A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Statements revealed that ECO-MOG played a significant role in helping people escape the war in
Liberia as well as in dispersing fighting forces and therefore stopping further human rights abuses.
For example, many statement givers described how ECOMOG evacuated them by ship or truck to
other countries. Most statement givers did not indicate they provided any payment for such transfer,
although at least one statement giver reported she had paid $50 “to be stowed away on an ECOMOG
boat to Ghana.” 432 ECOMOG facilitated Liberians’ passage to cities and neighboring countries, such
as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea. One statement giver wsummarized:
There was no way out. There were no more flights. No way to go out by car.
ECOWAS soldiers provided the only safety we had. 433
Yet another ceasefire agreement commenced on April 19, 1996. 434 When Taylor and Kromah returned
to their government positions, however, Roosevelt Johnson’s forces resumed fighting a mere ten
days later. 435 By mid-May 1996, the United Nations reported that the fighting appeared to be at a
stalemate. 436 While the factions controlled different parts of Monrovia, no single group appeared able
to assume full control. 437
aBuJa ii: auguSt 1996
On August 17, 1996, another ECOWAS-brokered peace
agreement was signed in Abuja, Nigeria with a revised timetable
that called for elections to be held in 1997. 438 The agreement
extended the timetable for disarmament and elections beyond
the original timetable of Abuja I and added the threat of
sanctions, including a bar against running for elected office
and prosecution for war crimes, against anyone violating the
agreement. 439 Under the terms of Abuja II, ECOMOG began
disarming the fighting factions in November 1996 with
assistance from the United Nations. 440 A new ceasefire was
declared on August 20, 1996, and elections were set for May
30, 1997, 441 although ECOMOG later postponed the elections until July 19, 1997, to allow time for
preparation. 442 On September 3, 1996, Ruth Perry, a former Liberian senator, assumed her position as
Chairman of the reformed Council of State. 443
Although the promise of elections brought some hope for change, the NPFL still engaged in
intimidation of voters leading up to the elections. 444 A statement giver summarized how rebels
punished her entire family for a speech her mother gave in 1996, when her mother asserted that
anyone involved in the war should not be voted for as President:
168
All citizens have the right to “vote
and to be elected at genuine
periodic elections which shall be
by universal and equal suffrage
and shall be held by secret ballot,
guaranteeing the free expression
of the will of the electors.” Art.
25(b), International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (1966).