LIBERIA – In wake of unanimous calls for the establishment of war and economic crimes court in Liberia, Smart News Liberia, as a public service institution, is pleased to release a catalogue of some of the most egregious human rights violations as documented by none Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (TRC) sources.
February, 1979: Seven people including one woman (Allen Yancy et al) convicted and hanged in Monrovia for ritual (Gboyo) killings in 1976.
April 14, 1979: Brutal suppression by Government security of a pending mass demonstration over planned increase in the price of rice. More than 100 people were killed and some 500 injured, according to Liberian Government statements.
March 1980: A Major crackdown and arrest of Bacchus Matthews and opposition leaders and supporters by Tolbert government. Hundreds were rounded up around the country, beaten, tortured and dehumanized whilst in prison ‚awaiting trial‛.
April 9, 1980: Government issued a ‚wanted dead or alive‛ hunt for members of the opposition. Many arrested, detained and tortured at the military facility of Post Stockade because of their political beliefs.
April 12, 1980: Samuel Doe’s bloody overthrow of the TWP Government of William Tolbert. Scores were killed during the takeover on charges of corruption and human rights violations. On 17 April shadow trials without due process proceeded against 14 members of the government. 13 were publicly executed on April 22nd. The prisoners were tied to stakes and shot in public view. Proceedings against another 10 detained former officials continued throughout May, and 400 other prisoners including, family members of the deposed president, remained in custody without charge or trial for a prolonged period.
March, 1981: Seven people were executed by hanging after being summarily convicted of alleged murder and conspiracy in influencing the conduct of armed men.
June, 1981: 14 lower-ranks soldiers were arrested and accused of plotting to overthrow the government and to assassinate several leading members. After a summary trial without defense counsel, 13 of the soldiers were sentenced to death and allegedly secretly executed in the Post Stockade prison, Monrovia.
Late January 1982: Sergeant David Gbedeh was executed by firing–squad after being convicted of murder by the Supreme Military Tribunal.
February 3, 1982: Four soldiers executed by firing-squad without trial. They allegedly confessed during a hurried ‚preliminary investigation‛ by the military authorities to having participated in an armed robbery in which three other soldiers died.
1983: The Nimba Raid by supporters of Thomas Quiwonkpa in Yekepka, LAMCO Mining Company and government offices left many injured and rights violated.
February 8/9, 1984: Willis Knuckles, journalist for the Daily Observer Newspaper and a correspondent for the BBC in Liberia was detained at Post Stockade prison. He was severally beaten upon his arrest and also whipped during the following days.
June, 1984: Rufus Darpoh, a freelance journalist and former editor of the government controlled New Liberian Newspaper, was arrested and taken to maximum prison Belleh Yallah, under hash conditions and released in November without charge.
April – October, 1985: In the months preceding the elections several leading opposition politicians and others were imprisoned. They included Dusty Wolokollie, a prominent member of the Liberian People’s Party (LPP) and John Karweaye, another LPP member, after expressing doubts as to whether the elections would be fair. Both were released without charge.
July, 1985: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a leading member of the Liberian Action Party (LAP), was placed under house arrest, and a few days later she was detained and moved to the Post Stockade prison. Tried before the Special Military Tribunal and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for sedition, released twelve (12) days later.
November 1985: Random Campaign of terror in Nimba and other counties against the people of Nimba suspected of supporting the failed coup attempt of General
Thomas Quiwonkpa on November 12. General Charles Julu of the Executive
Mansion Guard Battalion (EMG) led the purge against the Nimba people. Human rights abuses including killings occurred on a substantial scale the days following the failed coup. The victims appeared mostly to be civilians who had not been involved in the conspiracy but who were suspected by the government of being sympathetic towards Thomas Quiwonkpa. A number of people unconnected were killed including Charles Gbenyon, a senior television journalist working for the Liberian Broadcasting System, who was killed a few days after the coup at the Executive Mansion, official residence of Head of State Doe.
1987: John Vambo, a journalist, was also detained without charge in August and later released.
1987: Zaye Gontee a businesswoman, was arrested in May and detained incommunicado and without trial for over three months in the Post Stockade and later released.
1989: Gabriel William Kpoleh and nine other prisoners of conscience remained in prison throughout the year. They were convicted without due process and imprisoned under poor conditions.
October, 1989: Momodu Lavala and two other students including Benedict Garlawolo were detained illegally and without charge for two weeks and eventually killed in early 1990.
January, 1990: The government said a number of rebels had been captured and would be brought to trial, but they appeared to include Gio and Mano civilians arrested in Monrovia. None was brought to trial and their fate is unknown. Meanwhile a counterinsurgency by the AFL against people mainly of Nimba origin led to killings, burning of villages and looting. This forced 160,000 civilians in Nimba County to flee into Guinea and Ivory Coast from January to May. Massacres in May were led by Capt. James Chelly and Edwin Voker.
May, 1990: Angeline Watta Allison and two others sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity to murder but appeared to be prisoners of conscience.
June 1990: Murder of Moses Duopu by Benjmin Yeatin for questioning the leadership status of Charles Taylor of the NPFL.
June 1990 Massacre of 27 Gio and Mano family members of the AFL by Moses Thomas, Moses Wright, James Chelly and George Dweh; reportedly under orders of Samuel Doe.
Between June and August 1990: Killing of prominent Liberians including Jackson F. Doe, Cooper Teah, Gabriel Kpolleh and up to 80 others associated with the NPFL in a purge allegedly authorized by Charles Taylor. Paul Vaye, Henry Kerdiah, George Mansuo and George Karsua effected the arrest in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. Jackson F Doe was murdered in Zorgowee, Nimba County.
Early July 1990: Bakadu, Lofa County massacre of 500 ethnic Mandingoes by NPFL. An Imam was beheaded.
July 29, 1990: Massacre of over 500 men, women and children mainly of Gio and Mano ethnicity seeking refuge at the St. Peters Lutheran Church in Monrovia as reprisal for the Bakedu Massacre.
August 2, 1990: Massacre of 250 Gios and Manos seeking refuge at the JFK Hospital in Monrovia; allegedly led by George Dweh.
August, 1990: About 50 foreigners including Americans were detained by the NPFL.
The NPFL also took prisoner, at least 30 Nigerians as well as nationals of Guinea and Ghana, as part of attacks on ECOWAS citizens whose countries were contributing troops to ECOMOG. There were reports of widespread arrests among the Ghanaian community living in areas under the NPFL’s control in response to ECOWAS decision to deploy ECOMOG.
1991: The INPFL reportedly held one woman at its camp throughout 1991, having taken her prisoner in November 1990, and to be holding a number of children at an orphanage within the camp as human shield to deter a possible attack by ECOWAS forces.
February, 1991: The INPFL detained and ill-treated some seven members of the Interim Legislative Assembly for three days.
September, 1991: After the September (ULIMO) incursion into western Liberia from Sierra Leone, and again in December, foreign and Liberian aid workers were detained for several days by the NPFL, assaulted and accused for spying.
June 1, 2002: Ambassador Albert Karpeh killed on June 1, 2002 by forces loyal to Alhaji Kromah over power struggle within the ULIMO movement.
April, 1992: Father Seraphino Dalpont was arrested by NPFL for possessing Interim Government currency and a Roman Catholic newsletter alleged to be seditious literature. He was released after paying a large fine, but re-arrested allegedly on suspicion of espionage. He was held in a police station in Gbarnga until mid-May, when he was released and deported to Cote d’Ivoire.
October 1992: Operation Octopus was the NPFL unprovoked attack on ECOMOG and Monrovia, left scores of civilians dead, paralyzed the city and created a humanitarian disaster.
October, 1992: Up to 300 orphans and a former government official were apparently taken away by NPFL forces on about 28 October from an orphanage near Gardnersville; orphans who escaped reportedly said that the NPFL was forcing the boys to fight for them.
October 1992: Five Catholic nuns were slain in Gardnersville, Monrovia during the Octopus attack, by Christopher Vambo and Edward Wowah of the NPFL .
June 6, 1993: Massacre of 600 displaced persons at a Harbel Camp within Firestone Plantation. The UN Wacco Commission placed responsibility at the door steps of the AFL; observers and TRC findings hold the NPFL responsible for the massacre in which the victims were burned on the outskirts of the camp.
November, 1993: The NPFL detained UN aid workers for several days accusing them of spying. They were later released.
November, 1993: After thousands of refugees had fled from the fighting in Sierra Leone into Lofa County, ULIMO forces reportedly took about 300 persons as prisoner, on suspicion of being supporters of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
1993: Murder of six Senegalese ECOMOG soldiers by Oliver Varnie, Timothy Mulbah and Joe Doe in Valhun on orders of Charles Taylor and defense Minister Thomas Woeweiyu. The bodies were dumped in a Vahun Valley.
May, 1994: The LPC reportedly detained 10 Ugandan UNOMIL soldiers, releasing them a few days later.
May, 1994: In separate incidents Mandingo ULIMO fighters held hostage 17 UN employees delivering food aid and 16 Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers, accusing them of supporting the rival ethnic Krahn ULIMO faction. They were released after a few days.
June, 1994: AFL soldiers detained UNOMIL staff at Scheffelin barracks near Monrovia for three days.
June, 1994: Krahn ULIMO fighters took hostage six unarmed UNOMIL officers in Tubmanburg for two days, reportedly beating them and subjecting them to mock executions.
July, 1994: The NPFL was reported to be holding about 25 ECOMOG soldiers and 30 long-term political prisoners.
September 9, 1994: The NPFL arrested 43 unarmed UMOMIL observers and 6 NGO workers and held them at nine different sites. 33 were released after 5 days and the rest were released by 18 September. The UN reported that some were beaten and terrorized by their captors.
September, 1994: NPFL fighters reportedly detained 43 UNOMIL officers and six aid workers in various parts of the country for up to 10 days.
September, 1994 Massacre of 100 persons hospitalized at Phebe Hospital. They were mostly fleeing hostilities between NPFL and ULIMO K.
November, 1994: LPC fighters reportedly took 10 girls captive in Sabo Wofiken, slashing their feet and forcing them to walk back to the fighters’ base in Sinoe County.
December 15, 1994: Cow Field massacre of 48 civilians, while they were asleep, on Duport Road, Monrovia by the NPFL.
January 1995: LPC fighters killed 18 civilians in Grand Kru County.
January, 1996: In the area around Tubmanburg, ULIMO-J detained 130 ECOMOG troops who had been engaged in clearing mines and held them for 10 days as a shield against attacks.
February, 1996: Eight (8) aid workers were held for three days by the LPC in southeastern Liberia.
April 6, 1996: Monrovia fighting to arrest Roosevelt Johnson, in a combined NPFL/ULIMO operation with support of ECOMOG devastated the City, imposed economic and financial hardships and caused deaths. During the fighting in Monrovia, members of ECOMOG and other foreign nationals were held at the Barclay Training Centre Military barracks by Krahn troops loyal to Roosevelt Johnson.
April 18, 1996 Murder of 12 persons in Zuanna Town and Bloun Town, Bomi County. Group of fighters stormed the displace camp and burned it down along with Karmo Town.
Torture, Including Rape and Ill-treatment
Mid-1989: A suspected murderer and another man sentenced to death for murder in February both died at Buchanan Central Prison reportedly as a result of harsh conditions.
October, 1989: Henry B. Walker, a murder suspect, died at the Monrovia Central Prison reportedly as a result of harsh conditions.
October, 1989: Two murder suspects died at Monrovia Central Prison, apparently as a result of torture, ill-treatment or medical neglect. Following their arrest thought to have been in April or May, they had been held illegally and incommunicado in the Post Stockade, a military detention facility where political detainees have been tortured in the past.
January, 1992: While still formally allied to the Interim Government, the INPFL illtreated and held two journalists – Isaac Bantu and Dan Brown – for three days under harsh conditions.
September, 1992: Nearly 600 ECOMOG soldiers were taken prisoner; some of whom were severely beaten by their NPFL captors.
January, 1993: ECOMOG beat and injured a British Broadcasting Corporation journalist, apparently because he had criticized ECOMOG in his reports.
December, 1993: 800 captured NPFL fighters held by the Interim Government at Monrovia Central Prison were reported to be suffering severe malnutrition and medical neglect; five were said to have died.
July, 1994: LPC fighters beat and detained, for five days, a civilian in Buchanan who resisted having his bicycle stolen.
July, 1994: LPC fighters at Barnabo Beach in Number Four District allegedly heated machetes in a fire and branded their captives, leaving large third degree burns on their victims.
September, 1994: The NPFL reportedly detained and ill-treated 30 civilians from the Bassa ethnic group in Butuo, Nimba County, accused of supporting the LPC.
September, 1994: Large numbers of civilians and refugees were beaten and raped and their property looted by the armed groups involve in the fighting around Gbarnga.
September, 1994: LPC fighters allegedly cut off the fingers and ears of Albert Mende, a journalist.
1995: LPC fighters, operating with the support of the AFL, systematically swept through rural areas in southeastern Liberia, robbing, torturing and intimidating people and forcing them to take refuge in Buchanan or other places under ECOMOG control. Many of those fleeing to Buchanan in February were reported to have been bayoneted, shot or flogged by LPC fighters. At the time, large numbers of people, perhaps as many as 6000, were reportedly being held by the LPC in the compounds of an agriculture company, where many were raped.
April, 1995: ULIMO-K set ablaze the towns of Fassama, Zuanna 1 and Zuanna 2. Survivors reported rapes, abductions and looting.
April, 1995: Benjamin Wilson, a journalist with ‚The Eye‛, was beaten by police when he refused to give them photographs he had taken of damages at a refugee compound in Monrovia.
June, 1995: UNICEF workers in Buchanan reported that they had registered 652 cases of women who had been raped, mostly by members of the warring factions, within a period less than 6 months.
July, 1995: Bill Jarkloh, a journalist with ‚The News‛, was beaten unconscious by ULIMO-J fighters. He had been interviewing Roosevelt Johnson when fighters stormed the building and he tried to photograph the incident. Three of those involved in the attack were arrested by ECOMOG and then handed over to the ULIMO-J high command.
September, 1995: James Momoh, a journalist with ‚The Inquirer was beaten by ECOMOG soldiers when trying to photograph AFL soldiers at a check-point.
March, 1996: NPFL officials shot two men in the legs after they were found threatening civilians.
Additional Extrajudicial Executions; Unlawful killing of civilians including massacres
1990: The predominantly Gio and Mano rebel forces summarily killed government officials and others considered to be supporters of President Doe’s government, particularly members of the Krahn ethnic group and the Muslim Mandingo community.
1990: An unknown number of prisoners were executed after unfair trials before special courts set up by the rebels. At least a hundred people – government officials and members of the Krahn and Mandingo ethnic groups – were reportedly executed after being convicted of ‚crimes against the people‛ or of supporting the government.
January, 1990: Hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed by rebels and government troops in Nimba County in northeast Liberia.
January, 1990: A former prisoner of conscience, Robert Philips, was brutally murdered at his home in Monrovia by an AFL Death squad.
May, 1990: At least 30 Gio and Mano men, women and children were abducted by government soldiers from a UN compound where hundreds were seeking protection. They were then apparently executed extra judicially by the AFL.
June, 1990: A government soldier was executed by firing squad after being convicted by a court-martial of murdering a civilian.
June, 1990: Several hundred Gio and Mano soldiers were reported to have been arrested. Some appear to have been extra judicially executed – their bodies were found in the streets, although the government said that 150 had been released.
July, 1990: Large-scale killings occurred when predominantly Gio and Mano rebel groups entered Monrovia. One rebel leader was said, by eye-witnesses, to have personally shot four people dead in cold blood, including a Red Cross worker and a woman whom he shot in the face in front of her child.
August, 1990: In Grand Gedeh County, the NPFL forces were responsible for indiscriminate killings of people belonging to the Krahn ethnic group. Former government minister, Senator Fred J. Blay and Congressman William T. Jabbah were reportedly executed by the INPFL; they did not appear to have had any form of trial.
September 10, 1990: The assassination of Liberian President Samuel Doe by Prince
Yormie Johnson, leader of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), after being captured the day before at the temporary headquarters of the
ECOMOG.
October, 1990: Two Nigerian journalists detained by the NPFL, Tayo Awotunsin and Krees Imodibie, were reportedly executed extra judicially. TRC findings revealed that they were executed by food deprivation; they were allowed to starve till death in NPFL Prison.
1991: Accord between Charles Taylor and Firestone. The management at Firestone had an arrangement with factional leadership during the war to organize protection and export of their product. Firestone reportedly paid the NPFL $2million annually for protection. NPFL’s ‚G-2‛ security forces compelled rubber workers to continue work in exchange for use of Firestone communications equipment and a base for Operation Octopus that began in October, 1992.
1991: The NPFL was responsible for the killings of hundreds of members of the Krahn ethnic group and members of the Mandingo community in Grand Gedeh County, who were targeted for formerly supporting the Doe government. NPFL continued to detain, torture, and kill civilians in other areas under their control.
1991: The INPFL or NPFL killed Angeline Watta Allison. It was also reported that her husband, a former defense minister, Major-General Gray Dioh Allison, was captured and executed by the NPFL.
September, 1991: It was reported that a number of NPFL soldiers had been extra judicially executed after attempting to assassinate Charles Taylor. However, these reports were denied by the NPRAG administration. It said that an NPFL officer had been executed after a special court-martial had convicted him of murdering five soldiers.
October 20, 1991: Arrest of Jackson F. Doe. Paul Vaye, Henry Kerdiah, George Mansuo, and George Karsuo arrested Jackson Doe in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, on the orders of Charles Taylor and murdered him in the town of Zorgowee in Nimba County.
January, 1992: The INPFL had executed at least three of their own soldiers at an NPFL camp near Monrovia for being in possession of new currency issued by the Interim Government.
April, 1992: NPRAG authorities charged four senior NPFL officers with the murder of seven suspected ULIMO supporters in Buchanan. Three were later released and it was not known if the other was tried.
July 3, 1992: NPFL fighters allegedly killed nine forestry workers in Jenimana.
August, 1992: When ULIMO seized NPFL-controlled territory, both NPFL and ULIMO forces were alleged to have killed civilians suspected of supporting the other side in the fighting.
August, 1992: Several dissident NPFL soldiers were reportedly executed by the NPFL for their involvement in an attempted assassination of Charles Taylor in which a bodyguard was killed.
October, 1992: During the Octopus attack on Monrovia, NPFL forces were reported to have deliberately killed civilians and taken other prisoners. NPFL troops reportedly abducted 50 people and killed others when they took control of Louisiana Township near the capital.
October 20, 1992: Two nuns, both US nationals, a Liberian man employed by the nuns’ convent and two ECOMOG soldiers were killed in the nuns’ car near Barnersville apparently by the NPFL.
October 23, 1992: Six NPFL soldiers entered the nuns’ convent in the suburb of Gardnersville, killed three other American nuns and a Lebanese businessman, and abducted the businessman’s Liberian wife, two other Liberian women with their four children, and four Liberian novices. Those abducted were apparently later released. NPRAG officials denied that NPFL forces were responsible.
Late October, 1992: The NPFL allegedly killed more than 25 people in Maryland County, apparently because they were suspected of supporting ULIMO.
October, 1992: Civilians in Monrovia were subjected to ill-treatment, harassment and looting by AFL and ULIMO troops. At least six people were reported to have been summarily executed by these forces on suspicion of being NPFL fighters.
November, 1992: ECOMOG forces threatened to shoot on sight any member of the armed forces who broke a night curfew imposed in Monrovia.
January, 1993: Two unnamed soldiers were reportedly executed in January after being convicted of looting by an AFL court martial.
January, 1993: AFL soldiers found responsible for extrajudicial execution of Brian Garnham, manager of a research laboratory.
February, 1993: ULIMO reportedly executed eight of its fighters in February for looting and harassing civilians.
February, 1993: 13 elders at Hende were held responsible for the drowning of a ULIMO commander when his canoe capsized. They were executed.
March, 1993: ULIMO summarily executed 114 young men in Zorzor suspected of supporting the NPFL. Refugees who fled to neighboring Guinea were reportedly either forcibly returned to Liberia or executed in Guinea after perfunctory investigations by an illegal tribunal of Liberia exiles base in Macenta and apparently linked to ULIMO.
April, 1993: When ECOMOG forces took Buchanan in April, civilians who refused to flee with the NPFL were apparently killed by NPFL soldiers.
May, 1993: In an attack on Fasama, a town under ULIMO control, about 200 civilians were reportedly killed indiscriminately by NPFL soldiers.
July, 1993: ULIMO was alleged to have extra judicially executed as many as 300 members of the Lorma ethnic group in Voinjama who opposed their control of the town.
August/September, 1993: Reports of NPFL attacks on Liberian refugees in camps close to the border in Cote d’Ivoire or as they returned to tend their crops in southeastern Liberia. Several were reportedly killed.
September, 1993: A UN inquiry found that the AFL had been responsible for the extra judicial executions of nearly 600 unarmed civilians- mostly women, children and elderly people- at displaced people’s camps near Harbel in June. This report by the WACCO Commission is disputed by findings of the TRC to the effect that NPFL committed the atrocities.
October, 1993: ULIMO fighters reportedly killed large numbers of people from the Kissi ethnic group in Foya district.
October, 1993: Hundreds of civilians died or were deliberately killed during ULIMO takeover of Lofa and Bong Counties and the NPFL recapture of Bong County. Countless civilians who remained after the recapture were killed by the NPFL.
October, 1993: Sierra Leonean Revolutionary United Front forces were reported to have killed civilians in Lofa County on suspicion of supporting opposing forces.
October, 1993: Liberian Peace Council fighters reportedly killed civilians who refused to join them in Sinoe County in the southeast.
December, 1993: LPC fighters killed nine church ministers in Greenville after accusing them of being ‚anti-Krahn‛.
June, 1994: 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.
June 17, 1994: ULIMO fighters raided the village of Goe. They forced all the villagers to assemble at a central point and accused them of supporting a rival ULIMO group. They burnt houses and looted extensively. They also tied up the village chief in his hut and set it on fire.
June 19, 1994: An ULIMO group led by commander Keita killed six people from the Bangorama village and burnt down the house of the local chief.
June 23, 1994: An ULIMO-K group attacked the village of Ngojah and murdered two people. They were tied up and their throats slit.
July, 1994: In Barnablo Beach, LPC fighters allegedly tied the 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.
July, 1994: LDF fighters reportedly killed more than 70 civilians in the village of Rusie, near Zorzor, Lofa County.
August, 1994: Mandingo ULIMO fighters allegedly killed at least 20 civilians in Gbesseh, Lofa County.
August/September, 1994: An ULIMO tribunal ordered the execution by firing-squad of civilians whom it suspected to be NPFL supporters.
August/September, 1994: Mandingo ULIMO fighters reportedly killed civilians in Lofa and Bong Counties.
August, 1994: The NPFL was reportedly to have executed up to 80 of its own fighters, without trial, and to have tortured and killed Lieutenant-General Nixon Gaye, an NPFL Commander, for leading a mutiny against Charles Taylor.
September, 1994: The massacre of over 100 persons who were hospitalized and/or seeking shelter at the Phebe Hospital. Those killed were fleeing fighting between ULIMO-K and NPFL. The NPFL is alleged to have committed the crime.
September, 1994: NPFL fighters tied up at least 20 men, women and children and threw them into the St. John River at Bahla Bridge.
September, 1994: At least two Tanzanian UNOMIL soldiers were killed in Kakata when Krahn ULIMO fighters reportedly attacked a convoy of civilians fleeing Gbarnga, which included UNOMIL observers and aid workers.
September, 1994: 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.
September, 1994: NPFL fighters reportedly shot dead some 100 people in Palala, Bong County, on suspicion of being ULIMO supporters.
September, 1994: LPC fighters in Greenville were reported to have killed Marie Tokpa, a girl from the Kpelle ethnic group, who resisted being raped.
September, 1994: 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 civilians prisoners and fired into the crowd. TRC investigations confirmed.
September, 1994: NPFL fighters robbed and killed civilians as they fled fighting for the control of Gbarnga with ULIMO.
October, 1994: 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 Pleebo.
October, 1994: LPC fighters apparently fired on assembled civilians in Zanzaye, killing scores of them.
November, 1994: LPC fighters allegedly killed 12 residents of Sabo Wofiken.
December, 1994: More than 50 civilians were massacred at Paynesville. Responsibility was unclear but witnesses said the attackers were Krahn AFL soldiers.
December, 1994: The NPFL executed six (6) senior commanders held responsible for the fall of Gbarnga in September, apparently after a court-martial.
December 15, 1994: The massacre of 48 civilians at Cow Field, Duport Road, Montserrado County. The civilians were murdered and burned by Paul Vaye, Sam Lartoe and other soldiers from the NPFL while they were asleep in their homes.
January 1995: Liberian Peace Council (LPC) fighters killed eighteen (18) citizens in Grand Kru County.
April, 1995: UNICEF representatives reported a massacre in Yourcee, a village near Buchanan. They stated that at least 62 people, including women and children, had been rounded up and killed – most had been hacked to death. The UNICEF workers could not determine who was responsible for the massacre; the area had been controlled by the NPFL but was contested by the LPC.
June, 1995: Clashes between ULIMO factions in Royesville left many civilians dead; survivors were raped and terrorized.
August, 1995: After the peace agreement, it was reported that NPFL fighters had been responsible for the massacre of at least 75 civilians in the Tappita area, Nimba County. Although he discounted the figure of those killed, Charles Taylor, leader of the NPFL, stated that some NPFL members had been arrested and would face courtmartial for these acts.
November, 1995: At least four LPC commanders were executed by firing-squad on the orders of a specially constituted court. According to reports, the execution followed a two-week investigation into human rights abuses.
December, 1995: UNOMIL observers commenting on the human rights situation in Tubmanburg confirmed that ULIMO-J had forced civilians out of the hospital where they had sought refuge from the fighting and had used them as ‚human shields‛ to protect their positions.
January, 1996: Members of the LPC killed, raped, and harassed members of the Grebo ethnic group in southeast Liberia.
January, 1996: The buried remains of five civilians were exhumed in Tubmanburg, together with those of nine ECOMOG soldiers, allegedly killed by ULIMO-J. One of the victims had been decapitated and, according to a pathologist, another had apparently been tied up and then shot.
February, 1996: Lieutenant Prince Musa of the NPFL was killed a few minutes after being found guilty by a court-martial of killing a civilian who refused to hand over money.
March, 1996: At least four (4) civilians were reportedly killed when LPC combatants in Buchanan opened fire on them after running over a pedestrian with their vehicle.
April 6, 1996: The attempted arrest of Roosevelt Johnson by the NPFL and ULIMOK with ECOMOG support. The attempt led to the third battle for Monrovia, in which the US government supported the beleaguered ULIMO-J troops.
April 18, 1996: The murder of twelve (12) persons in Zuanna Town and Bloun Town, Bomi County. A group of fighters stormed the area and burned down the displacement camp and Karmo Town.
April & May, 1996: Fighters loyal to the NPFL publicly displayed the head of a ULIMO-J fighter who had been shot and then decapitated.
April & May, 1996: The body of Benson Wyen, former Managing Director of the Forestry Development Agency, was found near the police academy in Paynesville. He was reportedly killed by the NPFL.
May, 1996: Five (5) bodies were found on Benson Street, Monrovia. The victims reportedly had their ears cut off or their throats cut before being shot, following fighting between ULIMO-J and the NPFL.
July, 1996: Aid workers reported that ULIMO-K was restricting the movement of civilians in a displaced camp in Suehn and starving the inhabitants to cause food supplies to be diverted to their troops. ULIMO-K released some 60 starving children within a few days but did not permit the evacuation of other inhabitants for a further two weeks.
September, 1996: Dozens of civilians were killed after clashes between ULIMO-J and ULIMO-K. At least 21 civilians were killed in Sinje, Cape Mount County, reportedly by ULIMO-K. One of those killed was a baby girl, whose skull had been fractured.
September 28, 1996: The massacre of about seventeen citizens in Sinje, Grand Cape Mount County according to a UN press release issued by the Special Representative of the Secretary General, Amb. Anthony B. Nyakyi.
1996: An LPC official publicly stated that LPC fighters responsible for the killing of three civilians in Buchanan would be executed.
The Charles Taylor Era (1997-2003)
November 28, 1997: The murder of Samuel Dokie, a former ally of Taylor, was allegedly murdered by Taylor’s special security forces after defecting to found the Central Revolutionary Council (CRC). Dokie was arrested with his family at a checkpoint in Gbarnga. The Special Security Services (SSS), a government force within Liberia dedicated to the protection of the president, ordered the arrest and killing. Benjamin Yeatin is linked.
December 16, 1997: The murder of Daniel Nyankan. Nyankan was found dead somewhere near Freeport, Monrovia with bruises all over his body.
April, 1998: The discovery of a mass grave in Zorzor, Lofa County. The NPFL has been implicated. The victims, including pregnant women, were bound at the hands and legs before being buried alive in shallow graves.
July 10, 1998: The abduction of Nowai Flomo, a prominent market woman, was taken by nine members of the SSS. She was allegedly abducted from her house at about 11:00 a.m.
September 18, 1998: The attack on Roosevelt Johnson on Camp Johnson Road. The attack claimed the lives of between 53 to 100 people. Johnson and others fled to the US Embassy for protection and were later evacuated to Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
September 19, 1998: The execution of 1,500 Liberian civilians at dawn. The execution took place pursuant to President Taylor’s order that Roosevelt Johnson be evicted from his residence. The operation was spearheaded by Col. Junior Fania, Leo Jebo, Saar Gbollie, Joe Tuah, General Eric Sway, Arthur Saah and Benedict Mentee.
September 19, 1998: The murder of thirteen (13) Krahn individuals on Shiefflin highway by Mark Guahn.
August 10, 1999: The massacre of about 25 Quardu-Gboni individuals. The massacre took place in Nekabozu, Lofa County by militia men.
September 2, 1999: The massacre of about 25 persons in Nikagbozu, Lofa County. The massacre was blamed on the Defense Minister, Daniel Chea.
September 28, 1999: The murder of Papa George. Henrique Cassell, the Deputy Commissioner of Immigration and brother-in-law of President Taylor, shot Mr. George, a taxi driver, for overtaking him on a road. Cassell moves around freely without any published knowledge of how he got released from prison.
October 10, 1999: The massacre of about twenty (20) civilians by Siafa Norman.
2000: The summary execution of more than 100 persons at the Gbatala ATU Training Base in Bong County by Charles Taylor, Jr. Some of the victims were trainees charged with failing to follow instructions.
January, 2000: The massacre of eighteen (18) Mandingo persons in Bawon Town, Zorzor District, Lofa County.
January, 2000: The massacre of 26 unarmed civilians in Gbar, Bomi County. The civilians were accused of being supporters of LURD and were killed on the orders of Melvin Sogbandi.
May, 2000: The summary execution of 42 captives in Voinjama by Joe Gbala. The victims were presumed to be Government of Liberia (GOL) soldiers who had surrendered in a battle between John Town and Zorzor.
June, 2000: The murder of Enoch Dogolea. Dogolea was a vice president when he died.
September, 2000: The attacks by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) on Guinea. The RUF was accompanied by Liberian fighters and Guinean dissidents including General Zoumanigui. The RUF eventually captured Gueckedou and Macenta at a high cost of human lives.
March, 2001: The summary execution of fourteen (14) persons in Kornia, Lofa County on the orders of Momo Jibba. Jibba ordered the executions after the GOL recaptured the town from the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). He also planned and executed the death of Francois Massaquoi, the Youth and Sports Minister at the time.
May, 2001: The massacre of seven (7) Mandingo individuals by Daniel Gweh and Tony Gonyor of GOL forces in Saclepea, Nimba County.
June 9, 2002: The massacre of 110 young men and women in Bopolu, Gbarpolu County by LURD combatant Oforie Diah (a.k.a Iron Jacket). The victims were accused of being GOL sympathizers.
July 20, 2002: The massacre of 175 persons on the orders of Benjamin Yeaten at Mahir River Bridge, Tubmanburg, Bomi County. The victims were accused of being LURD sympathizers.
September 18, 2002: The summary execution of Isaac Gono in Congo Town, Monrovia on the orders of Charles Taylor, Jr. He ordered the death of Gono, his driver, because he hit a dog with the car.
October 21, 2002: The incursion by Benjamin Yeaten, Joe Tuah, Edwad Zamay, Joe Walloe, Osebeo Dehmin, and Matthew Karn into the Ivory Coast on the mandate of Charles Taylor. The purpose of the incursion was to act as mercenaries for Philip Doh. A number of people died in the operation including those who refused to sign on.
2003: The abuses against Kissi civilians in Lofa County by LURD members were widely reported.
February 28, 2003: The murder of Kara Lund, Emmanuel Sharpolor, and Muse Keita of the Adventist Development Relief Agency by Gbor Vaye in Toe’s Town, Grand Gedeh County.
June 4, 2003: The murder of John Yormie and Isaac Vaye on the orders of Benjamin Yeaten in Paynesville, Montserrado County. Yormie, the Deputy Minister for National Security, and Vaye, the Deputy Minister for Public Works, were arrested by a group of armed men acting under the command of one ‚Banana‛ of the SSS who was acting on the orders of Benjamin Yeaten. They were brought to Monrovia and interrogated before they were killed. Their bodies were dumped on the train tracks but have not been found.
May 6, 2003: The massacre of Samuel Bokarie, his wife, mother, and two children in Nimba County by Adolphus Sampson, Gola Red, Alphonso Nyanay and Marcus High Grade on the orders of Benjamin Yeaten.
May 26, 2003: The murder of a family of five at the railroad bridge near Gbarn,
Nimba County by Adolphus Sampson. Sampson, the Special Bodyguard to Benjamin Yeaten, murdered the family upon seeing them with 75,000 Liberian Dollar and two pieces of diamonds.
May, 2003: The murder of 24 persons on Lofa Bridge by General Sekou Kromah of the LURD and his men.
June 9, 2003: The murder of eighteen (18) persons at the Stockton Creek Bridge in Monrovia by Charles Taylor, Jr. The victims were POWs arrested by General Roland Duo’s men.
June/July, 2003: The murder of 42 persons on the Johnson Street Bridge in Monrovia by Lomax and Marcus High Grade. Lomax was the artillery crew commander of the Wild Geese. High Grade was the bodyguard to Yeaten and Nyenay. The victims were accused of looting and summarily executed.
July, 2003: The murder of 78 wounded soldiers by Marcus High Grade and Gola Red on the instruction of Benjamin Yeaten at Combat Camp. The soldiers, who had demanded payment from Charles Taylor, were transported from Monrovia to the camp under the pretense that they were going to be paid.
July, 2003: The summary execution of 26 persons in Klay by General Abbas of LURD. The victims were arrested on Bushrod Island as POWs.
September 8-20, 2003: The feeding of 26 living persons to Charles Taylor’s lions by Zeezah Mazah at Tubman Farm, Bong County. This was the prescribed punishment for crimes.
October 11-26, 2003: The execution of over 26 persons on the Po-River, Tubmanburg highway on the orders of General Wasue Donzo of the LURD. Some of the bodies were dumped in the Po River. Nineteen (19) mass graves were discovered by researchers for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Lofa County. Locals attributed the dumping to Marine Chief of Staff, Roland Duo.
Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, Torture and Ill-treatment
February – May, 1997: ECOMOG forces undertook cordon-and-search operations to find hidden weapons. More than 70 people were arrested and held in secret detention camps on suspicion of possessing weapons. Most of them were tortured or ill-treated.
February, 1997: An ECOMOG patrol arrested 25 suspected former combatants in Grand Cape Mount County, took them to Monrovia and held them in a secret cell at the ECOMOG base. They were reportedly beaten with electric wire.
February, 1997: Four dock workers suspected of being former United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy-Johnson branch (ULIMO-J) fighters were arrested in Sayon Town and taken to the ECOMOG base in Monrovia. There, three ECOMOG soldiers reportedly beat them with wire on their backs, shoulders and legs and kicked them.
May, 1997: ECOMOG soldiers based in Fendell traveled to grand Cape Mount County to conduct a cordon-and-search operation at Lajoy goldmine. During interrogation, six former fighters and three civilians were reportedly slashed with razor blades. One former combatant died during the night following the beating. The other victims reportedly had swollen faces, inured eyes, slashed wounds and hearing problems.
September, 1997: Liberian police and ECOMOG soldiers assaulted a group of some 500 employees of the Firestone Plantations Company in Harbel, near Monrovia, who were demonstrating peacefully for the release of four colleagues held by the company’s security staff. Police and soldiers reportedly beat the workers with batons and gun butts, and then opened fire, injuring seven people.
April, 1999: At least 34, people mainly of Krahn ethnicity were charged with treason following fighting in September 1998. In April, 13 of the defendants were acquitted. Observers at the trial expressed concerns about the competence of the court and irregularities in the trial proceedings. Some of the defendants complained that they had been ill-treated before and during the trial. Some appeared to have been beaten severely, and at least two had loss of hearing and broken limbs.
