Terror In Liberia As Militias Prowl Countryside

by Abdullah Dukuly

(IPS) MONROVIA -- Armed militias continue to violate human rights and international humanitarian law, despite the progress being made to end Liberia's 14-year conflict, a human rights lawyer says.

"The rebels are engaged in a new wave of violence, extorting, abducting and harassing the civilians," said Dempster Browne, chairperson of the Monrovia-based National Commission on Human Rights. The violence is mainly concentrated in the interior of the country. In the central provincial town of Gbarnga, residents live in fear as the Guinean-backed rebels of the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) reign terror on the population.

"They engage in sporadic shooting and drive us out of our homes at night, demanding money and food," said Marvi Dorleh, a resident, who fled Gbanrga recently.

LURD rebels launched their war against the regime of former President Charles Taylor in Mar. 1999.

In the southeast of the country, the rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) "are setting up roadblocks, engaging in sporadic shooting in towns and intimidating the civilians," said Gen. Joseph Owonibi, the Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

MODEL, which is backed by neighboring Cote d'Ivoire, cited "security reasons" for erecting the barricades. But Gen. Owonibi dismissed the claims, saying the rebels were "extorting money and personal belongings from drivers, commuters and peaceful civilians".

The new wave of violence comes as the estimated 40,000 combatants are due to disarm to UNMIL under the terms of a peace accord signed in Ghana on Aug. 18, 2003. The deal ushered in a power-sharing government in which senior officials of the country's three armed factions, including MODEL leader -- Thomas Nimely Yaya -- have taken up their posts. Yaya is Liberia's Foreign Minister.

Browne said his commission would not hesitate in dealing with people, including leaders of armed factions whose militias are violating the rights of the people.

Although heads of armed factions expressed their determination to end the conflict, Browne said "their fighters are committing various crimes against the people with impunity". He insisted that heads of militia groups "should be held responsible for the crimes against the people".

Gen. Owonibi warned that failure to dismantle the check points would "compel" UNMIL -- which now has 11,000 troops -- to force the combatants to comply with the terms of the peace accord.

The latest violence has triggered an outcry from ordinary Liberians. "It is ironical that individuals who claimed to have come to liberate us are now engaged in acts that are likened to slavery when the international community is making desperate efforts to end our nightmare and reconstruct our country," said Blamo Dreleaye, a civil servant in Monrovia.

If the militias are not disarmed, human rights groups warn that the interim government of Gyude Bryant would find it impossible to organize elections scheduled for the last part of 2005. The inauguration of a new government is slated for Jan. 2006.

Liberia's conflict has been characterized by arbitrary killings, extra-judicial executions, disappearances, torture, forced labor, as well as widespread rape, use of child soldiers, looting and detention.

More than 250,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in war-related incidents since Taylor launched his guerrilla war to topple the government of the late Samuel Doe in 1989.