A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Statements and secondary sources revealed accounts of ULIMO violations, including summary
executions, torture, arrests, looting, the use of child soldiers, and restrictions on freedom of
movement. 323 One statement giver reported that, “the ULIMO war in 1993 was the toughest.” 324 She
fled for two months in the bush without food, surviving on strained mashed bush yams. 325 Another
statement giver described how ULIMO-J fighters broke into his family’s store, stole their money,
killed his father, and raped his sister. 326
Furthermore, ULIMO fighters often crossed over into Guinea where Liberians had sought refuge. 327
One statement giver described how ULIMO soldiers crossed over and grabbed people from the
Guinean camp where she stayed in 1993. 328 She began disguising herself as an old woman to avoid
abduction. 329 Another statement giver recounted how ULIMO-K fighters brought pictures depicting
their tortured captives to a school in Nzerekore, Guinea. 330
Crossing over into other countries to attack
refugees, a violation of international law, was
not a practice exclusive to ULIMO. Many
statement givers described how other rebel
groups had crossed the border and attacked them
in refugee camps in Côte d’Ivoire, 331 Guinea, 332
Sierra Leone, 333 or even as far away as Ghana. 334
Those who sought refuge in Côte d’Ivoire were
particularly vulnerable. A Krahn statement giver
recounted that his home in Côte d’Ivoire was
close enough to Liberia that he could see NPFL
rebels taunting him from the other side of the
border. In this case, the rebels tried to coax refugees to come back to Liberia. 335 One of the men
acquiesced and crossed over to Liberia, whereupon NPFL rebels tied him up and then defecated and
urinated on him before burning him alive and dumping his body into the river. 336 The statement giver
also described how NPFL rebels crossed over and attacked a group of women, who went to a nearby
farm to plant food. 337 He explained:
While the women were planting, Charles Taylor’s rebels crossed the river
and slaughtered them. Twenty seven women were killed in all. Their bodies
were dismembered. The rebels laid out the body parts in long lines and sold
the body parts to other rebels…the rebels sold the hands for 25 cents, the
arms for 50 cents and the heads for $2.00. 338
Several statement givers described accounts of cannibalism by ULIMO and other factions. 339 One
statement giver overheard ULIMO girls describing how a girl was forced to cook human intestines
160