The German government pledged substantial funding to Liberian infrastructure projects Thursday, June 26 at the start of a two-day visit by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to Berlin. "The people of Liberia have suffered terribly.
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Johnson to become England supremo ... of the entire international community," German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said at the start of the Liberia 2008 Poverty Reduction Forum.
In Johnson Sirleaf's presence, Wieczorek-Zeul announced 15 million euros of funding for the the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund tasked with rebuilding the West African country's shattered infrastructure.
Germany is also waiving debts of 268 million euros owed by Liberia, which has since March been part of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries debt-relief initiative launched by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in 1996.
Liberia shattered by civil war At the forum, Liberian government representatives, international donors and other institutions were to discuss the challenges facing the country, including how to counter violence directed at women.
Liberia descended into chaos in the late 1980s, and the forces of rebel leader Charles Taylor entered Monrovia in 1990. A decade-long civil war ensued with widespread atrocities.
Taylor, who had made himself president, went into exile in Nigeria 2003. He was handed over to the UN's Special Court for Sierra Leone after Johnson Sirleaf took office as democratically elected president in 2006.
Taylor, currently held in The Hague, faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his forces in Sierra Leone.
(Deutsche Welle)
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