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[Page S2808]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO ALFRED BROWNELL
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I want to speak briefly about the
courageous environmental activism of Alfred Brownell, a native of
Liberia now living in exile in Boston.
Mr. Brownell is an environmental and human rights lawyer and the
executive director of Green Advocates, a Liberian organization that he
founded to promote environmental justice for indigenous communities.
Like so many environmental activists around the world, he has been
repeatedly harassed and threatened. He was forced to flee his country
with his family due to fear of reprisal for his outspoken and tireless
work to protect the traditional land rights of his countrymen and
against the sale, without their consent, of vast areas of forest to
Golden Veroleum Liberia, a Southeast Asian-based company that produces
palm oil. Now a visiting scholar and teacher at Northeastern
University, Mr. Brownell continues to conduct research and classes on
the issues that have come to define his life.
Mr. Brownell was recently recognized by the international community
for his perseverance in protecting Liberia's forests on which thousands
of Liberian families and many endangered species of wildlife depend. He
was honored in San Francisco and Washington as one of six recipients of
the prestigious 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize. It is important that
we not only pay tribute to Mr. Brownell for his extraordinary
contribution to his people and his country but that we be aware that
despite this international recognition, he continues to fear returning
to his native country.
I have long supported U.S. assistance to help Liberia overcome years
of a brutal armed conflict, and I will continue to do so. But I regret
that the Liberian Government has sided with the palm oil company and
against their own local farmers. Unable to intimidate Mr. Brownell,
government officials tried to silence him by offering him government
jobs in return for his cooperation. When that failed, they put his
house and his family under police surveillance, publicly accused him of
sedition and economic sabotage, accused his organization and other
environmental rights organizations of undermining Liberia's
sovereignty, and lied about him to incite an assassination attempt.
Since December 2016, he has been living in exile, with no indication
from Liberian officials that their hostility toward him and his cause
has diminished.
Government intimidation of civil society activists and scholars is
antithetical to open and accountable democratic societies. It is what
we have come to expect of shortsighted or, even worse, corrupt
officials and the outsized influence of corporate interests.
If the Liberian Government is serious about attracting foreign
investment for job creation and sustainable economic development--goals
we all support--it should recognize that Mr. Brownell is a patriot of
whom all Liberians can be proud. Liberian officials should encourage
him and his family to return to Liberia, and point to him as an example
of how one courageous and determined individual can make a positive
difference for the country.
Rather than benefiting a foreign corporation producing a monocrop for
export, the Liberian Government should be protecting its biologically
diverse forests and wildlife, not destroying them and polluting the
rivers on which local inhabitants depend and displacing people who have
lived there for generations.
Alfred Brownell should be a source of pride and an inspiration for
all Liberians. I hope the international recognition he has received
will convince the Liberian Government that it is people like him who
deserve our admiration and our thanks.
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