Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2006 - Liberia
- Document source:
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Date:
14 March 2007
Smear campaign against FOHRD69
On November 18, 2006, Mr. David Kortie, an executive member of the ruling Unity Party (UP) and a member of the Governance Reform Commission (GRC), stated in a press release that "some so-called human rights groups justify donors' funds or contributions by bad-mouthing the Liberian government on a daily basis". Mr. Kortie further asserted that human rights NGOs "[made] money through lies and deception" and he specifically mentioned the name of Mr. Aloysius Toe, director of the Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy (FOHRD).
In the previous weeks, FOHRD had criticised the repartition of the national budget and denounced the embezzlement of funds within the Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation (LPRC).
Mr. Kortie, defending the LPRC management under his GRC mandate, accused Mr. Toe of attempting to "destroy the government" and qualified FORHD's criticism of "deception". Mr. Kortie further demanded that FORHD and all other human rights organisations operating in the country make public their budget and sources of funding, thus insinuating that independent associations' disapproval of the government administration were solely aimed at making their leaders "richer".
[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]
69. See FOHRD.
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