elections in nearby Togo, which went smoothly and were not tainted with corruption at polling places.

Liberia has close ties to the United States, because the country was founded by the American Colonization Society in 1821 as a haven for freed American slaves.

The Liberian flag is patterned after the United States flag, with red and white stripes, but has only one star.
Grogoza

A past Liberian ambassador to the United States was named George Washington. Many streets in the capital of Monrovia have names such as Oak and Elm, reflective of the American influence on the country, Grogoza said.

The United States dollar is interchangeable as currency there with the Liberian dollar. English is the official language of the nation of 3.3 million people, the attorney said.

The country fashioned after the United States has been racked by brutal civil unrest for the past four years.

The Liberian people have increased pressure on President George W. Bush to send U.S. troops there to enforce an oft-violated cease-fire between forces loyal to Liberian President Charles Taylor and rebels fighting to oust him.

Taylor has volunteered to go into exile.

A 32-person U.S. team was in Liberia last week to assess the situation.

Bush, also in Africa last week, expressed interest in sending U.S. advisers and trainers to the country. A possible solution to the civil unrest would be to have U.S. troops train forces from other African nations to help keep the peace in Liberia, the president said.

Liberia has been ruined under Taylor’s corrupt regime and the United States should take steps to ensure his departure as soon as possible, Grogoza said.

“I was there three years ago. Everybody had a horrendous story to tell of torture, death and starvation,” he said.

The attorney said he saw hundreds of orphanages for children whose parents had been killed in the civil unrest.

Taylor and his government have looted the country, which is without electricity and other basic utilities, Grogoza said.

“The hotel I stayed at had electricity supplied by diesel generators,” he said.

People in Togo are concerned that the violence in Liberia may spread to their country and the rest of that part of the coast of West Africa, the attorney said.

Because of strong historical and sentimental ties, U.S. assistance would be welcomed with open arms by the Liberian people, a contrast to the mixed and still often violent reaction to the presence of our country’s forces in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, Grogoza said.

“I know that the Liberian people look up to us. They consider the United States to be the big brother of Liberia,” he said.

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7/13/03

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