A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Minnesota told the TRC about approaching the Bo Waterside checkpoint while trying to escape to
Sierra Leone.
When we got there it seemed like chaos, all the rebels were running all
around and smoking and drinking…a young rebel named Small Soldier
came over to me. I still had some clothes with me…Small Soldier wanted my
clothes. He was smoking pot and had a gun and told me he would ‘zero’ me
if I didn’t do what he said. He took my clothes and I started to cry because
they were all that I had left. I kept arguing with him and spent forty-five
minutes trying to get my clothes back. My cousin kept talking to me in Vai
and telling me not to argue with them. Finally, Small Soldier came back and
said that he thought I should not be let through but should be recruited as
a small soldier like him. I said no that I would not be a small soldier. One
of the other rebels spoke Vai and kept telling me to just go along and that I
could get away later. We were so close; we could see Sierra Leone across the
river. They detained us at the checkpoint and put us in jail. 88
The Internally Displaced Persons’ Experience
Many who fled their homes found themselves in formal and informal internally displaced centers for
weeks or months on end. Estimates of the numbers of internally displaced persons during the Liberian
conflict are in the hundreds of thousands 89 – sometimes more than a half a million 90 – depending on
the year and the source of information. Certain locations became major centers for displaced persons
at the beginning of the conflict, including church compounds, embassy compounds, army barracks,
sports stadiums, and university campuses. One statement giver now living in Minnesota told the TRC
why he decided to take refuge at the Fendell campus.
Food was scarce; people boiled leaves for sustenance. Between June and July
of 1990, I moved to Fendell camp on the outskirts of Monrovia. Fendell
was part of the University of Liberia, but, when the war started, it became
a shelter where a lot of people went to seek refuge. I believed this location
would be better because from there, one could go into the bush and hunt or
fish for food. 91
At the beginning of the war, camps were informal and some were controlled by rebel factions. The
Fendell campus, described above, was a major internally displaced persons’ center that came under
the control of the NPFL. 92 “[T]housands of refugees went there,” one statement giver now living
in Atlanta noted. 93 Many Liberians describe being forced to move to the Fendell campus during
the summer of 1990. One statement giver whose family took refuge at the ELWA Christian radio
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Chapter Thirteen