Liberia

The reason for the current crisis in Liberia is the civil war that lasted from 1989 to 1996. After the dictator Samuel Doe was overthrown in 1989, Charles Taylor, leader of the strongest rebel group, carried out a cruel civil war in Liberia until 1996. In doing so he forced thousands of young boys and girls to serve as soldiers. At the same time, Taylor stoked the flames of civil war in Sierra Leone, delivered weapons, and received payment in diamonds. Civilians lived in permanent fear of attacks by marauding rebel groups that killed, raped and tortured.

After an armistice in 1997, Charles Taylor was able to win the parliamentary and presidential elections monitored by the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). He did this by threatening to continue the civil war if he lost. As president of Liberia, Taylor continued to loot the country and step up the war economy. Corruption, abuse of power, and discrimination against various ethnic groups characterised the Taylor regime.

Due to the critical situation in the country, violent conflicts have occurred again and again. In July 2000, LURD rebels ( Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) marched into Northern Liberia from Guinea. Their stated goal was to overthrow Taylor's government. Thus began the second phase of the Liberian civil war, which lasted until 2003. The country sank into a bloody war between Taylor's government troops and the LURD rebels. In early 2003, MODEL (Movement for Democracy in Liberia) broke away from LURD and both groups began to attack Taylor's forces. The armed conflict escalated and extended into regions previously untouched by war. At the same time, the rebel groups advanced towards the capital city of Monrovia. More than one million people, approximately one third of the entire Liberian population, were forced to flee from fighting, marauding and murdering government troops and rebel groups. All of the parties - government forces, militias close to Taylor, and the fighters from LURD and MODEL - committed in the course of the conflict massive human rights violations on civilians including executions, mutilations, rape, torture, forced recruitment, and child trafficking. Women and girls were abducted by combat troops and forced into sexual slavery. During the course of the war, the number of rapes and other forms of sexualised violence against women and girls reached unprecedented heights.

In mid 2003, the Taylor regime finally collapsed under the pressure of both the rebels and the international community. At the same time, the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone indicted Charles Taylor on counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the conflict. Taylor fled to Nigeria in exile.

In August 2003, the comprehensive peace treaty of Accra was signed by the Liberian government, the rebel groups, the political parties, and civil society organisations. A national transitional government consisting of the former parties to the conflict assumed power. At the close of 2003, a UN peacekeeping force, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), arrived in Liberia with around 16,000 personnel and conducted among other things a programme to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate the approximately 100,000 ex-soldiers.

Liberia nevertheless has continued to suffer under the consequences of the long civil war. The country is on the brink of economic ruin, public infrastructure has been destroyed, and corruption is widespread. Although Liberia is rich in natural resources - timber, diamonds, gold, rubber, and iron ore - more than three quarters of the Liberian population live in extreme poverty. Unemployment is estimated to be around 85%. The health care system is in ruins and experts estimate there are only around one hundred physicians in the entire country. Liberians traumatised by the war have little chance of receiving medical care or psychological support.

Liberians thus have enormous expectations and hopes for their new government. In the presidential elections of October 2005, former minister of finance and World Bank economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf emerged as the first freely elected female president of Liberia. Upon assuming office, Johnson-Sirleaf broke a taboo and announced tough action against rapists. At the close of 2005, the parliament passed a law in which rape is punishable with up to life sentences.

Johnson-Sirleaf announced in March 2006 that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be established to examine the human rights violations committed between 1979 and 2003. At the same time Johnson-Sirleaf called for the extradition of Charles Taylor from Nigeria. As a result, Taylor attempted to flee but was captured at the border to Cameroon on 29 March. On 20 June 2006, he was transferred to the court in The Hague.

Despite the enormous difficulties encountered in the current phase of political and social change, there is hope in Liberia for a better future. The country is attempting to overcome its seemingly endless horrors. Even after the end of Taylor regime, however, conditions are anything but stable. Liberians are faced with the daunting task of rebuilding the country, establishing civil and human rights, initiating a national reconciliation process between rival powers and interest groups, and creating a sound basis for economic development. It remains to be seen whether these tasks can be fulfilled in the foreseeable future.

• „Das Schweigen“ – eine Reportage über die Frauen in Liberia“ aus: „Dummy. Das Gesellschaftsmagazin“ 5/2006
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• Amenty International, Liberia: No impunity for rape - A Crime against Humanity and a War Crime
• IRIN: Our Bodies – Their Battle Ground: Gender-based Violence in Conflict Zones (mit Kapitel über Liberia)
• Human Rights Watch (2004): “The Guns are in the Bushes”: Continuing Abuses in Libera
• Human Rights Watch (2004): Liberia: Fighters Rape and Loot in Areas Lacking Peacekeeping
• Human Rights Watch (2004): How to Fight, How to Kill: Child Soldiers in Liberia
• vgl. UN Bericht E/CN.4/1998/54