“Brigadier General Obe Belewa, late of the Nigerian Army,” Dubois continued. “Age forty-two. Born in the city of Oyo in western Nigeria. His tribal affiliation is Yoruba. Perhaps from them he inherited his talents as an empire builder. During the precolonial age, the Yoruba ruled one of the largest and most powerful of the West African kingdoms.
“The General was educated at Sandhurst and at the University of Ibadan. A truly remarkable individual, he was considered one of the rising stars in the Nigerian military, right up until he disowned his country to take over another.”
“I still wonder just how he pulled that one off,” the President commented.
“By a combination of guts, will, and a feat of covert statesmanship that would have made Machiavelli proud,” Dubois replied. “Belewa attended a number of service schools here in the United States, including both the Army’s Special Forces course at Fort Bragg and the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. His instructors unanimously agree that the man is a brilliant strategist and tactician.
“It must have taken him years to set up the coup. We know that he volunteered repeatedly for service with the ECOMOG garrison in Liberia. With each tour of duty he must have picked up more contacts and established more links within both the provisional Liberian government and military and the various rebel factions back in the bush. As he grew in rank, he also began to maneuver a carefully handpicked cadre of officers and NCOs into the garrison force, disaffected military personnel who owed more allegiance to Belewa personally than they did to the Nigerian government.
“Eventually, Belewa was named commander of the ECOMOG garrison. Using the power inherent in that position, he began to bring about real change within Liberia. He decisively suppressed corruption and random violence, he got food and medical aid out to the rural areas, and he restarted the national economy. In doing so, he drew the loyalty of the Liberian people, not to Nigeria or the provisional Liberian government, but to himself.”
“Wasn’t his being a Nigerian, an outsider, a problem?” President Childress inquired.
“No, sir,” Dubois replied with a shake of his head. “Belewa turned it into an advantage. He was a man outside of all the tribal conflicts and the interfactional hatreds. He became trusted and respected because he was scrupulously honest and even-handed at all times to all the involved parties. He also never made a promise that he couldn’t deliver.
“As the talks between the provisional government and the leadership of the rebel groups wrangled on, Belewa conducted a second level of covert negotiations with the dissatisfied lower echelons of both factions. Then, roughly three years ago, when he had all of the pieces in place, he struck.
“The leadership of both the provisional Liberian government and of the majority of the rebel groups were wiped out in a coordinated revolt, all factions then swearing allegiance to General Belewa. The Nigerian ECOMOG garrison also mutinied, declaring for Belewa as well. Overnight, he went from army officer to the leader of his own nation.”
Dubois deactivated the screen and turned back to face the table. “To say the least, there was a convulsion within the ECOWAS community. Nigeria attempted a degree of saber rattling at the new Liberian regime and its leader, but nothing much came of it. They realized that if they attempted an invasion, they’d be looking down the gun barrels of both their own elite military units and a large and hostile guerrilla army. Belewa’s takeover became accepted as a fait accompli.”
“You know,” Van Lynden said thoughtfully, “you have to admire the man’s guts.”
“There’s more than that to admire about the man, Mr. Secretary. He’s turned out to be an extremely resourceful, intelligent, and dynamic leader. In only three years he has turned a total basket case of a nation into an ordered, stable, and growing society. In many ways, he is doing exactly what needs to be done in the region. He is suppressing corruption, he is seeing to the welfare of the majority of his population, and he is rebuilding the economic infrastructure of Liberia. Unfortunately, he is also a hard-core military dictator with a taste for conquest.”
The wall screen flicked on once more, this time displaying a large-scale map of Sierra Leone. “Around the first of this year, the government of Sierra Leone began to report a sudden mass exodus of refugees coming across their border with Liberia. This exodus eventually grew into a flood of over a quarter of a million human beings, deluging the border areas.
“The Liberian government claimed that they were disaffected individuals who had left a number of resettlement communities being developed near the border. The refugees said that they had been driven into Sierra Leone at bayonet point.”
“Where did these refugees all come from, Rich?” Van Lynden inquired, frowning. “I mean, from within Liberia.”
“No government is ever entirely popular with all of its citizens, Mr. President. The refugees are members of the Liberian tribal groups and political factions that did not support the Belewa takeover. When they began to organize a resistance against his regime, Belewa reacted with mass deportations from the rebellious sectors. Entire villages and urban neighborhoods were emptied. Men, women, and children, anyone even suspected of harboring anti-Union sympathies, were swept up into the DP camps and then pushed across the border, their goods and properties being given over to Union supporters.”
President Childress removed his glasses and thoughtfully began to polish the lenses. “He must have read Chairman Mao’s dictum that the guerrilla is a fish swimming in an ocean of peasants. Belewa’s countermove against revolution was to drain the ocean.”
“Much as Milosevic attempted in Kosovo back in ’99. But Belewa took things one step further. Not only did he end his internal dissension, but by releasing this human flood on the neighboring state least able to cope with it, he succeeded in weakening and disrupting that nation to an even greater extent.”
Van Lynden nodded. “Again turning a negative into a positive… to his way of thinking, at any rate.”
“That is Belewa’s style,” Dubois agreed. “Sierra Leone was totally unable to deal with this massive influx of refugees. They couldn’t even adequately feed and house their own population. Naturally the U.N. and the International Red Cross moved in, attempting to set up and supply refugee camps in the border regions. However, simultaneously with the arrival of the refugees, there was a sudden flare-up of guerrilla activity inside of Sierra Leone. A series of attacks were launched against transport facilities, food-distribution centers, and communications lines. Everything that was needed to deal with the refugee crisis was targeted, compounding the problem.”
“How convenient for certain parties,” Van Lynden commented dryly.
“Did these attacks originate from some group inside of Sierra Leone, or was this an outside insurgency?” the President asked, redonning his glasses.
“No conclusive evidence was ever collected either way. The Liberian government emphatically denied any involvement. However, these guerrillas definitely were not your average band of bush bandits. They were well trained, well equipped, and working to a definite plan of action. The relief program was paralyzed. Shortly thereafter, so was the entire nation of Sierra Leone. There was famine, mob attacks on the refugee camps, mass rioting. Sierra Leone’s already fragile government began to disintegrate.”
“And that’s when Belewa hit them openly, right when things were falling to pieces,” Van Lynden stated grimly.
“Exactly. Roughly a month ago, acting on the stated grounds that Liberian citizens were being endangered in the refugee camps and that the growing civil disorder in Sierra Leone was threatening to spill across their border, the Liberians invaded. The armed forces of Sierra Leone were totally overwhelmed. Freetown fell in a little over two weeks.”