Liberia: June-August 2010
Executive Summary This is the second in a series of quarterly publications on Liberia, compiling incident/ issue reports submitted by Liberian civil society for conflict early warning and prevention. Social, economic, and political pressures will be monitored through the UNLocK early warning system in run-up to the October 2011 election with the goal of preventing violence from flaring at the local or national levels. This report presents an aggregation of the data entered into the database by participating civil society organizations located throughout Liberia, now in the reconstruction phase after its devastating civil war, which ended in 2003. Information received from civil society on incidents and issues occurring between June and August, 2010, highlighted Public Services, Human Rights and Demographic Pressures as the issues of most concern to members of the network, in that order. These three indicators also received the most reports in the previous report, based on information from March to May, 2010. As the elections approach, frustration is rising over the lack of public services in many areas, and this will be an issue to watch over the next several months. Within the indicator for demographic pressures, land competition was once again the most reported issue, with 15 of the 27 reports for that indicator. These reports were from six different counties, indicating that this remains an issue of concern nationwide, rather than in a particular area.
Bomi and Montserrado Counties During this period, an UNLocK workshop was held in Bomi County, and as a result, Bomi generated the most reports of any of the 15 counties. Montserrado generated the second largest number of reports, all of them from Greater Monrovia. This concentration of reports allows for an in-depth analysis of events in Bomi and Montserrado during this three-month period. Over the course of the year, workshops will be held in other regions, which will allow future reports to drill down to the county level in other parts of the country. In Bomi, the indicators for Demographic Pressures, Human Rights and Public Services received the most reports, highlighting local concerns over land competition, a lack of services and development, and the inability of the state to prevent crime and protect human rights. In Montserrado, human rights and public services were also prominent issues but the indicators for State Legitimacy and Factionalized Elites also received a number of reports, highlighting dissatisfaction with the national government over issues such as corruption and polarization among government officials. As the elections approach, these issues should be watched closely, particularly those that pertain to the electoral process, for signs that dissatisfaction could escalate into violence.
Findings Reports that The Fund for Peace received from its UNLocK Liberia partners (June 2010 to August 2010) indicate that Liberia continues to face pressures at the national and local levels. This issue contains a summary of the civil society field reports, by indicator, with maps showing affected counties. Those counties with a green background have field reports associated with them. A green background does not necessarily mean that it is worse off than districts lacking in data, though it does highlight problems that need to be addressed in that particular county or district. Broken out by indicator and county, there were 161 reports logged during the period in question. Of the 12 CAST indicators, issues relating to Public Services were considered the most salient by civil society (38 reports), followed by Human Rights (31 reports), Demographic Pressures (27 reports), State Legitimacy (17 reports), Economic Decline/Poverty (12 reports), the Security Apparatus (11 reports), Factionalized Elites (10 reports), Uneven Development and External Intervention (4 reports each), Group Grievance and Human Flight (3 reports each), and Refugees/IDPs (1 report). Geographically the majority of the reports were from Montserrado County (56 reports), followed by Bomi County with 53 reports and Grand Bassa County with 15 reports. The remaining 12 counties received between zero and eight reports between June and August, 2010. It is important to note that this is not a comprehensive tally of conflict-related incidents in Liberia. The distribution of reports, both among indicators and among counties, does not reflect the distribution of challenges facing Liberian communities. This merely reflects the challenges highlighted by participating organizations over the time period in question.
Methodology Between 2007 and 2010, The Fund for Peace has conducted five training workshops on conflict early warning in Liberia, based on our conflict assessment methodology (CAST). Participants included a broad range of civil society representatives in Liberia. The goals of the project are to provide civil society with a framework by which to recognize potential danger signs, document events, gather data from across the country and communicate it to each other for processing and analysis. This information is to be used both for helping people get out of harm’s way in the short term, as well as for developing conflict-sensitive approaches to development and policy in the long term. Since the UNLocK early warning system was established in 2008, over 380 reports on Liberia (broken out by indicator and district) have been entered into the database as of this writing, most of which were received in 2010. The data generated by the participants has been saved on a password-protected website, accessible by the participants for their own analysis and for the corroboration of details to ensure accuracy. The 12 CAST indicators for which data is sought include social, economic, and political/military pressures on the state: 7. Legitimacy of the State 8. Public Services 9. Human Rights 10. Security Apparatus 11. Factionalized Elites 12. External Intervention
1. Demographic Pressures 2. Refugees and IDPs 3. Group Grievance 4. Human Flight (including Brain Drain) 5. Uneven Development 6. Economic Decline/Poverty 2
161 Reports by Indicator, June‐August 2010 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
161 Reports by County, June‐August 2010 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
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Reported Demographic Pressures As in the previous quarter, land competition was the predominant issue, receiving 15 reports out of a total of 27 for this indicator. Natural disasters received 6 reports, and there was one report each on disease, drug and narcotics abuse, environmental degradation, food supply, water supply and population density. Incidents of land competition were reported in Bong, Bomi, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, Montserrado, and River Gee counties. Many of the incidents related to land disputes were between clans or families, although multiple reports were related to a dispute between Bomi and Gbarpolu counties.
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CAST pressures reported in counties with green background.
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Tensions over land were reported between Beasoo town and Seah town in Klay District, Bomi County (County 1). There were also reported land disputes between families or clans in Bomi County (County 1), with three separate incidents reported, as well as in Bong (County 2), Grand Bassa (County 4) and River Gee (County 14), with one incident each. Flooding was reported in Bomi (County 1) and Montserrado (County 11), including serious floods in Paynesville, near Monrovia, that reportedly destroyed more than 100 houses and displaced over 1,500 people. UNMIL reports later put the total number of people affected at 10,000.
External Intervention Liberia is highly dependent on external actors for security and service delivery. This issue is of particular concern when that external support is being drawn down. In border areas, there were also concerns of illegal immigration or disputes over land.
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In Bomi (County 1), the Norwegian Refugee Council was reported to be withdrawing support from the school system, resulting in a funding gap. There was a border dispute along the Liberian-Guinean border near the Liberian town of Yeala, in Zorzor District, Lofa (County 8) after a Guinean flag was reportedly hoisted on Liberian territory.
CAST pressures reported in counties with green background.
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Reported Pressures on State Legitimacy The indicator for State Legitimacy received the fourth highest number of reports between June and August 2010. As in the previous period, these reports related either to corruption or to riots and protests, and they were mostly from Bomi (County 1) or Montserrado (County 11).
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The General Auditing Commission reportedly removed over 1000 “ghost workers” from the payroll in Sinoe and Grand Kru Counties. The officials of the Ministry of Finance were arrested for soliciting a bribe of $10,000 from the Cocopa Rubber Plantation in Nimba County. There were reports of corruption in the judiciary, including complaints that trials in Bomi County (County 1) were not always fair. It was also reported that jurors have been known to take bribes. CAST pressures reported in counties with green There was a corruption scandal in Grand Gedeh (County 6) background. in which the Superintendent was accused of siphoning off money from the county’s development funds. Investigations are ongoing. There were several reports of police corruption in Bomi (County 1) and Montserrado (County 11). There were multiple reports of police soliciting bribes from motorists and a report that an individual was forced to pay 1000 Liberian dollars to release his son from police custody after he had been detained without charge. There were multiple reports of protests or riots in Montserrado (County 11) and Grand Cape Mount (County 5). In one incident in the Mano River community, a riot allegedly broke out in which a police officer was injured and the police station was burnt. Former employees of the Liberia Mining Corporation reportedly staged a protest demanding funds they believed were owed to them.
Reported Factionalized Elites Incident reports received on factionalization of the elites highlighted problems at both the national and the county levels.
• As in the previous time period, there were reports on factionalization in government relating to the controversial Threshold Bill on the demarcation of political districts ahead of the 2011 elections. The bill would set a threshold for the number of people that make up an electoral constituency. It has been debated for nearly two years with less populated counties demanding more seats. • There were reports of factionalization at the level of the county government in Bomi (County 1), where political deadlock within the Legislative Caucus was allegedly impeding development by holding up projects.
CAST pressures reported in counties with green background.
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Reported Economic Decline Most of the reports related to the Economic Decline referred to high or rising unemployment.
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Downsizing was reported at companies in Grand Bassa (County 4), putting people out of work and creating dissatisfaction among local communities. High unemployment, particularly among the youth, was reported in Bomi (County 1). Production at a logging company in River Cess (County 13) was allegedly hampered by an aggressive elephant, which killed a company employee and destroyed thousands of dollars worth of property. The elephant has since been killed. There were reports that teachers had not been paid in Grand Bassa (County 4) and threatening to stop teaching. CAST pressures reported in counties with green background.
Reported Pressures on Public Services Issues relating to Public Services received the most reports (38) during the period of June-August. These reports covered a wide variety of issues, including crime/inadequate policing, education, the health services, the prison system, water, sanitation and roads. Problems with public services were reported in nine counties: Bomi, Bong, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, Margibi, Maryland, Montserrado, Nimba and River Cess.
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CAST pressures reported in counties with green background.
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Several reports were received on the lack of education facilities in Bomi (County 1), including a lack of high schools in Klay and Dewoin Districts. A lack of sanitation facilities was reported in some communities in Monrovia. There were also reports that trash was not collected regularly in some areas, including the Red Light Market. These sanitation problems, combined with seasonal flooding, left pools of dirty water and garbage in many areas. Roads were reported to be in bad condition, particularly in rural areas. The road conditions were worsened by the rainy season, making some areas nearly unreachable at times. Residents of Maryland (County 10) demonstrated in protest of the road conditions and threatened to stop paying taxes and to boycott the 2011 elections if conditions did not improve. There were reports of insufficient health services in Bomi (County 1), Grand Cape Mount (County 5), Montserrado (County 11) and Margibi (County 9), including a lack of clinics in rural areas and insufficient staff and supplies in the hospitals.
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Reported Security Apparatus Issues The majority of the reports received for the Security Apparatus indicator had to do with organized crime, and drug trafficking more specifically. The nine reported incidents of drug-related arrests took place in five counties: Bomi (County 1), Bong (County 2), Grand Bassa (County 4), Lofa (County 8), and Montserrado (County 11). The remaining two reports for the indicator were reports of police abuse in Montserrado. The number of reports on drug trafficking, particularly the incident of a Nigerian arrested with a large quantity of cocaine, could indicate that Liberia is increasingly becoming a transit county for drugs, as is the case in other parts of West Africa
• • CAST pressures reported in counties with green background.
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At least 15 drug trafficking suspects were arrested in a raid in Kakata, Margibi, along with a quantity of narcotics. A Nigerian national was arrested in Monrovia with $245,000 of cocaine in his possession. There were unconfirmed reports of large seizures of marijuana in Lofa and Grand Bassa counties.
Reported Human Rights Issues As in March-May, there were nine reports of brutality in JuneAugust 2010, making one of the most reported human rights issues, after sexual violence with 11 reports. A few of the reports of brutality were committed by the police, but the majority were acts of violence among civilians.
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There were reports of sexual violence, sometimes against very young children, in Bomi (County 1), Gbarpolu (County 3), Grand Bassa (County 4), Montserrado (County 11), and River Cess (County 13). There were reports of child labor in Bomi (County 1), Bong (County 2) and Grand Bassa (County 4). It was reported that children were often forced to work to help support their families rather than attending school. CAST pressures reported in counties with green background.
Reported Group Grievance There were fewer reports on issues relating to Group Grievance than in the previous time period: only three reports were received between June and August, all from Bomi (County 1), compared to six in the previous period. Some tensions and mistrust between groups were reported in Senjeh District, Bomi County, including tensions between the Mandingo and Gala groups. There were no reports that these tensions led to violence, however.
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Bomi County Bomi County, with 53 out of the total 161 reports filed, has the second most complete data set available for Liberia for June through August 2010. Although the large number of reports received is partly the result of a stronger presence of the UNLocK network in that area, rather than an indication that the pressures it faces are more severe than in other counties, the larger number of reports allows for a more detailed examination of the situation in Bomi County. The most reported on indicators in the county were Demographic Pressures (12 reports), Human Rights (12 reports), and Public Services (11 reports). These reports highlighted two prominent issues in the county: land competition and underdevelopment combined with a lack of government services. As out lined below under Senjeh District, there were reports of a number of incidents of land disputes, many of them between individuals or families. The risk of violence from such disputes was magnified by a lack of faith in the legal system’s ability to resolve them. A dispute between the counties of Bomi and Gbarpolu over the demarcation of their border was also reported. The second major issue reported on by civil society was a lack of access to basic services, including the inability of the security forces to maintain order. Despite its proximity to Monrovia, Bomi County remains underdeveloped. Unemployment is high and, according to the Liberian Government’s development agenda for Bomi County, food insecurity is also a problem. These issues were exacerbated by inadequate access to government services such as schools and hospitals. Finally, inadequate policing in the county contributed to the number of reports of human rights abuses, because it was rare for perpetrators to be successfully prosecuted for their crimes. Within Bomi County, the vast majority of information (26 reports) came from the Senjeh District, which includes Tubmanburg, the county capital and the location of a Fund for Peace/LDW workshop in August 2010. The next most documented district is Klay with 9 reports, followed by the Salala District and Dewoin District with 4 reports. This report will highlight some of the issues in the two best-documented districts. Senjeh District: • Human Rights: Eight of the twelve reported human rights issues in Bomi County were in the Senjeh District. Five of the reports are attributed to sexual violence, primarily sexual assaults against youth. The other three issues are attributed to child labor where children are working to help support their families, brutality and violence among citizens, and the violation of rights due to gender discrimination. • Land Competition: Seven of the twelve demographic issues reported in Bomi County came from the Senjeh District. Six of the reports were of land competition and land disputes between families, people from different towns, and sometimes counties. A lack of water supply was the other report on demographic issues from the Senjeh District. Klay District: • Inadequate Services: Many of the reports for Klay District addressed problems with the justice system, such as police officers soliciting bribes, and inadequate services including no to an insufficient amount of high schools, inadequate support for existing schools, and an insufficient amount of health facilities.
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Montserrado County Montserrado County received 56 out of a total of 161 reports during the period of June-August 2010. Reports from Montserrado County were the most recorded of any other county in Liberia. In addition to issues relating to public services and human rights, common throughout the country as a whole, the indicators for Legitimacy of the State and Factionalized Elites received a number of reports, illustrating the concern over governance issues that comes with greater proximity to and awareness of the national government. All reports on Montserrado County were received from the Greater Monrovia region. Fourteen of the fifty-six reported issues, the highest amount of reported issues, were related to public services. Nine of the reports were of the topic of legitimacy of the state. Fourteen were split evenly among human rights violations (7 reports) and reports of factionalized elites (7 reports). There are five reports on the security apparatus of the region, three on the economic decline, three on the demographic pressures of the region, two on the uneven economic development, and one report each on human flight, refugees and internally displaced persons, and external intervention. This report will highlight the top four issues reported in the Greater Monrovia area. Greater Monrovia Public Services: The most reported issues for the Greater Monrovia area were of inadequacies among public services. Issues with the education system are common due to inadequate teachers, unpaid staff, and incidents of unhandled conflict and violence on campuses. Three of the public service reports discussed the sanitation issues of the region—specifically with regard to inadequate human and garbage waste disposal. Two of the reports portray inadequate hospital care in the region, and two reports highlighted the increase in crime and inadequate policing in Greater Monrovia. Lack of potable water source and devastated roads isolating communities were among the issues reported for this particular indicator. • Legitimacy of the State: There are nine reports from the Greater Monrovia area highlighting issues pertaining to the legitimacy of the state. Six of the nine reports show corruption within the state sector, including monetary issues between local authorities and the executive branch, financial mismanagement among authorities, police brutality, and bribed members of the judicial and executive branches. These issues point to the illegitimacy of the state throughout multiple levels of authority. The other three reports were of incidents of riots and demonstrations protesting state illegitimacy and employer exploitation. • Human Rights: Seven reports from the Greater Monrovia region pertain to human rights abuses. The majority of these reports— four out of the seven— address the brutality present within the community. Reported cases include murder, arson, assault, and police brutality, all of which threaten the rights and well-being of citizens within the county. The other reports of human rights abuses highlight further crimes in the community, including sexual violence and acts relating to human trafficking. • Factionalized Elites: Seven reports from the Greater Monrovia area highlight issues pertaining to factionalized elites. Reports on the polarization of government officials are the most frequent among the seven highlighting the lack of cooperation and collaboration among government parties and the lack of tolerance for political opposition.
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Recommendations This report highlights significant pressures facing Liberia, both at the national and the local levels. Many of the issues highlighted in the last report, such as human rights, public services, demographic pressures, and particularly land competition, remained prominent issues in this period as well, and they could continue to escalate as the October 2011 elections draw closer. In addition, concerns are mounting over the electoral process. These issues will need to be addressed in order to reduce the risk of violence as the elections approach. Especially in rural areas, but in Monrovia as well, dissatisfaction is mounting over the lack of development and insufficient provision of public services. In Maryland County, residents have threatened to boycott the upcoming elections if the roads in that area have not been improved by then. Even in areas where dissatisfaction is less pronounced, there is frustration with what the government has achieved in terms of developing infrastructure and providing services, compared to people’s expectations. Improving the provision of services, and communicating a development plan to the public so that expectations will be in line with what is feasible, could help to alleviate some of this dissatisfaction. In addition, land conflict continues to be a problem in many parts of the country. In the previous report, competition or conflict over land were reported in Lofa, Margibi, Bong and Nimba Counties. In this report, these same issues were highlighted in Bomi, Bong, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa and River Gee Counties. This indicates that this is a pervasive, national-level problem and that more needs to be done to resolve such conflict before they can escalate, from involving the judiciary (and increasing public confidence in it) to alternative means of mediation and dispute resolution. As in the last report, this report contains frequent allegations of the abuse of human rights. These were generally not the result of organized abuse or repression by the state, although there were isolated accounts of police brutality and impunity. Instead, most reports of human rights violations had to do with acts of violence or sexual abuse committed by civilians. In order to improve the human rights situation, the capacity of the police and the justice system to uphold rule of law will need to be increased. This should include increasing the capacity of the police to arrest perpetrators and investigate crimes, prosecuting police officers who commit abuses, increasing the capacity of the judiciary to bring perpetrators to trial in a timely manner, and punishing officials who engage in corruption, because this undermines public confidence in the system as a whole. Increasing confidence in the justice system will be particularly important as the elections draw closer because if there is no confidence that the police can maintain order, citizens are more likely to take matters into their own hands, with destabilizing consequences.
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About The Fund for Peace The Fund for Peace is one of the world’s leading institutions developing creative strategies to prevent and resolve conflict. An independent research and educational organization, we have spent the past twelve years pioneering new tools for decision makers. Our focus is on developing early warning and performance measures; promoting transparency and accountability among governments, the private sector, and non-state actors; limiting the proliferation of weapons of war; and protecting civilians caught in the crossfire of conflict. Our methodologies use information technology and social science to promote sustainable security for a safer world.
About this Report This report was compiled by Joelle Burbank, Associate at The Fund for Peace, assisted by Nate Haken, Senior Associate, and Lauren Morris, Research Intern, in collaboration with Liberia Democracy Watch. It is the second in a series of reports on Liberia that is part of a project to integrate data and perspectives from populations in conflict-affected zones into CAST, the FfP’s conflict assessment methodology. The project, the Early Warning and State Building Initiative, is made possible with funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York, Humanity United, and the National Endowment for Democracy. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. Š 2010 The Fund for Peace.
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