Senior Administration Official today announced that the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other U.S. delegates will travel to Liberia to attend second inauguration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia.
“This is an extraordinarily important occasion because of the fact that Liberia is now experiencing nearly a decade of peace after 15 years of enormous civil conflict in which that country was destroyed by two leaders Charles Taylor, who is currently being indicted by the ICC, and by the late Samuel Doe.” -Senior Administration Official
The Senior Administration Official said fifteen years of violence was ended in 2003 in Liberia. Ellen Sirleaf Johnson was elected president in 2005, and she has now been reelected last year in November to a second term.
Liberia has been a close friend of the United States for many, many years, a country established by freed American slaves in 1848, and is probably as close as any country in Africa ever will be to being an American colony.
“But this is special because Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has done a remarkable job over the last four and a half years of rebuilding her country, promoting reconciliation, and beginning the difficult task of reestablishing one of Africa’s weakest infrastructures.” – Senior Administration Official
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the only female president in Africa, and last year, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her reconstruction work.
Senior Administration Official explained it is an opportunity for the United States to express its appreciation and praise for the outstanding work that she has done over the last five years to acknowledge the success of her recent election, to applaud her for her Nobel Prize, and to help encourage the reconstruction to continue, reconciliation and reconstruction that is going on there.
“You all may remember that the Secretary last visited Monrovia in August of 2009. This is the second trip by the Secretary to Monrovia since she came into office three years ago.”
– -Senior Administration Official
Tthe Obama Administration has placed a high priority on strengthening democratic institutions, promoting good governance, holding good, free, fair elections, and encouraging conflict reconciliation and post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction.
