No timetable for the drawdown was suggested.  But we are sure most Liberians are praying that given the still fragile nature of our peace, the pervasively porous nature of our borders and the still tense political situation in neighboring Cote d’Ivoire, the drawdown will be later rather than sooner.

Hardly anyone, including Liberians, our international partners, and most certainly UNMIL, who played a crucial role in averting a catastrophe, will ignore the fact that November 7, 2011 was a wakeup call.  Were it not for UNMIL, that day would have been the beginning of a new civil war in Liberia.  All of the vitriolic (bitter, cruel) rhetoric that was spewed out (discharged, sent out) on that day and the days immediately before, pointed directly to the big trouble that was to come.  Clearly, there are some people in this country and some Liberians abroad who have learnt nothing from the pain and plague that the 14-year conflict wreaked (inflicted) upon Liberia and her people.

And even if such people learned anything from the civil war, they simply do not care about the consequences of their blind and ruthless pursuit of power by any means; not that their plans would have ushered them to power.  It was simply, as just said, a blind pursuit, the outcome from which their ruthless rage blinded their eyes and perceptions.

One of the things we should understand about evil is that its perpetrators can be wickedly and methodically persistent, ever plotting, ever scheming until they think their hour has come. The prophet Jeremiah warns us, “The heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it?”

There were hints to the Joint Security prior to Nov. 7 of suspected stockpiles of arms and ammunitions in certain places in Montserrado County and elsewhere; but it is not known whether this was thoroughly and convincingly investigated.

We understand that a Technical Assessment Team from the UN Security Council, headed by an Assistant UN Secretary General, arrived in the country over the weekend to begin talks with Liberian officials, especially the Commander-in-Chief and the Joint Security, to get an understanding of the true situation in Liberia and our preparedness for an UNMIL drawdown.

We welcome the Technical Assessment Team and pray that it  will undertake a realistic appraisal of the prevailing situation in the country and ensure that the requisite capacity building of our security forces is assured before the drawdown begins.

We urge the Team, as it commences its work, to remember the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (East Timor) and the referendum held under the guidance and protection of a UN military force in 1999.  Shortly following the referendum, in which the East Temor people voted overwhelmingly for independence, the UN pulled out its peace keeping force. What followed was a deadly attack by pro-Indonesian militias on East Temor, killing 1,400, raping thousands of women and devastating the country’s infrastructure, including almost 100 percent of its electricity.  This tragic situation, which lasted only a month, was abated only upon the urgent intervention of Australia.

The Security Council surely does not want that to happen in Liberia.

Moreover, when the time does come for the Security Council to commence the UNMIL drawdown, we plead with the Assessment Team to urge the Security Council that the public relations for this be handled with utmost care, so as not to frighten investors but to reassure all concerned that the peace and security of the Liberian nation will not be adversely affected.

We understand that there are certain Western powers that are anxiously pursuing the drawdown, so that the UNMIL troops may be redeployed elsewhere, possibly in Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We call on the UN Security Council and Liberia’s international   partners to go slow on the drawdown and allow the new administration to consolidate the foreign investment gains it has made.  A critical objective of these investments is to provide jobs for the Liberian people, 65 percent of whom are under 35.

Everyone knows, or should, that until we fix the unemployment problem, our peace will remain ever more fragile.