A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

house and abducted her cousin. 21 The next day, the family fled to the mountains of Lofa County,
where they stayed for several months before returning to Bopolu. In September 1990, the NPFL
attacked Pourtown in Grand Gedeh County. One statement giver who worked for the Ministry of
Agriculture under Doe was targeted during the attack. He and his children fled into the bush and hid
out for five days. 22 Ultimately, they reached Côte d’Ivoire.
In 1991, with the installation of the interim government, 23 some Liberians returned home. 24 One
statement giver described returning on a U.N. ship from Guinea, after seeing the interim president
and his cabinet board an earlier boat back to Monrovia. 25 Another statement giver who was a young
child when the war broke out in 1990 was sent to live with his grandmother in Grand Cape Mount
County in 1990. In 1991, however, his mother came from Monrovia to bring him back to the city. 26
Another noted that he decided to go back to Monrovia in 1991 because ECOMOG had established
some control there. 27 Many who returned however, were soon forced to flee again.
The April 6, 1996, war forced another cycle of hiding, internal displacement, and seeking refuge. For
example, the young boy who had moved between four different houses in Sinkor and New Kru Town
during the summer of 1990, fled the country altogether when war broke out in 1996; he settled in
Philadelphia with his brothers. 28
In August 1996, a ceasefire was declared and ECOMOG began disarming the fighting factions.
Many Liberians returned home during this period around the 1997 elections. One statement giver
summarized:
I was in Côte d’Ivoire for eight years. When they elected Taylor as President I
went back [to] Liberia in 1998, June 20, thinking that things were fine in the
country. Then war broke up in Sept. 18, 1998, [and that’s] how I came back
to Côte d’Ivoire and I continue[d] my journey to Ghana. 29
Some estimates indicate that more than 80 percent of displaced Liberians returned home when the
civil war ended and Charles Taylor was elected. 30 Large scale fighting broke out in September 1998,
however, when Taylor’s soldiers tried to arrest Roosevelt Johnson. Fighting erupted between Johnson’s
supporters and Taylor’s forces on Camp Johnson Road. 31 Taylor responded by increasing his efforts
to eliminate suspected opposition, 32 including in his own administration. 33 While ethnic Krahn and
Mandingo were often the target of these attacks, 34 many others fled to avoid the violence. This led to
another cycle of hiding and flight.
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Chapter Thirteen