Liberia
All inhibitions lost in Liberian civil war

afrol News, 6 March - New studies reveal that also the Liberian LURD rebels are losing their initial morals and violate any basic human rights. While government troops earlier were seen as the worst perpetrators, now also LURD is into rape, abductions, child soldiers, slave labour and forced recruitment.

- For Liberia it's liberation, a pro-LURD piece of opinion in afrol News by Jonathan Boakai one year ago was titled. Liberians had a right to "a democratic and peaceful society, free of war lords, occupation, and exploitation," which meant that the terror regime of war lord and President Charles Taylor had to be crushed.

At that time, the rebels were at the height of their powers, closing in on the capital, Monrovia. Moral were high, a humanitarian ideology ruled over the hawks of war and the rebels convincingly bragged about their human rights record. A year later, after hiding out nine months in the bush, a new LURD face has been born, scarily comparable to the RUF ex-war lords of neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Refugees now resident in Sierra Leone who fled Liberia late last year have provided eyewitness accounts that LURD forces systematically imposed forced labour on threat of wounding or death. They told of abductions, "disappearances," and forced recruitment by LURD rebels in Liberia's Lofa County.

In most cases, refugees reported that the LURD forces would forcibly abduct them from their villages for the purpose of using them to carry weapons and other supplies. Some were sent to the Guinean border to bring weapons across, and others reported that they were required to go from village to village to town, carrying supplies for the LURD forces. They reported that if any civilians recruited for this forced labour would complain of exhaustion, thirst, or hunger, they would often be shot in the foot or leg, and left to bleed to death.

- I saw LURD forces wound four people, in September 2002, who could not go on, says a forty year old man. "They don't feed you, you can't drink, can't stop. Two of those wounded died on the spot ... during one of the trips in September, I saw three people try to escape. As they ran they were shot at. I saw them kill one of them, and wound two others. Whenever they [transport] armour, they always kill and wound people."

Five nurses held for three months in 2002 by the LURD rebels have also provided detailed accounts of their mistreatment. The women, who worked for the Liberian organization Merci, were given a "choice" by the rebels of either joining them as fighters or becoming "wives" of rebel soldiers. All of them were physically, sexually and psychologically abused.

One of the nurses, A.Z., was forced to get married to the LURD rebel Nostar. She tells: "He was always on drugs. Almost everyone was afraid of him. During the night, he would point a gun at me and say that if I would not have sex with him, he would kill me. He was also carrying a grenade on his belt. I had no choice when he forced me." 

The ill-treatment of the abducted nurses in the bush of Lofa County (the rebel's stronghold) was even approved by high-ranking LURD officials. As the women complained to "P.Y.G., a high-ranking officer," he agreed that they belonged to the men that had captured them. Child soldiers were set to hinder the nurses from escaping.

- The treatment of these women is just one example of the terrible abuses being committed by LURD, says Peter Takirambudde of the US group Human Rights Watch, which gathered the proof. "Such crimes must stop," he added. The US group has gathered massive evidence in refugee camps in Sierra Leone and among other victims of the LURD rebels.

But also the government troops of President Taylor keep living up to their reputation. Refugees reported to Human Rights Watch that they have witnessed government troops rounding up civilians, locking them in houses, and then setting those houses on fire—burning them alive.

Witnesses further reported that government troops under the authority of President Taylor continue to engage in widespread indiscriminate killing of civilians, using both firearms and other weapons. Liberian civilians who fled Kolahun district in October 2002 reported that "government troops just run into villages and kill people, [they] don’t care who you are ... they used guns, knives, and beat people with sticks until they die."

Human Rights Watch further obtained a series of reports from first hand witnesses that government troops continue their well documented pattern of abductions of civilians, including young girls and boys. In many cases, those abducted "disappear," with their fates entirely unknown.

- The Liberian government and, to a lesser but still significant extent, the LURD forces, have continued to systematically violate their obligations under international law, concludes the US human rights group. "Both have been repeatedly called upon to protect civilians and cease any and all violations of human rights and humanitarian law, and both have consistently failed to do so." 

- If the international community insists on turning a blind eye to the brutality which continues in Liberia, the stability of the entire region will be threatened, said Mr Takirambudde of the group. "This will mean that innocent civilians will continue to be killed, raped, enslaved, forcibly conscripted and disappeared."