LM Report 2004

Liberia

Key developments since May 2003: Liberia has still not met its obligations to adopt national implementation measures, to submit transparency reports, and to inform States Parties if it has met its stockpile destruction deadline of 1 June 2004. Liberia attended a regional workshop on the implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty held in Burkina Faso in January 2004. In a January 2004 letter to Landmine Monitor, a military official declared for the first time that the Armed Forces of Liberia have never possessed landmines. In September 2003, UNMAS conducted an assessment mission to Liberia and found no credible reports of mine use during the conflict from 1999 to August 2003, but indicated there might be some areas still affected from previous conflicts. Subsequently, UNICEF conducted a landmine and UXO risk assessment in Liberia in April and May 2004, and concluded that mines and UXO are not a “major problem” in the country.

Key developments since 1999: Liberia acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 23 December 1999, and it entered into force on 1 June 2000. Liberia has not adopted national measures to implement the treaty, as required by Article 9, nor has it submitted annual transparency reports, as required by Article 7. Liberia’s deadline under Article 4 for destruction of all stockpiled mines was 1 June 2004, but Liberia has not formally notified States Parties of its compliance with this requirement. It appears that antipersonnel mines were not used in Liberia's second civil war (1999-August 2003). No systematic humanitarian mine clearance or mine risk education has been carried out in Liberia. Landmine Monitor has identified no reports of landmine casualties in Liberia since 2000.

Mine Ban Policy

Liberia attended the Mine Ban Treaty negotiations in Oslo in 1997 as an observer, and acceded to the treaty on 23 December 1999, even though it was in the midst of a civil war. The treaty entered into force for Liberia on 1 June 2000. Liberia has not undertaken any national implementation measures as required by Article 9. Liberia has not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, which was due on 28 November 2000.

Except in 2000, Liberia has not attended any of the annual Meetings of States Parties.^[1] The government has not participated in any of the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva since their inception in 1999. Except in 1997, Liberia has been absent from all of the votes on the annual UN General Assembly resolution supporting universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.

Despite its lack of engagement internationally, Liberia has participated in some regional activities. It attended a workshop on Implementation of the Ottawa Treaty in West Africa, organized by Burkina Faso with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and held in Ouagadougou on 28-29 January 2004. It attended an Africa-wide landmine meeting in Bamako, Mali, in February 2001.

Liberia is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, Transfer, and Stockpiling

Liberia is not known to have produced landmines. There were past allegations of transfer of mines to the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone.^[2]

Landmine Monitor previously reported that it was likely that Liberia had a stockpile of antipersonnel mines and noted that its treaty-mandated deadline to complete stockpile destruction was 1 June 2004.^[3] In a January 2004 letter to Landmine Monitor, a military official declared for the first time that the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) have never possessed landmines.^[4] UNICEF subsequently also reported that Liberian military leaders claimed never to have possessed mines.^[5] Liberia has yet to inform States Parties formally if it has complied with its obligation under Article 4 to destroy all stockpiled mines by 1 June 2004.

Use

In discussing use during the 1990-97 war, a Liberian military official stated that landmines had been “noticed during phase I of the Liberian civil war around areas operated by the defunct NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia) of Charles Taylor,” and that “it appears that services of foreign experts were contracted to plant these mines.”^[6] According to the Liberia’s head of explosive ordnance disposal, Taylor's troops did not have the technical knowledge to plant mines themselves, but hired experts from Burkina Faso and Libya to do so.^[7]

In this period, the ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) laid mines around its installations.^[8] Records reportedly exist, but have not been made public.^[9]

In the second civil war (1999-August 2003), it does not appear that antipersonnel landmines were used. According to one source, this was because “the aim was not to secure the ground, but rather to scare the people and loot the villages.”^[10] In 2004, representatives of the MODEL (Movement for Democracy in Liberia) rebel group stated that the group did not use antipersonnel mines.^[11] Also LURD has said it did not use antipersonnel mines.^[12]

Limited use of booby-traps made from stick grenades by AFL and LURD was reported.^[13] According to LURD, booby-traps were used on small tracks in the jungle around the towns of Kpaya, Zorzor, Kolahum, Voijama, Foya and Zalaye in the north of Lofa county.^[14] Also, there were some reports of use of antivehicle mines. One LURD commander said he had laid some antivehicle mines on the road from Gbargna to Zorzor in Lofa County.^[15]

The disarmament of the different factions started on 15 April 2004. It is not known if antipersonnel mines have been among any weapons surrendered to the new UN Peacekeeping Force in Liberia (UNMIL).^[16] Prior to December 2003, four antivehicle mines had been handed over to UNMIL, which it destroyed.^[17] In July 1999, eighty antipersonnel mines collected by the UN and ECOMOG from 1996 to 1997, were destroyed during a weapons destruction program.^[18]

Landmine Problem, Survey and Assessment

Liberia's mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) problem is the result of almost 14 years of internal warfare, which also involved neighboring Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Sierra Leone. During the first civil war (1990-1997) antipersonnel mines were used by the former NPFL of Charles Taylor.^[19] In 1995, he claimed to have demined and opened up all roads for food convoys.^[20] In March 1997, ECOMOG announced that “all mines had been cleared and that refugees should come home to vote in the presidential elections in May.”^[21] While the US State Department had previously listed Liberia as mine-affected, in 1998 it revised its assessment and declared the country mine-free.^[22]

In September 2003, the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) conducted an assessment mission to Liberia. It found no credible reports of mine use during the last conflict (1999-August 2003), but indicated there might be some areas still affected from previous conflicts.^[23] At the request of UNMAS, UNICEF conducted a mines/UXO situation analysis risk assessment in Liberia between 6 April and 15 May 2004.^[24] While noting that the scale of the research was relatively small because of limited access to affected areas, security conditions and time constraints, it concluded that “landmines and UXO in Liberia are currently not a major problem compared to other health issues.”^[25] The assessment also concluded that “not landmines but UXO appear to be the main contaminant....”^[26]

In 2001, an informal local group started a landmine/UXO survey in the Buchanan area.^[27] In most of these areas, survey and demarcation have not taken place. Research in Buchanan confirmed that agricultural land, roads and footpaths are affected. In 1995, UNOMIL conducted a survey and estimated a total of 18,250 landmines in the country.^[28]

Mine Clearance

No systematic humanitarian mine clearance has been carried out in Liberia. The Economic Community of West African States Military Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL) and the US support team reportedly collected and destroyed “a lot of UXO,” but the exact number had not been recorded. Additional problems were that “the collected UXO were improperly stored and that the information flow often bypassed the person responsible for UXO related issues within ECOMIL.” To rectify this, UNMAS made available in September 2003 Standard Operating Procedures and a list of recommended Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) equipment from another UN mission. Since then, three EOD teams of the new UN Peacekeeping force in Liberia are conducting occasional clearance and destruction.^[29]

Two Monrovia EOD teams store and destroy the collected UXO at the Omega site close to Camp Sheeling. However, the site is not fenced and is a potential danger to the local population and to IDPs settled less than one kilometer away.^[30] The majority of UXO came from Liberian government stockpiles found in police stations and in the executive mansion house in Monrovia.^[31]

Mine Risk Education

UNMIL provides some mine risk education (MRE) for its personnel, but no mine risk education programs for the population at risk are in place.

The UNICEF mine/UXO risk assessment carried out between 6 April and 15 May 2004 found that people in Liberia seem to be unaware of the risk of landmines and UXO and do not know where to report them.^[32] It concluded the UXO “may affect in a near future mainly boy children (more likely to play or handle UXO than adults or girl children) and the returnees.”^[33] Policemen are also considered to be at risk, because they are often the first contact for reporting incidents or presence of landmines and UXO. Sometimes people bring the device to them or policemen handle them without being properly trained to do so.^[34]

Another risky behavior seems to be throwing items like UXO in rubbish bins or latrines. Since explosions occurred in November 2003 while people were burning rubbish they found in their gardens or fields, the village chief of Morta in Lofa County prohibited this kind of activity.^[35]

Landmine Casualties

In 2003, two children were killed and another three injured when an antivehicle mine found in a swamp exploded after they tried to open it.^[36] There is no data collection mechanism for mine casualties in Liberia. Generally, no distinction is made between casualties of war, and landmine or UXO casualties. It would appear that UXO presents a greater risk to civilians than landmines.

UXO casualties continue to be reported in 2004. One person was injured in a village close to Tubmanburg after a fire lit in a field detonated a UXO. A boy was injured in Monrovia while tampering with a hand grenade. In February one woman and five men were injured in a UXO explosion in Monrovia.^[37]

Landmine Monitor has identified no reports of antipersonnel mine casualties in Liberia since 2000. In August 2000, a Liberian newspaper reported six incidents in which 13 people were killed and six injured; nine were civilians.^[38] At least 20 people were killed and another four injured in reported landmine incidents between 1993 and 1998.^[39]

Survivor Assistance

Years of conflict have damaged the health infrastructure in Liberia with as many as 242 out of 293 public health facilities forced to close due to the fighting, looting, and a lack of staff and supplies. It is estimated that less than ten percent of Liberians have access to any kind of healthcare.^[40]

In 2003, the International Committee of the Red Cross continued to run the trauma and surgical ward at the JFK Hospital in Monrovia, as well as providing medical and surgical supplies to other health facilities in the country.^[41] The UK-based NGO MERLIN supports the Buchanan Hospital.^[42]

There is one prosthetic workshop in the country, in Monrovia, run by Handicap International (HI). A second, in Ganta, was destroyed in the fighting in March-April 2003. HI provides technical training for orthopedic technicians and physiotherapists and material support to the Monrovia Rehabilitation Center. The center produces orthopedic devices, wheelchairs and tricycles. In 2003, HI and the ICRC worked closely to develop a referral system to provide artificial limbs for war-wounded and other persons with disabilities at the center. HI also supports the local association “Group 77” which promotes the economic reintegration of persons with disabilities.^[43]

No disability laws exist in Liberia.

[1] UN sanctions imposed on Liberia included the prohibition of all travel by government officials between 7 May 2001 and 16 March 2004.
[2] Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 325. See among others, “Report of the panel of experts, appointed pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 1306 (2000), paragraph 19 in relation to Sierra Leone,” December 2000, paragraph 183; Global Witness, “Taylor Made, the Pivotal Role of Liberia’s Forests and Flag of Convenience in Regional Conflict,” September 2001; Telephone interviews with diplomatic sources, Monrovia and Freetown, 20 July 2000.
[3] Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 316.
[4] Letter from Lt. Col. Richard Y. Barnah, Chief Information Officer, Armed Forces of Liberia, Ministry of National Defense, 24 January 2004.
[5] This was stated by Daniel Chea, Minister of Defense, Gen. Konah, and Gen. Varney in an interview with Eric Debert, MRE Consultant, UNICEF, 25 April 2004, as reported in UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation Analysis Risk Assessment,” April/May 2004.
[6] Letter from Lt. Col. Richard Y. Barnah, Ministry of National Defense, 24 January 2004.
[7] Interview with Maj. Robert A. B. Kesseley, Chief of Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Armed Forces of Liberia, Monrovia, 21 January 2004.
[8] Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 201.
[9] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 88. Upon leaving Liberia, ECOMOG took all its records, including those on landmine laying and destruction, to its new operational headquarters in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Unsuccessful efforts have been made to obtain these records. UNICEF officially requested information on 12 May 2004.
[10] UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[11] Interview with Cdr. “Dennis” Buchanan, 22 February 2004. Interview by Eric Debert with Joe Wales (LURD), Deputy Minister of Defense; Lt. Gen. J. Nelson Paye (MODEL); and Gen. A. Seydou Sherif (LURD), Monrovia, 19 April 2004, as reported in “UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[12] Interview by Eric Debert with Joe Wales (LURD); Lt. Gen. J. Nelson Paye (MODEL); and Gen. A. Seydou Sherif (LURD), 19 April 2004, in “UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[13] Interview by Eric Debert with disabled ex-soldiers, Monrovia, 17 April, in UNIECF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[14] UNIECF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Phone interview with Lt. Col. Björne Johansson, Military Spokesperson, UNMIL, 29 January 2004.
[18] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 58.
[19] Letter from Lt. Col. Richard. Y. Barnah, Ministry of National Defense, 24 January 2004.
[20] Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 201.
[21] Ibid.
[22] US Department of State, “Hidden Killers,” September 1998, p. A-2.
[23] Email from Justin Brady, Program Officer, UNMAS, 2 December 2003.
[24] UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 88. The survey identified the following areas as being mine or UXO affected: Sikobili Town, LAMCO Loop 5, Doequoph Town, Wleh Town, Nekreen Township, Little Bassa, Doequah Town, Woezehn Town, Gbayar Town, Blagbe, Glah-U-Way Town, Floe Town, Zangar Town, Kpazohn Town roads in Buchanan, Lofa County, Monrovia (especially the Paynesville area and an area known as Mount Barclay), Capemount, Bong Mines, the road between Bomi Hills and Kakata and the Kakata - Monrovia highway.
[28] Landmine Monitor 1999, pp. 201-202. It located minefields on LAC road and a rubber plantation, Grand Bassa county, in Rivercress area, Rivercress county, in Mandekome, Voinjama and Foyakamura, Lofa county, in Greenville, Sinoa county, and in Harper, Maryland county.
[29] UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004. On 8 May 2004, a UNMIL EOD team checked one reported minefield, New York camp, Palm Bay area, in Grand Bassa county, with a metal detector, but found nothing. A UNMIL EOD team fenced the house of an ex-minister of the previous president Taylor with barbwire after reports of possible landmines surrounding it.
[30] UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid. According to the results of a February 2004 joint UN-World Bank needs assessment, the most recent estimate of IDPs is 490,000. Out of the total of 350,000 refugees currently residing outside the country, some 250,000 were expected to return during the 2004-2005 transition period.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Ibid.
[37] Ibid.
[38] “Landmines, warlike materials fear in Buchanan,” The Inquirer, 30 August 2000; for details see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 89.
[39] UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004; Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 88; Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 201; US DOS, “Hidden Killers,” p. 16.
[40] UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[41] ICRC, “Annual Report 2003,” Geneva, June 2004, p. 80.
[42] UNICEF, “Liberia Mines/UXO Situation,” April/May 2004.
[43] Handicap International, “Activity Report 2003,” Brussels, 15 July 2004, p. 18; ICRC, “Annual Report 2003,” Geneva, June 2004, p. 80.