(Dakar) — If a return to armed conflict in Liberia is to be avoided, the new government to be elected on October 11 must ensure that those responsible for past atrocities are brought to justice and that human rights abusers are kept out of the police, army and civil service, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
On October 11, Liberia will hold its first national elections since the signing of a peace agreement in 2003. At stake in the polls are the presidency, the 30-seat Senate and the 64-seat House of Representatives. While preparations, registration and campaigning in the October elections have been free of major irregularities, leaders in the country’s incoming government will need to pay more attention to the critical issues of justice and human rights than they have on the campaign trail, Human Rights Watch said.
The 39-page report, “Liberia at a Crossroads: Human Rights Challenges for the New Government,” warned that Liberia’s transition from a near-failed state to a democratic country governed by rule of law cannot be considered complete until there is considerably more progress in several key areas. First, Liberia’s judicial system, which remains plagued by striking deficiencies, must be rebuilt with the help of the international community. Second, the process of restructuring and reconstituting Liberia’s national police and army, which have for decades preyed upon the populations they are entrusted to protect, must be completed without delay. Finally, the individuals responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Liberia’s armed conflicts must be kept out of the civil service, police and army and be held accountable for their crimes.
“After enduring more than two decades of political instability including 14 years of brutal armed conflict, Liberia stands at an unprecedented crossroads,” said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “But failure to establish the rule of law and ensure justice for horrific crimes of war could undermine the hard-won stability in Liberia and the region as a whole.”
From the military coup in 1980 to the overthrow of President Charles Taylor in 2003, Liberian citizens were subjected to continual violations of civil and political rights by successive governments as well as widespread and systematic war crimes committed by all warring factions during the country’s two devastating armed conflicts. The violence blighted the lives of tens of thousands of Liberians.
Candidates in the upcoming elections include at least three former leaders of armed factions, five individuals subject to United Nations sanctions for activities aimed at undermining peace in Liberia and the sub-region, and several former high-level military commanders accused of war crimes. These individuals, who have in the past shown complete disregard for the rule of law and due process, could resort to force and other extra-legal measures to circumvent and subvert Liberia’s political process and the legal system if elected to office, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch called on the incoming government, together with the international community, to develop a concrete strategy to ensure justice for serious past human rights crimes and to establish an independent commission charged with instituting a vetting process to screen out human rights abusers appointed to or under consideration for civil service positions.
For decades, the Liberian police and army have been used as a repressive arm of successive governments and their ruling parties, and been the source of considerable instability, corruption and human rights violations. However, the vetting procedure designed to screen out past human rights abusers from the new Liberian Police Service was most likely ineffective in screening out past abusers. Problems with the process included unclear criteria for the elimination of potential human rights abusers and inadequate human resources to conduct thorough and systematic background checks on applicants. The new government must ensure that DynCorp, a U.S.-based contractor charged with restructuring the new army, pays attention to and corrects some of the problems that have plagued the vetting process for the Liberian National Police.
Immediately after the elections, the new government and international community will need to begin rebuilding the severely dysfunctional Liberian judicial system, which was left in ruins by the years of civil war. Human Rights Watch noted that the absence of functioning courtrooms, prosecutors and public defenders—as well as corruption within judicial proceedings—is actually fostering impunity instead of confronting it.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the recognition by the current Liberian government, the presidential hopefuls and the international community of the key role played by endemic corruption in creating conditions for armed conflict and political instability. At the same time, however, the new Liberian government and the international community must demonstrate a parallel commitment to improving deficiencies in the Liberian judicial system and key public institutions while ensuring that those most responsible for past human rights crimes are held accountable.
“Liberia’s newly elected government will need to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and respect for human rights by prosecuting the key individuals who were responsible for atrocities in the country’s armed conflicts,” said Takirambudde.
One of the individuals believed to be most responsible for war crimes in Liberia is former president Charles Taylor, currently in exile in Nigeria. Human Rights Watch urged Liberia’s incoming government to ask Nigeria to surrender Taylor for prosecution to the Special Court for Sierra Leone for his involvement in crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war. However, the new government must also ensure that Taylor is held accountable for war crimes he is accused of committing in Liberia.
“Surrendering Charles Taylor to the Special Court is crucial for ensuring justice for the victims of crimes in Sierra Leone,” said Takirambudde. “But justice must also be done for the countless victims of war crimes Taylor allegedly committed in Liberia as both rebel leader and president.”
Background
Liberia’s first armed conflict began in 1989 when rebel leader Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Front of Liberia launched a rebellion to unseat then-President Samuel K. Doe. The conflict, which lasted from 1989 to 1996, ended with an internationally brokered peace accord that included a general amnesty to all faction fighters. The transition from war to peace envisioned under the accord was never completed due to incomplete implementation of the peace accords, particularly regarding the need to restructure the security forces prior to elections. Instead, the 1997 elections, which Taylor went on to win, were conducted in an atmosphere of threats and intimidation.
As president, Taylor enrolled thousands of fighters from his former faction in the country's police and army, which resulted in continued pillage and human rights abuses and, ultimately, a return to civil war in 1999. During Liberia’s second armed conflict, two rebels groups—the Guinea-backed Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy and the Ivorian-backed Movement for Democracy in Liberia—launched their own bid to unseat President Taylor. In August 2003, as the rebels threatened to take over the capital Monrovia, Taylor was granted political asylum in Nigeria on the condition that he not meddle in the political affairs of Liberia or elsewhere in West Africa. Taylor was in March 2003 indicted by the Special Court in Sierra Leone on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in supporting rebel groups in Sierra Leone.
In August 2003, Liberia’s warring factions signed an internationally brokered peace agreement in Accra, Ghana. The accord installed a broad-based interim government—the National Transitional Government of Liberia—which was dominated by the country's three former armed factions and tasked with guiding Liberia towards elections in October 2005. Since August 2003, several factors have contributed to a marked decrease in human rights abuses and political instability and helped establish the conditions for the elections to take place. These included the departure of Charles Taylor into exile, the establishment of the U.N. Mission in Liberia in September 2003, and the subsequent deployment of about 15,000 peacekeepers and 1,000 civilian police to Liberia.
