Study of sexual abuse during civil war under way

The United Nations and World Vision are conducting a joint survey of sexual violence committed during the last four years of Liberia’s civil war which will be submitted to the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said on Tuesday that 22 human rights monitors had been hired to conduct interviews with a random sampling of 4,000 Liberians about their experiences between December 1989 and August 2003 when a peace agreement was signed. This covers the four-year period during which the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement and its offshoot, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) waged a bush war against the government of former president Charles Taylor. UNDP human rights officer Awa Dabo said initial findings from the first 600 interviews showed that 40 percent of Liberian civilians had fallen victim to some sort of sexual abuse. This ranged from rape, gang rape and the rape of children to women having foreign objects being inserted into their vagina and being stripped and put on public display. Dabo said international assistance was urgently needed to help the hundreds of thousands of people who had suffered sexual abuse during the conflict. “The international community is providing funds to assist the ex-combatants. They will get money, medical treatment, skills training and food for their reintegration into society. The question remains, what specialised assistance is needed for their victims?” she said. “We have young girls who have been infected with AIDS, we have women who became pregnant and have been ostracised by their families and their communities,” she noted. Dabo said the survey should provide valuable background information for the transitional government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission once it is formed. But she stressed that it would not gather data on abuses committed since the peace agreement was signed last August, ending 14 years of intermittent civil war. “It will be the job of the police, courts and other government and national institutions to handled the incidents of ongoing abuse that are alleged every day,” she said.