Your Excellency,
Human Rights Watch welcomes your upcoming deliberations on the Mano River Union, and wishes to take this opportunity to focus your attention on the deplorable and deteriorating human rights situation in Liberia and on the need to take concrete steps to stop the bloodshed.
The Security Council's active role in attempting to end the arms-for-diamonds trade in Liberia and sub-region contributed to the emerging peace in Sierra Leone. We strongly urge you to remain engaged in the consolidation of peace in Sierra Leone and to address the worsening situation in Liberia, which threatens once again to disrupt peace in the sub-region.
Human Rights Watch remains gravely concerned about abuses and war crimes being committed by Liberian government forces in north-west Liberia; intensification of government harassment and intimidation of the independent press, civil society groups, legitimate political opposition; the forceful conscription of and renewed use of child combatants by members of the Liberian security forces; and the systematic theft and extortion of civilians trying to flee across the border into Sierra Leone. We are also concerned about the fate of five nurses from the Liberian humanitarian organization, Merci, who were on June 20, 2002 abducted 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 LURD rebels.
In particular, we call 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.
Continuing War Crimes: Recent Abuses Documented by Human Rights Watch
Over the last two weeks Human Rights Watch has 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 by the LURD in mid-2000, the fifth serious outbreak of violence since the 1997 elections that ended the civil war.
Recent victims described to Human Rights Watch how members of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and pro-government militias executed numerous civilians, shot and beat 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.
Some recent abuses by Liberian security forces documented by Human Rights Watch occurred in and around Vahun District in northeastern Lofa County, and followed a similar pattern: after driving LURD forces from an area, government forces hunted down and detained local people whom they found hiding in the bush, often firing indiscriminately at them in the process. In some cases those civilians had previously been living in towns and areas under the command of LURD rebels. Once detained, the civilians were accused of supporting the LURD and then beaten, tortured, or summarily executed. Those who were not killed were then forced to walk to government strongholds, including Vahun and Foya, where they were subjected to forced labor and threatened with death if caught fleeing. Young women and girls were very often raped and forced to become "wives" to the soldiers; young men were conscripted, made to carry looted goods and captured weapons. The conscripts were then sent to the front, often without any proper training. The civilians forced to remain under government control described severe shortages of food and medical care, leading to an alarmingly high mortality rate. Most of the victims were from the Gbandi ethnic group, which the Taylor government indiscriminately accuses, along with Mandingos and Krahns, of supporting the rebel incursion.
Some of the violations by government forces over the past two months documented by Human Rights Watch are as follows (a sample of victim testimonies is attached):
- A witness being held in Bondowalahun witnessed soldiers shoot a baby girl and her young mother in late April, and then dump the bodies into the nearby river.
- An elderly woman described how her thirty-year-old son was, in late April, beaten to death in Vahun after resisting conscription.
- A twenty-year-old woman described how in late May, her husband was executed in front of her as he tried to defend her from being sexually assaulted by government soldiers, two of whom later raped her.
- A forty-five-year-old woman described how in early June soldiers in Vahun led away her daughters-ages fifteen and six-and one-year-old grandchild. The next day she found the mutilated body of the fifteen-year-old.
- In May, the husband and six-year-old grandchild of a forty-five-year-old woman were gunned down after being captured near Bondawalahun for not walking fast enough. After being taken to the army base in the same town, five other civilians from her group were arbitrarily selected for summary execution.
- A seventeen-year-old woman with a three-month-old infant described being repeatedly raped by soldiers in Vahun during the last trimester of her pregnancy.
- Another woman described caring for her twelve-year-old cousin who was in June gang-raped in Vahun by three soldiers.
Renewed Use of Child Combatants and Violations Against those Seeking Asylum
Since the LURD incursion began, new militia groups have been proliferating, whose numbers, structures, and leaders remain unclear. Both the AFL command and Ministry of Defense officials in Liberia told Human Rights Watch that the Taylor government's frontline troops are drawn not only from the AFL but increasingly include militia groups largely made up hundreds of former National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) combatants, many of them originally recruited as children. Many of the commanders leading the new militias have a well-documented history of serious human rights abuses.
Another disturbing development involves the renewed use of child combatants by members of the Liberian security forces. According to credible witnesses, children are once again being recruited to form part of the army and pro-government militias. Witnesses from Monrovia and Gbarnga say children, many of them armed, are frequently seen manning checkpoints and riding in military vehicles. Others describe how children attempting to flee with their parents towards the border with Sierra Leone are stopped at checkpoints manned by the Anti-Terrorist Unit. After being separated from their parents, they are taken to a base where their heads are shaved. Some parents are then able to "buy" their children's freedom. Children whose parents do not have enough money are then sent to the battlefront after having received little or no training.
Liberian women crossing into Sierra Leone frequently report that their husbands, sons and other male relatives between the ages of fifteen and forty-five have been taken away, often at gunpoint, at military checkpoints along the highway between Monrovia and the border. Once at the border, military personnel search and subsequently steal anything of value. The civilians are then routinely required to pay the soldiers to secure passage into Sierra Leone. Those who are not able to pay are sometimes subjected to forced labor by the soldiers, for example clearing brush, before being allowed to cross.
Attacks on Civil Society Groups
In the face of renewed rebel action, the Taylor government has become increasingly intolerant of dissent. Since the imposition of a state of emergency in February 2002, the government has intensified its harassment and intimidation of the independent press, civil society groups, and legitimate political opposition groups. Since the Taylor government took office, government security forces have imprisoned, harassed, beaten and in a few cases, killed individuals that have been critical of its policies. Some of the most recent incidents are included below:
- After the National Human Rights Center of Liberia, an umbrella organization comprising nine nongovernmental human rights groups, issued several press releases protesting government abuses, five of its members-Aloysius Toe, Tunny Zeogar, Peter Nickoson, John Okai, and Sam Nimely-were arrested on March 28 and held without charge for several days. Although they were released after a court order was filed, they were rearrested shortly after, and charged with "criminal malevolence" and "preventing arrest and discharge of other duties."
- On April 24, human rights lawyer Tiawan Gongloe was arrested without charge by the police, and beaten so severely that he was unable to stand and required hospitalization. He had been speaking out against security force abuses and other human rights violations. The Analyst newspaper, which had just reported on a statement recently made by Gongloe at a conference on peace in the Mano River Union, was ordered closed.
- Hassan Bility, the editor of one of Liberia's most independent newspapers, remains in incommunicado detention since his arrest on June 24, together with Ansumana Kamara, Abubakar Kamara, and Blama Kamara. At the time, the Minister of Information Reginald Goodridge issued a public statement announcing that Bility and the others were being held on suspicion of operating a rebel terrorist cell in Monrovia. The government has said that it intends to try him in a military court as an unlawful combatant. Over the past year, Hassan Bility has been interrogated and detained twice, and his newspaper, The Analyst, has been closed down twice, as the result of publishing articles deemed critical of the government. The Analyst was closed down the second time after reporting Tiawan Gongloe's speech on the role of civil society groups.
- On July 13, delegates from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group were held for two and a half hours at the airport, and were threatened by government officials for their report on Liberia. Mike Gaydh, a human rights activist from the National Human Rights Center, who had accompanied them to the airport, was questioned by the Anti-Terrorist Unit before being released without charge.
Threat of Destabilization of Sierra Leone
The renewal of war in Liberia could easily destabilize the fragile peace in Sierra Leone and indeed threatens to further undermine prospects for sustainable peace in the Mano River Union. The area is also awash with arms and former combatants and other young men willing to cross over to any side as mercenaries.
Over the past decade, the governments of these three countries have frequently harbored each other's rebel groups and supported cross-border incursions, causing widespread instability. There is already ample evidence of this happening again. Over the past year hundreds of Sierra Leonean ex-combatants have crossed into Liberia to fight as mercenaries. LURD forces operating from Sierra Leone are clandestinely operating a supply line along the border and both LURD forces and former RUF combatants are actively involved in recruitment. Liberian government troops and LURD rebel soldiers are crossing into Sierra Leone to loot or escape fighting, and, in a few cases, to abduct people for forced labor. Liberian army deserters are also to be found on the Sierra Leone side of the border, where they are presenting an additional security threat.
The government of Guinea is also playing a destabilizing role in providing considerable logistical and some military support to the LURD rebels that operate from Guinea. Evidence indicates that this support is being given with the knowledge and support of high-ranking Guinean officials, including the president. Guinea's support to the LURD intensified after the Liberian government, assisted by Sierra Leonean rebel fighters and Guinean dissidents, launched a series of cross-border attacks into Guinea in late 2000 and early 2001.
Recommendations
We believe that sustainable peace in the sub-region will only emerge if there is consistent pressure on all the Mano River Union countries to: (1) End cross-border attacks and illicit weapons flows; (2) Cease support for armed rebel activity; (3) Respect the rule of law and human rights; (4) Prevent and punish war crimes and other human rights abuses; and to (5) Create state institutions that are transparent and accountable, particularly the state security apparatus. We call on the Security Council to:
Continue to strengthen the mechanisms to ensure compliance with existing U.N.-mandated controls on weapons flows that could destabilize the sub-region and to hold sanctions violators accountable.
Investigate and end Guinea's role in the Liberian conflict. The U.N. Panel of Experts, which is due to travel shortly to the sub region to examine sanctions compliance, should investigate Guinea's role in contributing to the Liberian conflict and make recommendations to the Security Council.
Mandate the placement of international military observers and human rights monitors on the major route ways along the Guinea/Liberia and Sierra Leone/Liberia borders to monitor cross-border movements.
Request the Secretary-General to fill the vacant position of representative in Liberia, with a mandate to report to the Security Council on the human rights situation in Liberia and make recommendations to end the conflict and address the deteriorating human rights situation.
Expand the mandate of the U.N. Peace-Building Support Office in Liberia (UNOL) to include human rights monitoring and investigation, and the raising of individual cases of abuse with the Liberian authorities and the LURD leadership. Request the U.N. Department of Political Affairs and donor states to increase funding to enable monitors to be deployed wherever security conditions allow.
Call on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to ensure as a priority the civilian nature of the refugee camps in neighboring countries, increase the number of international protection staff, and work closely with neighboring host governments to establish screening mechanisms at the border for refugees fleeing the fighting to separate and provide separate camps for Liberian combatants.
In view of the close links between the Guinean government and the LURD rebel forces in Liberia, the participation of Guinean troops in the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) should be replaced with non-West African troops that are not implicated in the sub-regional conflict. At a minimum, the Guinea battalions should not be deployed near the Sierra Leone/Liberia border where the likelihood of their involvement in Liberian rebel support is higher.
The developing crisis in Liberia, if unchecked and unresolved, threatens to erode the fragile peace and stability so painstakingly established in Sierra Leone, and may likely destabilize Guinea and the wider region.
We thank you for your attention to these important matters.
Yours Sincerely,
Peter Takirambudde
Executive Director
Africa Division
