VZCZCXRO7598
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHMV #0809 3071609
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031609Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY MONROVIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1441
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS MONROVIA 000809 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAGR CASC ASEC KCRM PREL PGOV LI
SUBJECT: HEAD OF CONCESSIONS COMMISSION MURDERED 
 
REF:  MONROVIA 808 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Keith Jubah, chairman of the Public Procurement 
and Concessions Commission and President of the Rubber Planters 
Association, was shot to death November 1 outside his home at the 
Morris Farm near Kakata.  Although police have identified three 
suspects, reports against them remain circumstantial and no 
information puts them at the scene of the crime.  Police are 
expanding their investigation to other motive areas.  In Monrovia, 
many believe Jubah was killed over a land dispute that arose after 
the Rubber Planters' Association appropriated idle rubber farms at 
the beginning of President Sirleaf's administration.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) American citizen Keith Jubah (reftel), chairman of the 
Public Procurement and Concessions Commission and a longtime ally of 
President Sirleaf, was killed by three assailants November 1 outside 
his home at the Morris Farm near Kakata (about 20 miles outside of 
Monrovia), where Jubah was managing director.  Morris Farm is a 
rubber plantation operated by the Morris-American Rubber Company 
(MARCO).  At approximately 9:00 pm, the attackers called to Jubah as 
he was returning home.  When Jubah exited the car, the attackers 
shot him, doused his body with gasoline and set it on fire.  A woman 
who was in the house at the time witnessed much of the event. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Two suspects were apprehended on November 2 and a third 
eluded arrest following information that they made threats against 
Jubah after he fired them as security guards at the farm.  However, 
UNPOL Senior advisor Jack Nielsen, who is assisting the Liberia 
National Police (LNP) in the investigation, cautioned that the 
evidence against them remains circumstantial and no concrete 
information links them to the scene of the crime.  No weapon has 
been found and no confessions have been made, and the suspects may 
have an alibi.  The LNP is therefore broadening its investigation to 
motive areas, including a possible land dispute. 
 
¶4. (SBU) An alternative theory circulating among Liberians involves 
unresolved land disputes from Jubah's tenure as President of the 
Rubber Planters' Association (RPA).  Ernest Jones, deputy minister 
of Lands, Mines and Energy, and one of the senior GOL officials 
involved in land reform, suggested that when President Sirleaf took 
office in 2006, the RPA repossessed and managed many small rubber 
plantations that had grown fallow during years of civil conflict. 
The RPA sold rubber from these otherwise idle plantations to 
Firestone Natural Rubber Company, which had the means to export it 
for further processing.  The original owners of these farms, many of 
whom had fled when rebels invaded their plantations, believe the RPA 
illicitly appropriated their land and failed to compensate them, and 
Jones offered that one of these disgruntled farmers may be behind 
the murder. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) According to Nielsen, LNP Director Marc Amblard, who is 
presently in Abuja, is following the case closely and seems to be 
concerned by the developments.  He initially complained about lack 
of cooperation from UNPOL, but Acting UNPOL Commissioner Gautam 
Sawang has stepped up UNPOL involvement.  Nielsen said that the 
gunshot wound is consistent with a shotgun (which are permitted 
under the UN arms embargo) and not with an AK-47 (which are not) as 
has been reported in the press. 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: Whether or not a land dispute motivated Jubah's 
murderers, the fact that many Liberians believe it to be so 
underscores the widespread conviction that even long-dormant 
conflicts over land could erupt into violence at any time.  Jubah's 
role at the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission seems a 
less likely impetus for his murder.  While Jubah competently 
advocated President Sirleaf's anti-corruption agenda, advocating 
stricter procurement procedures and transparent concessions 
processes, he was not known as an aggressive crusader who would have 
made powerful enemies among those who wished to secure lucrative 
timber or mining concessions.  No matter the motive, the 
horrifically brutal murder of a prominent government official has 
sent a shock wave through the government. 
 
THOMAS-GREENFIELD