A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

families fled to avoid attack when they heard from informants that fighters were approaching their
area. 5
My family had to flee our home in Monrovia because someone said the
rebels were coming. My father, my two brothers, and I left to go to [Eternal
Love Winning Africa] ELWA campus…I heard that the place at ELWA was
taking in people who had nowhere to go, so my family sought refuge there. 6
A Mandingo statement giver from Nimba County recounted his efforts to get back to his home
village to warn his family about the oncoming National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) advance. 7
Although he arrived too late to save all of his family members, he was able to send his remaining
children away to towns on the border with Guinea.
Others fled because of specific threats against family members, generally a breadwinner who worked
for the government, a prominent business person, or a community leader.
During the Doe administration my father was the director of police and
later joint security director at the Port Authority in Liberia before the war.
Because of his status we were to be hunted. He fled the country and left us
in Monrovia. When the rebels entered they started asking about our father’s
house in the Red Light area and a neighbor came to tell us what they had
heard. We fled to Fendell. While there we heard that the house was burned
and everything looted. 8
Usually, however, there were no advance warnings or threats. Community leaders and elders, those
associated with the government, those suspected of having money or other valuables, or those
associated with opposing fighting factions were simply abducted, executed, or violently assaulted
during surprise attacks on their homes.
A statement giver in Ghana told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) what happened to
her family in 1996 because of her grandfather’s role in the government and community:
My grandfather…was a tax collector in Buchanan, a party member in Doe’s
party, and a chief…Somebody pointed out our house. They broke into the
house and started shooting. My grandparents hid in the bathroom. They
were beating everyone and dragging them outside. My great-uncle and stepmother
died…my grandfather was beaten until unconscious. His back and
neck still have pain because of injury. He was chopped with knife and has a
scar on his leg. The place was near an ECOMOG checkpoint so ECOMOG
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