Behind the Shaw U-Turn

New Democrat (Monrovia)

31 May 2011

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has taken a u-turn on the appointment of Mr. Emmanuel Shaw, one of the controversial officials who served in the regime of former President Charles Taylor and banned from travel by the UN Security Council.

But a Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs press release annulling the appointment said the President did not know that Mr. Shaw, listed as a member of former President Charles Taylor’s ‘Inner Circle’, was on the UN travel ban and assets freeze lists.

The u-turn on Mr. Shaw’s appointment came while the President was in the United States, and there are suggestions that pressure was mounted from unknown circles to rescind the appointment of a man listed on the UN travel band and assets freeze lists, although others on the list, such as former Maritime Commissioner Benoni Urey, are current government officials. Mr. Urey serves as Mayor of his hometown, Careysburg, a bushy enclave outside the capital, Monrovia.

Full text of the Government’s press release reads:

Office of the President has issued the following statement:

The appointment of Mr. Emanuel Shaw as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Liberia Airports Authority (LAA) was intended to bring an experienced financial and aeronautical professional to assist in developing the plans for modernizing Roberts International Airport and to guide the process for correcting the continued difficulties found in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) assessments of the airport safety and operational adequacy.

The assignment was meant to be temporary as the Government seeks management that is willing to assume responsibility for planning and implementing the long-delayed development of RIA and other domestic airports.

However, given details regarding sanctions imposed against Mr. Shaw by the United Nations and the United States Government that have been brought to her attention, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has withdrawn the appointment.

Signed: ________________________________

Shirley N. Brownell

Director of Communications/Head of Public Affairs

Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs

Mr. Shaw’s abortive appointment as chair of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority, recently found to be laden with corruption by the General Auditing Commission, did not come as a surprise. The UN Panel of Experts, in its report of 2000, linked the one-time Finance Minister in the junta regime of late President Samuel K. Doe to the running of the Roberts International Airport, where the panel said he owned many facilities.

The UN Panel: “The manager of this hotel is a Dutch national named Gus Van Kouwenhoven. Van Kouwenhoven started his hotel and a gambling business in Liberia in the 1980s. He is also a member of President Taylor’s inner circle, through his contacts with Taylor’s economic advisor, Emmanuel Shaw. Shaw, a former Liberian finance minister, owns a number of facilities at Robertsfield, including all the hangars. Van Kouwenhoven is responsible for the logistical aspects of many of the arms deals. Through his interests in a Malaysian timber project in Liberia, he organises the transfer of weaponry from Monrovia into Sierra Leone. Roads built and maintained for timber extraction are also conveniently used for weapons movement within Liberia, and for the onward shipment of weapons to Sierra Leone.”

Mr. Kouwenhoven was convicted for arms trafficking in a Dutch Court, but his case is now heard by an Appeals Court.

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