Ministry of National Defense (Liberia)

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The Ministry of National Defense (MOD) is the government ministry responsible for the maintenance of the national defense and the governance of the military of Liberia, the Armed Forces of Liberia.

An amendment to the Liberian Constitution allowed the previously named War Department to be renamed the Department of National Defense on February 25, 1955.[1] Then, during the early years of President William Tolbert's Administration after 1971, all departments were renamed Ministries and thus the organization became the Ministry of National Defense.

Before the First Liberian Civil War, Harry A. Greaves served as Minister from 1976 to 1978, M. Burleigh Holder 1978–79,[2] James Y. Gbabee 1979–80, Samuel Bennie Pearson became Defense Minister in April 1980 (1980-81); Albert Karpeh (1981-82); Grey Dio-Glaye Allison, from 1982[3] up to August 1989,[4] J. Boima Barclay 1989–90, fleeing Monrovia on 2 July 1990,[5] who was later killed with Doe on 9 September 1990[6] and during the war, J. Hezekiah Bowen 1995–97.[7]

Daniel Chea (DOB: 25 MAY 1958) was the Defense Minister under Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Party administration from 1997 to 2006. More than 150 Liberian government soldiers staged a demonstration against the re-appointment of Daniel Chea as National Transitional Government of Liberia Defense Minister, claiming he owed them more than two years of pay arrears.[8] They complained that Chea had failed to pay most government soldiers, giving priority to an elite force, the Anti-Terrorist Unit at the expense of the regular army.

Hon. Brownie J. Samukai served as Defense Minister during Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's Unity Party administration from 2006 to 2017. The Ministry's three-story building used to be located on Benson Street in downtown Monrovia, but upon the conclusion of the DynCorp army training effort in Liberia, moved to the Barclay Training Center, also located in central Monrovia, in July 2009. In early August 2009 the Ministry's Comptroller was dismissed, apparently for misappropriating US$50,000 intended for paying soldiers of the rebuilt AFL.[9]

When George Weah became President of Liberia in succession to Johnson-Sirleaf on 22 January 2018, within hours, it was announced that Major General Daniel Dee Ziankahn Jr. was to be retired from his post of Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia, and be appointed the new Minister of National Defence.[10]

Retired General Ziankahn remains the Minister of Defence.[11] Hon. Tibli Olandrus Dickson is the current Deputy Minister for Administration.[12][13]

See also

References

  1. ^ 'Looking at the LNG Brigade,' Armed Forces Day Brochure, 1973-74, Ministry of National Defense, via University of Liberia Library.
  2. ^ See for reports of dismissal U.S. Embassy Monrovia, “(U) Major Army Command Shake-Up," 1979MONROV06992_e, 6 September 1979.
  3. ^ Dunn, Beyan & Burrowes 2001, p. 112.
  4. ^ Stephen Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy, Hurst & Co., London, 2001, p.118 or 255. Allison was charged and later convicted of ritual killing. Ellis cited Kappel and Korte, Human Rights Violations in Liberia 1980–90: A Documentation, Liberia Working Group, Bremen, 1990, pp.223-5
  5. ^ Huband 2013, p. 134.
  6. ^ Williams 2002, p. 129.
  7. ^ Ministry of National Defense (Liberia), Armed Forces Today, Vol. 2, No.1, February 11, 2008, p.21-23. Note that this list is a composite of both the MND listing and Dunn, Beyan, and Burrowes. Dunn et al list Pearson and Karpeh which the MND does not.
  8. ^ "TLC Africa Internet Magazine". www.tlcafrica.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2004. Retrieved 2019-09-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. ^ Corruption at Ministry of Defense? (Comptroller Sacked for 'Eating' US$50,000 Soldiers' Pay ), August 9, 2009
  10. ^ New Dawn (23 January 2018). "Liberia: Weah Appoints Army Chief of Staff As Minister". AllAfrica. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  11. ^ Ministry, Front page
  12. ^ http://www.mod.gov.lr/content.php. http://www.marshallcenter.org/mcpublicweb/en/component/content/article/4-cat-mc-news/653-art-mc-new-09-02.html, accessed 2018
  13. ^ http://www.mod.gov.lr/content.php?/forum/viewtopic/id/375[dead link]
  • Dunn, Elwood D.; Beyan, Amos J.; Burrowes, Carl Patrick (2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia. Lanham, MD.: Scarecrow Press, Inc.
  • M. Burleigh Holder, "The Hand of God," Xlibris Corporation, April 2006.
  • Huband, Mark (2013). The Liberian Civil War. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781135252144.
  • Williams, Gabriel I.H. (2002). Heart of Darkness. Trafford Publishing.

External links

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