Amnesty International Report 1995 - Liberia

The killing of civilians increased as fighting intensified between the armed political groups contesting control of Liberia. In addition, these groups tortured and ill-treated civilians and non-combatants and took hostages. On 7 March, under the terms of the 1993 Cotonou peace accord, the Interim Government of National Unity handed over power to the Liberian National Transitional Government. The Transitional Government was made up of representatives of the three parties to the accord – the Interim Government and the two armed groups which then controlled large areas of Liberia, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO). However, the peace accord was undermined by the subsequent proliferation of armed factions and increased fighting. The Transitional Government exercised authority only in areas controlled by the forces of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ceasefire Monitoring Group, known as ECOMOG, which held the capital, Monrovia, and the coastal strip to Buchanan, but was unable to enforce a cease-fire and demobilize the warring factions in the rest of Liberia. ECOMOG soldiers allegedly sold arms and ammunition to groups opposed to the NPFL. The national army, the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), increasingly acted as an armed group independent of the Transitional Government. In April the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), established in September 1993 to help implement the Cotonou peace accord, but in October the number of its military observers was reduced from 370 to 90. In May a dissident faction within ULIMO, dominated by the Krahn ethnic group and led by ULIMO Chief of Staff General Roosevelt Johnson, seized control of ULIMO's headquarters in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, from ULIMO Chairman Alhaji G.V. Kromah and his faction, largely composed of members of the Muslim Mandingo community. Fighting and killings of civilians on ethnic grounds forced some 36,000 civilians to flee the area. In November the two factions agreed a cease-fire. In August three NPFL ministers in the Transitional Government, who had previously been ministers in the NPFL's administration in Gbarnga, Bong County, broke with NPFL leader Charles Taylor and set up a rival NPFL faction. They subsequently joined in a coalition with other armed political groups: the AFL; the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), a Krahn offshoot of the AFL; the Krahn faction of ULIMO; and the Lofa Defense Force (LDF), a militia fighting the Mandingo faction of ULIMO in the northeast since late 1993. In early September the Mandingo faction of ULIMO and coalition forces attacked the NPFL's base in Gbarnga. Large numbers of civilians were reportedly killed by fighters from all the forces involved. During continued fighting throughout September, ULIMO, coalition and NPFL forces all claimed control of Gbarnga or parts of it; in late December NPFL forces retook it. In September NPFL forces were driven out of Maryland County in the southeast by the LPC; there was heavy fighting in September and October and human rights abuses by both sides were reported. Tens of thousands of people fled, both to Monrovia and to neighbouring Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, the largest exodus since 1992. International aid operations were halted in most areas outside the ECOMOG-controlled zone. On 12 September an agreement brokered by ECOWAS, the Organization of African Unity and the UN was reached in Akosombo, Ghana, between Lieutenant-General Hezekiah Bowen, Chief of Staff of the AFL, Charles Taylor and Alhaji Kromah. It aimed to give their factions more control of a new Transitional Government and to facilitate disarmament. The agreement was opposed by civilian groups meeting in a National Conference in Monrovia. Further talks, which included civilians and other armed groups, led to a cease-fire in December. On 15 September a coup attempt by members of the AFL led by former Lieutenant-General Charles Julue was thwarted by ECOMOG forces. Five civilians subsequently arrested were released by the courts but were rearrested in late September and charged with the capital offence of treason. In November General Julue and 37 other officers were charged with treason before a court-martial. None had been tried by the end of the year. The civil war continued to be fought by armed young men and boys who lived by looting and extortion. Fighters from all the warring factions tortured and deliberately killed unarmed civilians suspected of opposing them, often because of their ethnic origin, as they seized control of territory or raided another group's territory. Ritual killings and cannibalism were also reported. It was usually not possible to confirm reports of killings, the identity of perpetrators or whether abuses were criminally or politically motivated. Both AFL and LPC fighters – who sometimes operated together – were reported to have been responsible for human rights abuses. On 15 December more than 50 civilians, including 28 children under 10 years old, were massacred at Paynesville near Monrovia. Responsibility was unclear, but witnesses said the attackers were Krahn AFL soldiers. Nine AFL officers were reportedly arrested and the Transitional Government ordered an inquiry which had not reported by the end of the year. LPC fighters were responsible for killing civilians in central and eastern Liberia, often because they were suspected of supporting the NPFL. On 11 September LPC fighters reportedly assembled the inhabitants of Kpolokpai, Kokoya District, Bong County, killed 30 alleged NPFL fighters and supporters with machetes, then shot dead 15 other civilian prisoners and fired into the crowd. Also in September LPC fighters in Greenville, Sinoe County, were reported to have killed Marie Tokpa, a girl from the Kpelle ethnic group, who resisted being raped. In early October LPC fighters apparently fired on assembled civilians in Zanzaye, Nimba County, killing scores of them. In November LPC fighters allegedly killed 12 residents of Sabo Wofiken, Glibo District, Grand Gedeh County, including Joshua Duweh, William Kuwor and David Hinneh. The LPC reportedly tortured many civilians by burning them with heated machetes. In Barnabo Beach in July LPC fighters allegedly tied their victims' arms behind their backs, burned them severely with heated machetes, forced them to carry looted goods to another village and shot dead one man who had collapsed on the way. In September they allegedly cut off the fingers and ears of Albert Mende, a journalist taken prisoner in Kokoya District, Bong County. In November they reportedly took 10 girls captive in Sabo Wofiken, slashing their feet and forcing them to walk back to the fighters' base in Sinoe County. The AFL and LPC also took hostage and detained civilians and non-combatants. In May the LPC reportedly detained 10 Ugandan ECOMOG soldiers, releasing them a few days later. In June AFL soldiers detained UNOMIL staff at Schieffelin barracks near Monrovia for three days. In July LPC fighters beat and detained for five days a civilian in Buchanan who resisted having his bicycle stolen. Prisoners held under the authority of ECOMOG were released. In April 800 prisoners, held without charge or trial in Monrovia Central Prison in harsh conditions since the NPFL attack on Monrovia in October 1992, were released. They included people caught in possession of weapons as well as others suspected of supporting the NPFL. In May Peter Bonner Jallah, a civilian detained by ECOMOG since November 1992, was released without charge. In September the Supreme Court ruled that ECOMOG had no legal authority to arrest or detain. All the armed opposition groups were responsible for deliberately and arbitrarily killing civilians and non-combatants. On 23 September armed men reportedly killed displaced civilians and medical staff at Phebe Hospital near Gbarnga; responsibility was not clear but the killings apparently occurred after NPFL forces overran the area. In August the NPFL was reported to have executed as many as 80 of its own fighters, without any trial, and to have tortured and killed Lieutenant-General Nixon Gaye, an NPFL Commander, for leading a mutiny against Charles Taylor. In September NPFL fighters robbed and killed civilians as they fled the Gbarnga area. In one incident they tied up at least 20 men, women and children and threw them into the St John River at Bahla bridge. In another, they reportedly shot dead some 100 people in Palala, Bong County, on suspicion of being ULIMO supporters. From October NPFL fighters reportedly killed scores of civilians in Maryland County whom they suspected of supporting the LPC, among them Simon Gyekye, a Ghanaian school principal in Plebo. Although human rights abuses by NPFL fighters went mostly unpunished, an NPFL commander and some fighters were reportedly detained by the NPFL in October in connection with the killing of civilians at the St John River. In December the NPFL executed six senior commanders held responsible for the fall of Gbarnga in September, apparently after a court-martial. Fighters with the LDF were also reported to have killed civilians. In July LDF fighters reportedly killed more than 70 civilians in the village of Rusie, near Zorzor, Lofa County. The two ULIMO factions also killed civilians. Mandingo ULIMO fighters reportedly killed at least four civilians and took women hostage for money when they burned and looted villages in the Tienne area, Cape Mount County, in mid-June, apparently accusing the villagers of supporting the Krahn ULIMO faction. In August Mandingo ULIMO fighters allegedly killed at least 20 civilians in Gbesseh, Cape Mount County. In August and September they also reportedly killed civilians in Lofa and Bong Counties. Some victims were apparently killed and eaten for ritual purposes, for example, Paul Tarwoi, a traditional healer who was reportedly captured in Zowolo, Lofa County, and killed in Gorlu. In Gbarnga, a ULIMO tribunal reportedly ordered the "execution" by firing-squad of civilians whom it found to be NPFL supporters. At least two Tanzanian ECOMOG soldiers were killed in Kakata in September, 50 kilometres northeast of Monrovia, when Krahn ULIMO fighters reportedly attacked a convoy of civilians fleeing Gbarnga which included UNOMIL observers and aid workers. All the armed opposition groups tortured and ill-treated captives and civilians. They routinely subjected prisoners to "tabey", a form of torture where the victim's elbows are tied together behind the back, sometimes leading to long-term paralysis and nerve damage. In late June Krahn ULIMO fighters took hostage six unarmed UNOMIL officers in Tubmanburg for two days, reportedly beating them and subjecting them to mock executions. In September large numbers of civilians and refugees were beaten and raped and their property looted by the armed groups involved in the fighting around Gbarnga. All the armed groups were reported to have forcibly recruited boys and young men to fight for them, and to have used civilians as slave labour to carry supplies, harvest crops, mine diamonds and carry looted goods to the border for sale. Some of the armed opposition groups took hostage ECOMOG troops, UNOMIL observers and foreign aid workers. In July the NPFL was reported to be holding about 25 ECOMOG soldiers and 30 long-term political prisoners. In August it reportedly detained and ill-treated two chiefs in Bong County, Ruth Kollie and Willie Bestman, who tried to persuade the NPFL to attend the National Conference in Monrovia, and in September 30 civilians from the Bassa ethnic group in Butuo, Nimba County, accused of supporting the LPC. In September NPFL fighters reportedly detained 43 UNOMIL officers and six aid workers in various parts of the country for up to 10 days. In separate incidents in May Mandingo ULIMO fighters held hostage 17 UN employees delivering food aid and 16 Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers, accusing them of supporting the rival Krahn ULIMO faction. They were released after a few days. An Amnesty International delegation visited Liberia in July to investigate human rights abuses and to raise its concerns with officials of the Transitional Government, AFL, ECOMOG and UNOMIL. No response was received to requests to meet the NPFL in Gbarnga, and renewed fighting prevented the delegation from travelling outside areas under ECOMOG control.