US slams Liberia ex-warlord’s elevation to top defence job

The United States has condemned in a strongly worded statement the nomination of notorious former Liberian warlord Prince Johnson to a top defence post and said it would not have any “relationship” with him in his new job.

Johnson, a brutal figure in Liberia’s first civil war from 1989-1997, was elected head of the Liberian Senate Committee on Defense and Intelligence on Tuesday.

A failed presidential candidate and a Senator, the 68-year-old sent shockwaves around the world for brutality after a video showed him calmly sipping beer while his men tortured former president Samuel Doe to death in 1990.

Johnson is accused of war crimes, mass killings and torture but has never been brought to justice.

The United States, a traditional ally of Liberia — Africa’s oldest republic founded by freed US slaves — published a trenchant statement on Wednesday evening slamming Johnson’s appointment.

“Senator Johnson’s gross human rights violations during Liberia’s civil wars are well-documented; his continued efforts to protect himself from accountability, enrich his own coffers and sow division are also well known,” the US embassy in Monrovia said in a statement.

“That the Liberian Senate would see fit to elevate him to a leadership role – particularly in the area in which he has done this country the most harm – creates doubts as to the seriousness of the Senate as a steward of Liberia’s defense and security.”

The embassy said Washington’s “longstanding partnership with the Ministry of National Defense and Armed Forces of Liberia… will continue – but we can have no relationship with Senator Johnson.”