A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

inter-tribal mixing occurs than ever before. Focus group participants in Providence believe that, as a
result of the war, there have been more inter-marriages, which, they say, is a good thing. 548 A Krahn
statement giver living in Minnesota told the TRC:
My niece has a child by a Gio man here in the United States. I talked to her
and asked her how she could date a Gio man, and have his baby, after a Gio
had killed her uncle. She said that she couldn’t hold against her boyfriend
what some other Gio person did – he “didn’t know anything about it.” This
is an example of how things are different here in the United States – the
younger generation is not as concerned with tribal divisions… 549
The fracturing of the Liberian community since the war has also occurred along political lines. In
the past five years, national ULAA elections, 550 as well as community elections in Staten Island,
New York, 551 in Minnesota, 552 and in Atlanta, Georgia, 553 have been extremely divisive. In each
community, election results were contested and legal action was pursued or threatened. Leaders in
Washington, DC, also noted that “in the past, some members of the Liberian community did not
accept local community association election results because they felt it was not free and fair.” 554 These
controversies in some cases appear to be related to undercurrents of mistrust as a result of the conflict
in Liberia. In the 2007 election for the leadership of the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota, the
ultimate winner was accused of being a “warlord” by his opponents, based on his admitted role as
a spokesperson for one faction that emerged during the civil war. 555 No evidence of the candidate’s
participation in any fighting was ever produced, but the accusation led to extensive controversy within
the community, as well as negative media attention for the candidate and the community. In the 2008
ULAA elections, one of the candidates was accused of being a rebel leader and was compared to the
likes of Charles Taylor and Robert Mugabe. 556
The successful candidate in the Minnesota election, Kerper Dwanyen, appeared at the public hearing
in Minnesota and gave lengthy testimony concerning his work for the Nimba Redemption Council
during the war and the emotional impact he suffered due to the allegations against him:
If you’re running for president of the United States…it’s somewhat easier
to understand because the stakes are high, but when you’re trying to lead
your community on a volunteer basis and people engaged in these tactics it’s
somewhat befuddling. For me it was like grabbing my father and killing him
right before me once again. That was the most painful part of it. That was
the very painful part of it.
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