AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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held without charge when the courts issued writs of habeas corpus on the applications
of human rights organizations. Detainees continued to charge that they were
tortured while in detention, especially at a security training base in Gbatala. Victims
and witnesses reported beatings, torture, killings, and sexual abuse at the
base. In October 1999, human rights organizations called for the closure of the base
because of a number of credible reports of torture there; however, the base remained
opened. A local NGO, the Catholic Affiliated Justice and Peace Commission, tried
to investigate claims; however, the Government blocked their efforts.
On several occasions, government security personnel harassed, assaulted, and arrested
journalists (see Section 2.a.).
Law enforcement personnel, including the security forces, were implicated in numerous
reports of harassment, intimidation, and looting. For example, in February
SSS members carried out a series of armed robberies and shot and injured an LNP
officer in the West Point area of Monrovia. In April armed soldiers clashed with
marketers in Monrovia; they confiscated goods and harassed the marketers. There
was a series of incidents involving harassment or looting and assault of foreign diplomats
and local embassy employees. In February LNP officers pulled a foreign diplomat
from his car in Monrovia and assaulted him. In March LNP officers demanded
money from an embassy security guard and beat him with metal pipes.
After various complaints in March from members of diplomatic corps, the Government
called for investigations and punishment for offenders. Meetings with security
agencies also were organized to brief them on diplomatic immunity; however, in
June another local embassy employee was assaulted, searched for weapons, and
robbed by AFL officers.
Paul Mulbah, who was appointed director of the LNP in August 1999, took some
steps in 1999 to curb abuse of the LNP; however, in general his efforts were unsuccessful
and made no difference in the situation by year’s end. In February Mulbah
ordered that off-duty armed security men be removed from the streets. However, a
human rights organization criticized Mulbah’s order to police, issued early in the
year, to shoot on sight any robbers resisting arrest.
There were credible reports that government forces as well as members of the
Lorma ethnic group continued to harass, intimidate, and, on occasion, kill members
of the Mandingo ethnic group in Lofa county (see Section 1.a.).
Rival security personnel occasionally clashed violently. In March there was gunfire
at Roberts International Airport between personnel of the antiterrorist brigade
and the LNP’s special operations division prior to President Taylor’s arrival from
an official visit abroad. A few persons were injured. There also was shooting between
AFL and LNP personnel in downtown Monrovia in March, resulting in injuries
to two bystanders.
Security force personnel in rural areas were paid and provisioned inadequately
and often extorted money and goods. For example, in March a special task force
commander reportedly robbed an army payroll truck in Lofa county. There were
many credible reports that security forces harassed returning refugees and displaced
persons, especially in the border areas.
The international community publicly criticized the Government’s support for the
RUF rebels in the civil war in Sierra Leone.
Clan chieftains continued to use the traditional practice of trial-by-ordeal to resolve
criminal cases in rural areas. The Supreme Court ruled that trial-by-ordeal—
commonly the placement of a heated metal object on a suspect’s body in an attempt
to determine whether the defendant is telling the truth—is unconstitutional; however,
the practice continued under an executive order. A local human rights organization
sponsored a conference in March to urge that trial-by-ordeal be abolished
throughout the country. A 1994 lawsuit for injuries resulting from a trial-by-ordeal
that was pending before the Supreme Court was suspended indefinitely.
Prison conditions remained harsh and in some cases lifethreatening. There were
credible reports of unofficial detention facilities, including one at the executive mansion,
in which detainees were held without charge and in some cases tortured. The
Government did not provide detainees or prisoners with adequate food or medical
care. Cells at Monrovia Central Prison are overcrowded, mostly with detainees
awaiting trial. Only about 10 percent of the total prison population has been convicted
of criminal offenses. Convicted prisoners and detainees awaiting trial are not
confined in separate facilities. Similar conditions exist in the Barclay Training Center
military stockade. In some counties, the structure that serves as a jail is a container
with bars at one end. In May the wives of 13 Krahn political prisoners held
at Monrovia’s Central Prison publicly complained about denial of medical care and
other abuse of the detainees. The Government did not respond to these complaints
by year’s end.
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