(New York, July 19, 2002) - As United Nations (U.N.) Security Council members met yesterday to deliberate the situation in the Mano River Union of West Africa, Human Rights Watch called on them to take a comprehensive approach to ending the bloodshed and repression in Liberia
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Security Council sanctions to end the arms-for-diamonds trade in West Africa contributed to the emerging peace in Sierra Leone. Now the Security Council needs to condemn human rights abuses by the Liberian government and the rebels, take steps to end Guinea's support for the Liberian rebels, and ensure that the Liberian conflict does not destabilize the fragile peace in Sierra Leone
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Human Rights Watch called on the Security Council to condemn abuses committed by all sides in the conflict in Liberia; to take steps to end Guinea's role in providing logistic assistance to the Liberian rebels; to strengthen the mandate of the U.N. Peace-Building Support Office in Liberia (UNOL) and increase its staffing and funding to enable the placement of human rights monitors to investigate abuses; and to request the Secretary General to fill the vacant position of representative in Liberia, with a mandate to report to the Security Council and make recommendations to resolve the conflict.
In the nine-page letter to the Security Council, Human Rights Watch documented how, between April and June 2002, Liberian government forces committed scores of war crimes and other serious abuses against civilians in the northwest of the country. Fighting has raged in the country since the start of a rebel incursion in mid-2000.
Recent victims described to Human Rights Watch how members of the government army and pro-government militias executed numerous civilians, shot and beaten to death males of all ages for resisting conscription, carried out widespread rape of women and girls as young as twelve, subjected hundreds of civilians to forced labor, and restricted the movement of hundreds of civilians intending to flee as refugees into neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Another disturbing development is the renewed use of child combatants by members of the Liberian security forces. Children are once again being recruited to form part of the army and pro-government militias.
In the face of renewed rebel action, the government of Charles Taylor has become increasingly intolerant of dissent. Since the imposition of a state of emergency in February 2002, the government has steadily imprisoned, harassed, and beaten individuals that have been critical of its policies.
Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the fate of five nurses from the Liberian humanitarian organization, Merci, who were abducted on June 20, 2002 from the Sinje camp area by the Liberian rebels. The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels have admitted holding the nurses in their northern stronghold of Voinjama. In addition, Human Rights Watch continues to receive credible reports of continued forced conscription of civilians, including children, by the LURD.
