Survivors tell how Taylor’s forces massacred hundreds in Bomi County

Hundreds of civilians were massacred and their bodies dumped in a river after a killing spree by forces loyal to Charles Taylor in July 2002, according to a report by a leading Liberian human rights group. The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), said on Thursday it had evidence of the massacre by government forces near Tubmanburg, a town 60km North West of the capital Monrovia, including the statements of four survivors. It quoted these survivors as saying the killings were carried out by government militias under the command of General Roland Duo and Benjamin Yeaten the Director of President Taylor’s Special Security Service, on 18 July 2002. However, Yeaten denied involvement in any such incident. He told IRIN that although he actively participated in the war, he had not killed civilians. Yeaten challenged the JPC to produce concrete evidence of the massacre. IRIN was unable to contact Duo. He is thought to be in Nigeria, where Taylor has lived since he stepped down as president and went into exile last year. At the time the massacre took place, Bomi County was a battleground between Taylor’s army and the Liberians United for Democracy (LURD) rebel movement. LURD forces advanced into Bomi county in early 2002, but retreated when the region began to suffer food shortages. As the rebels left, Taylor’s forces moved back in. At first, the survivors said, the arrival of Taylor’s forces appeared to be a good thing. The militias brought salt and sugar for the hungry locals and made promises to deliver rice the following day. But this was just a stunt to win their confidence, they said. When the militia told the villagers that they needed to be moved to a new area for their own safety, the villagers believed them. The gunmen began loading people into a truck, which ferried them in several shuttle trips to the banks of the Maher River. There they were rounded up and the slaughter began. The group mostly consisted of women and children and old folk who had played no part in the fighting. The survivors said not even babies were spared. According to the JPC report, ‘hundreds’ were killed. It said the exact number was not known. Reports of ‘punishment’ killings, tortures and beatings are common among Liberian refugees. Many fled their homes in fear of such reprisals, which were carried out by both the government and rebels to punish villagers for supporting their opponents. Liberia is emerging from 14 years of near constant civil war in which hundreds of thousands were killed and many more were forced to flee the country. It came to an end with the signing of a peace agreement last August, a week after Taylor was forced to quit and go into exile. A transitional government is in place to prepare the way for elections in October 2005 and security is now in the hands of a UN peacekeeping force. However, no arrangements have been made so far to try those responsible for war crimes. In neighbouring Sierra Leone, a UN-backed Special Court has been set up to try those bearing the greatest responsibility for atrocities commited during the country’s 10-year civil war. Taylor has been indicted by the Special Court for his role in supporting Sierra Leone’s brutal rebel movement in return for diamonds. However, there is no mechanism to try him or his generals for any atrocities they may have committed at home in Liberia.