By Bill W. Cooper
A group of Liberians led by a prominent Liberian human rights activist based in Boston USA has petitioned the United States Embassy calling for visa waiver, more than 200 years after the American Colonization Society reigned in black Africa’s first independent Republic.
Rev. Torli Krua, Sr., head of the Universal Human Rights International (UHRI) who led the petitioners, to also called on the U.S. Embassy near Monrovia to take key measures of the document that was signed into law by the Liberia colony and the United States.
Reading the petition statement, Rev. Krua said every Liberian should have access to free Visa Weaver because it was passed into by the U.S. government and the Liberia Colony, thereby outlining six goals for the petition.
“Mitigate ongoing harm for racism, American Colonization and Slavery through public confession, repentance, restitution, reparations, and payments of damages. Inclusion of all Liberians in the USA as beneficiaries of the Liberian refugee immigration fairness Act; Grant U.S. Visa to all Liberian to access Education Employment and business opportunities without visa restrictions,” the petition said.
Rev. Krua said that the Liberian society was structure in such a way that most important positions were held by people who had political influence in the south and by those who had the largest slave number of slaves.
According to him, the less critical positions were occupied by people with small number of slaves (Beyan 1991,13). This, however, did not exclude other members of society that were among the influential people in the United States. Such as Pres. James Madison (Act 1816; membership certificate), President Andrew Jackson and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jonh Marshall.
In their petition, the Liberians lamented that On March 3, 1819 Congress passed a bill signed into law by Pres. James Monroe that provided logistics for a colony in Africa, appropriated 100,000,00 for colonization and authorized the use of the US Navy to facilitate colonization.
The petition also called on the US government to stop what the petitioners called spending money on Monarchy celebration.
Meanwhile, Rev. Torli Krua has urged the Liberian government to swiftly intervene into this matter by pursuing the US government to ensure Liberian nationals get visa waiver, in order to prevent Liberians from always being denied visa at the US embassy near Monrovia.
