| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
[This IRIN report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.]
MONROVIA, 9 September 1999 (IRIN) - An unmarked vehicle overtakes another car and blocks its route. Members of a security force jump out. They drag the driver from the second car and beat him up for about half an hour.
Then, they cut one of his ears off.
The incident occurred at 21:00 hrs on 18 April and the victim was the chauffeur of human rights activist James Torh, the National Human Rights Center of Liberia said in a recent statement.
According to the Center, it is abuses like these and, generally, the insecurity in the country that help obstruct the path to recovery, discouraging potential investors from risking their money in Liberia and making the international community hesitate to provide anything but humanitarian aid.
"When the Taylor government falsely accuses human rights organisations of driving away foreign investors with their reports, it must look at is own security forces for giving its a bad name," the Center said. "It is not human rights organisations who go about beating people, killing them, disappearing them, terrorising ordinary folks and cutting their ears off. It is the barbaric security forces."
The director of Liberia's Justice and Peace Commission Steve Wreh-Wilson, told IRIN: "Many of the people causing havoc now and committing crimes are former NPFL". The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) faction was headed during the civil war by Charles Taylor, who is now president.
"They commit crimes with impunity because we encourage a court of silence," Wreh-Wilson added.
At a meeting Taylor held on 16 August with opinion leaders, criminal lawyer Marcus Jones advised the Liberian president to restructure the army as a means of solving the security problem.
"We see a lot of armed groups roaming around Monrovia reporting to different functionaries and heads rather than being under the National Defence Ministry," Jones said. "Let it be known that army personnel are to represent the state, not individuals."
Taylor argued, however, that Liberia was relatively stable given the fact that it had just emerged from seven years of civil war. "Liberians have not appreciated what type of peace we have here yet," he said. "A country fresh from seven years of civil war to be as stable as we are is not happening anywhere. But maybe we overlook this and take advantage of it."
The security issue is just one of the challenges Liberia faces. The economy is another, according to Jones. "The economy has not begun," he said. "It may seem as if the economy has begun for those around the pudding but it has not for those who are down."
Two years after the end of Liberia's 1989-1997 faction war, social services remain poor. Monrovia still has no electricity or piped water-supply system and local sources put both unemployment and illiteracy in the country at 85 percent.
On the political front, opposition parties have little clout in parliament since the Senate and House of Representatives are dominated by Taylor's National People's Party (NPP), which won three-quarters of the vote at elections held in July 1997.
However, a member of the executive of the opposition Unity Party (UP) Charles Clarke, admitted that the ability of opposition parties to function effectively was also seriously affected by a lack of funds.
With its role in parliament limited, the opposition has sought other ways of getting its view across. "We influence government mainly through the media," Clarke told IRIN.
Media practitioners, for their part, say the government needs to be educated on their role. "Some people in government do not understand the role of the press," Philip Wissah, editor of the 'Inquirer' newspaper told IRIN. "They see negative stories against the government as an attempt to ridicule the government," he said.
The 'Inquirer', winner of the newspaper of the year award in 1999, has a circulation of 2,500, the largest in the country.
Although journalists acknowledge that the press is "relatively free" they say pressure is exerted in different ways. One media source said that not all media outlets had "equal and fair access to government information". Another said, "We have to exercise self-censorship."
Star Radio, an independent station managed by the Swiss NGO, Fondation Hirondelle, had its shortwave license withdrawn in October 1998. This has prevented it from broadcasting outside Monrovia.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, leader of the UP - Liberia's largest opposition party - charged that "the Liberian government sees its opponents as the enemy".
"It subscribes to the code that if you are not with me you must be against me," she told IRIN. "It does not see opposition parties as a force to provide the necessary checks and balances for society. It is for this reason that most people are afraid to associate with opposition parties."
A senior government official told IRIN that Liberia would need significant outside help to rebuild its infrastructure and economy.
However, civil society representatives told IRIN the government needed to demonstrate that it could manage its resources effectively if it wanted to attract resources from the international community.
The head of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL), Elizabeth Boyenneh, told IRIN that if she was able to run a legal aid clinic by raising money through a football tournament and membership dues, the Liberian government could do likewise for the benefit of its people.
"Let us take the initiative to use what we have wisely," she said, "then the international community will come knocking at our door with money."
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1576
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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