Introduction
In late 1993, a new armed faction emerged in Liberia, known as the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), which has been fighting Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in the southeast of the country. While both sides have been responsible for severe human rights abuses against the civilian population, in recent weeks the LPC appears to have stepped up its campaign against civilians, especially those it considers to have supported the NPFL. Some 40,000 civilians have been displaced by the fighting, and they describe systematic and gratuitous abuses by the LPC.
There are consistent reports that elements of the Nigerian contingent of ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force -- not the Ghanaians or the Ugandans, who are also stationed in the area -- are aiding the LPC. Displaced persons and other observers report that the Nigerians are supplying arms and ammunition to the LPC as a way to weaken the NPFL, while profiteering on the side. It is not clear how high up the collaboration goes in the Nigerian contingent.
The United Nations mission in Liberia, UNOMIL, has a mandate to report on violations of the cease-fire and violations of humanitarian law, but it has not been reporting publicly about the situation in the southeast. By avoiding the human rights issues, UNOMIL is failing to implement its mandate in Liberia.
In April, the U.N. Security Council extended UNOMIL's mandate for another six months, with the proviso that the situation be reviewed on May 18. Human Rights Watch/Africa calls on the U.N. to ensure that UNOMIL implements its mandate in Liberia, including the requirement to report on violations of humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch/Africa further calls on ECOMOG to launch an immediate investigation of the charges that members of the Nigerian contingent may be assisting the LPC, and make its findings public. |
Liberian Peace Council
The Liberia Peace Council (LPC) was a rebel group that participated in the Liberian Civil War under the leadership of George Boley.[1]
The LPC emerged in 1993, partly as a proxy force for the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL). It made substantial gains against the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in southeastern Liberia, vying for control of commercial operations in timber and rubber.
A predominantly ethnic Krahn organization, it drew supporters from the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) and the AFL, but also from other ethnic groups who suffered under NPFL occupation.
It had about 2,500 militants in its ranks.
Like all groups that participated in the civil war, the LPC committed serious human rights abuses including murder, torture, and looting in an effort to terrorize and depopulate rural areas held by the NPFL..
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The Liberian Peace Council
The fighting between Charles Taylor's NPFL and a relatively new faction, calling itself the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), began in October 1993 and continues at this writing. The LPC claims to control six counties -- Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, River Cess, Grand Kru, Maryland, and Grand Bassa. The fighting, which began in the area of Grand Kola, got as far as the LAC plantation in early February, and had reached the outskirts of Buchanan by late April.
Little is known about the LPC. The LPC emerged after the Cotonou peace agreement was signed by the NPFL, ULIMO and the interim government in July 1993. It is clear that the LPC is an offshoot of former President Doe's army, the Armed Forces of Liberia, and of the Krahn wing of ULIMO. It is composed mainly of people from the Krahn ethnic group. "The LPC was formed because the Mandingos [in ULIMO] weren't going to spill blood to liberate Grand Gedeh [the county where many of the Krahn live]," a well-informed, foreign observer in Monrovia noted. "The only way to get the LPC to disarm is to convince ECOMOG that they will be safe with Taylor in the government."1
The lpc's strength is estimated to be some 800 fighters, organized into mobile combat units. It is headed by George Boley, a Krahn and former minister of education in the Doe government, also formerly a member of ULIMO.
According to Boley, the LPC was formed because of "continued acts of atrocities by the NPFL in southeastern Liberia" since the Cotonou agreement. He also claimed that most of his fighters were refugees from the Ivory Coast who had been forced to flee from the NPFL. Boley described the LPC as "a broad-based national entity which advocates the protection of the rights of exiled and displaced citizens and residents of Liberia as well as the restoration of constitutional democratic leadership in Liberia.
In recent statements, LPC spokespersons have made it clear that they will continue fighting until they are included in the transitional government. LPC Secretary General, Octavius Walker, told reporters on April 14 that the LPC wanted six seats in the transitional parliament as well as portfolios in the interim government, but that discussions with the NPFL had failed to produce an agreement on amending the Cotonou accord to include the LPC. "We will fight on until they include us in the administrative process," he said. |
