A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

the woman was from. She replied that she was from Ghana and lived in
Monrovia. The soldiers took her husband, took off his shirt, tied his hands
behind his back. The lady ran to the house for her passport to prove she was
from Ghana and came back with it. The soldiers told her, “Look at your
husband and say goodbye. You’ll never see him again.” They took him to a
little place nearby and shot the man three times… 230
“Any advocacy of national, racial or religious
hatred that constitutes incitement to
discrimination, hostility or violence shall be
prohibited by law.” Art. 20(2), International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Later, the statement giver recognized one of the
soldiers as her former student. 231 When she
asked him what was happening, he told her that
ECOMOG had reached Monrovia and that “we’re
here to kill all the foreigners.” 232 The statement
giver then understood why they killed the man
from Ghana. 233
Another statement giver said he escaped from NPFL forces to their preoccupation with targeting
Ghanaian citizens:
Because the ECOMOG troops in Monrovia were from the sub-region, the
NPFL was arresting people from the countries that had supplied soldiers.
There were two Ghanaian teachers in the town. The NPFL rebels caught
them and while they were interrogating them, I was able to sneak away into
the bush. I heard two shots as they killed the Ghanaians. 234
The NPFL adopted other strategies to punish citizens of ECOWAS countries. For example, the
NPFL restricted movement for ECOWAS citizens through and out of NPFL territory. 235 Arrest and
detention were another means of punishing these citizens. A Human Rights Watch report described
large scale-detention facilities in NPFL territory established to hold captured ECOWAS nationals
of both military and civilian background. 236 Nigerian journalists claimed that they were hostage
targets. 237
Persons who “find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict
or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals” are entitled to protection under Common Article 3
of the Geneva Conventions.* Art. 4, Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War.
* “Nationals of a State which is not bound by the Convention are not protected by it. Nationals of a
neutral State who find themselves in the territory of a belligerent State, and nationals of a co-belligerent
State, shall not be regarded as protected persons while the State of which they are nationals has normal
diplomatic representation in the State in whose hands they are.” Id.
152