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OO RUEHPA
DE RUEHMV #1359/01 3251535
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O 211535Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY MONROVIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9519
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 1484

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MONROVIA 001359 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/W PDAVIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/21/2017 
TAGS: PGOV ASEC AMGT EAGR PTER LI
SUBJECT: LIBERIA: GOL AND UNMIL RESPOND QUICKLY TO LAC 
MURDER 
 
REF: MONROVIA 1352 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR DONALD E. BOOTH FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY.  The Executive Mansion has called the murder 
of Liberian Agriculture Company (LAC) General Manager Michael 
Bruno "unacceptable" and vowed to find and prosecute the 
perpetrators as soon as possible in order to protect 
Liberia's investment climate.  The Mansion also expressed 
concern that the murder may have political implications and 
vowed to bring any politicians involved to justice.  The 
Liberty Party told Embassy PolOff its top officials are being 
monitored by the Government of Liberia (GOL) and may be 
prohibited from leaving the country.  The Liberian National 
Police (LNP) sent its Director along with a team of its best 
investigators to Grand Bassa County and have detained twenty 
persons of interest.  No official arrests have been made. The 
United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has secured the LAC 
rubber plantation and is providing support to the LNP.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
GOL RESPONSE TO MURDER OF MICHAEL BRUNO 
 
¶2. (C) President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf publicly expressed 
sympathy for the loss of Michael Bruno and called for the 
perpetrators to be brought to justice as soon as possible. 
She called the act "unacceptable" and denounced those 
"wishing to create unnecessary tension and terror in the 
country, with the objective to undermine efforts of the 
government to secure a peaceful and stable environment for 
all of its people and foreign residents."  Vice President 
Joseph Boakai said that the GOL would work to increase 
security while helping LAC to bring development and jobs to 
the area as planned.  Executive Mansion Press Secretary Cyrus 
Badio, however, was more pointed.  He said that Bruno's death 
had political implications and was not an isolated event. 
Minister of Justice Philip Banks vowed to act swiftly on the 
case and went personally to witness the autopsy of Michael 
Bruno. 
 
LNP SENDS DIRECTOR AND TOP INVESTIGATORS, UNMIL SECURES LAC 
PLANTATION 
 
¶3. (U) LNP sent its Director and a top team from the Criminal 
Investigations Unit to Grand Bassa County to investigate. 
UNMIL has deployed extra troops to the area and secured the 
surrounding area of the LAC rubber plantation.  United 
Nations Police (UNPOL) officers are assisting the LNP with 
all parts of the investigation. 
 
ADDITIONAL FACTS ABOUT THE LAC MURDER CASE 
 
¶4. (C) LNP Chief of Criminal Investigations Steven Zargo 
clarified a few facts for us on the case November 20.  The 
victim was a 36-year-old Belgian named Michael Bruno (press 
reports have called him Bruneo Michel, Bruno Michiel, and 
other incorrect variations), General Manager of the Liberian 
Agriculture Company (LAC).  Bruno was driving in Grand Bassa 
County November 17 with three African LAC employees (Liberian 
and Ghanaian) on the land LAC obtained through its November 
15 plantation expansion agreement with the GOL.  Between 0800 
and 0830 the car was ambushed by villagers and Bruno was shot 
dead.  The three African employees fled the scene 
immediately.  They were not harmed.  Zargo could not confirm 
whether LNP knew of their whereabouts or whether or not they 
were involved in the crime.  Rumors that Bruno's body was 
mutilated are not true.  Zargo was present at the post-mortem 
investigation and said that Bruno suffered a gun shot wound 
to the head. 
 
TWENTY "PERSONS OF INTEREST" DETAINED, NO ARRESTS 
 
¶5. (C) Though the press reported that twenty people were 
arrested as suspects for the murder, Zargo clarified that no 
official arrests have been made.  He confirmed that "twenty 
persons of interest" from surrounding villages have been 
detained in a non-prison compound.  Zargo said that most of 
the detainees were "known troublemakers from the area" and 
that several were cooperating with information.  He said that 
as Liberian law requires that all arrested persons be charged 
or released in 48 hours, the LNP would wait to make any 
official arrest until they have enough evidence to file any 
charges. 
 
¶6. (C) Zargo emphasized that the investigation was still in 
its early stages but vowed that the LNP would leave no stone 
unturned in the case.  He expressed confidence that the 
murder was not linked to the bank truck robbery, but could 
not rule out that the incident was premeditated nor that the 
 
MONROVIA 00001359  002 OF 002 
 
 
three LAC African employees in the car were involved.  His 
biggest concern was keeping the general peace in Grand Bassa 
County.  He said that local population could become violent 
easily and worried that they may turn against the police for 
investigating the crime. 
 
EXECUTIVE MANSION PRESS SECRETARY WARNS OF POLITICAL TIES TO 
MURDER 
 
¶7. (C) Executive Mansion Press Secretary Cyrus Badio said at 
a press conference November 19 that the murder "had political 
implications" and "wasn't isolated."  He vowed that any 
politicians found to have ties to the murder would face 
justice.  As of November 20, no political party in country 
had yet issued a statement expressing condolences, including 
the Liberty Party, which controls five of the six seats in 
Grand Bassa County.  Senator Nathaniel Innis of the Grand 
Bassa County Liberty Party expressed condolences for Bruno's 
death in a radio interview but then continued on to say that 
the murder could have been avoided if local people had been 
included in the LAC expansion negotiations. 
 
LIBERTY PARTY FACES SCRUTINY, POSSIBLE TRAVEL BAN 
 
¶8. (C) The Chairman of the Liberty Party Israel Akinsanya 
told us that the GOL was actively trying to link his party to 
the murder and worried that party officials would soon be 
threatened.  He said that GOL security forces had been 
ordered to monitor the movement of all senior Liberty party 
officials and prohibit them from exiting Liberia through all 
border crossings, airports and sea ports.  There have been no 
official announcements, however, that Liberty Party personnel 
are considered suspects or are subject to any travel ban. 
 
¶9. (C) COMMENT: There is no evidence yet directly linking the 
Liberty Party to the murder of Michael Bruno.  However, 
because it is considered the most serious opposition to the 
ruling Unity Party, and its popular base has always been 
Grand Bassa County, the Liberty Party has been implicated in 
the public eye.  After Edwin Snowe, who was maneuvered out of 
the House Speakership earlier this year, Liberty Party 
standard bearer (and 2005 Presidential candidate) Charles 
Brumskine is the leading political opponent of President 
Sirleaf and her Unity Party.  In is quite possible Unity 
Party statements are using the murder as a convenient excuse 
to undermine Brumskine's and the Liberty Party's ability to 
function as an effective opposition. 
 
¶10. (C) Comment (Cont.): Protection of ancestral land has 
been one of the most prominent issues of the Liberty Party's 
local campaign.  While they may not have ordered the murder 
directly, the Party was certainly active in getting the local 
population to oppose LAC's expansion.  The underlying land 
issues that ultimately lead to the murder of Michael Bruno 
illustrate exactly why it is so important to Liberia's 
development to harmonize the traditional tribal land 
certificates with a formal deed system.  END COMMENT. 
Booth