Fighters loot only referral hospital in central Liberia

Government fighters who were encircled in Salala, 90 km north of the capital, Monrovia, by rebel advances south and north of their positions on Tuesday, looted vehicles and drugs from Phebe, the only referral medical center operating in central Liberia. Emmanuel Sandoe, the director of Phebe hospital, told IRIN on Wednesday that the government militias went "lawless" after the LURD attacked Kakata, the provincial headquarters of Margibi County, just before ECOMIL troops from Guinea-Bissau were deployed. "The militias went to our health center and began terrorizing health workers. They looted essential drugs and two vehicles, one of which we were using as ambulance. The other vehicle had a VHF [Very High Frequency] radio system built in it", he said. Rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), who advanced south of their base at Gbarnga to overran Totota, 20 km north of Salala, on Tuesday morning attacked Kakata, further south, trapping some government fighters between the two fronts. At least 80,000 displaced civilians who fled Totota following last week's LURD attacks and took refuge in Salala, were also caught in the middle of the rebel advance. West African peacekeepers (known as the ECOMIL force) however deployed in the Western outskirts of the town. On Wednesday, they started to dislodge the LURD fighters from the town and planned to deploy all the way to Totota. Sandoe added: "Right now, all of medical staff have fled from Salala, because of the action of those government militias." Two weeks ago, the militias beat him up and stole a pickup from the hospital. "What worries me also is the fate of our patients. Just last weekend, I performed two major surgeries and with this present situation, I do not know the status of those surgery patients", Sandoe said. The looting, he said, had caused a major setback for the hospital which relocated from Suakoko in the southern outskirts of Gbarnga, 150 km north of Monrovia, in July to Salala because of another LURD advance in that area. The militias also looted two double cabin pickups belonging to the Lutheran World Service (LWS), a relief agency that is helping the displaced civilians encamped in Salala. "We received reports from our staff in Salala that the two vehicles were later retrieved upon the intervention of the Salala traditional chief, but the communication systems installed in them were taken away by the fighters," Charles Pitchford, the LWS head informed IRIN. Pitchford said the action by the fighters would however not deter his agency from rendering assistance to displaced civilians around Salala. Relief workers in Liberia said there were so many undisciplined and unpaid- often drunk- gunmen roaming Liberia’s villages and towns that it is difficult to tell which gunman belonged to which group. In LURD-controlled areas drunk and drugged up fighters with red headbands, commandeer vehicles and race them up and down, oblivious of civilians. Civilians accuse the rebels of looting and rape. In areas under government control, militias belonging to the different fighting groups formed by former President Charles Taylor have not been paid for months. Looting for them is a way of life. The gunmen help themselves generously to the property of relief organisations. More than half of the World Food Programme's (WFP) food stocks in the port of Monrovia disappeared during recent fighting in Monrovia and fighters stole over 70 vehicles, including most of the truck fleet of WFP and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). The gunmen also loot food rations given to civilians and hamper the work of relief workers.