Rebels use civilians as forced labour, UN says

Both of Liberia's rebel movements are subjecting civilians to forced labour and there are reports that some civilians near the rebel-held town of Gbarnga have died of starvation, the United Nations said. In Gbarnga, 150 km north of Monrovia, local commanders of the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) were forcing women to harvest rice from local farms for LURD generals, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. There were reports of food shortages in the Gbarnga area and some people there were said to have died of starvation, OCHA said in its latest situation report on Liberia. "Serious human rights issues exist," it added. OCHA quoted relief agencies as saying the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), the rebel faction that controls southern and eastern Liberia, was also using civilians as forced labour in the coastal city of Buchanan. It gave no details, but said: "The continued intimidation and abuse of human rights by armed parties, highlighted in recent missions to Buchanan and Gbarnga, must stop." Buchanan, a sea port 120 km southeast of Monrovia, is Liberia's second largest city. MODEL fighters recently refused to allow West African peacekeeping troops to take over security there, forcing them to establish a base just outside Buchanan. The rebels have restricted the freedom of civilians to leave the city, which hosts an estimated 32,000 displaced people. OCHA meanwhile reported from Conakry that that recent fighting between government and LURD forces south of Gbarnga had forced 5,500 civilians to flee into nearby Guinea between 29 August and 18 September. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said some 2,000 of the fleeing Liberians had arrived in recent days in the southern Guinean town of Fassankoni. Relief agencies said earlier that more than 50,000 people fled south from the same clashes towards the Liberian towns of Salala and Kakata and the capital Monrovia. They however returned following the deployment of peacekeepers into the area. UN officials in Abidjan said on Monday that an inter-agency mission was due to travel overland from Cote d'Ivoire to the MODEL-held town of Zwedru on Monday to assess the humanitarian situation in that part of eastern Liberia. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have already mounted similar expeditions to Zwedru, which lies close to the Ivorian border. The ICRC has announced plans to set up a base there. In Monrovia, government militiamen mugged and beat up a Liberian journalist on Friday night. Caesar Padmore, Sports Editor of the Independent Analyst Newspaper told IRIN: "They began flogging me after I identified myself as a journalist working for the Analyst. They put me at gun point and took away 250 Liberian dollars [less than $5] that I had. They made way with my mobile phone." The Analyst was critical of the regime of former Liberian president Charles Taylor now in exiled in Nigeria and was closed down by the government last year. Hassan Bility, its editor-in-chief, was detained for five months before being allowed to leave for the United States. Residents of Robertsville, a village on the northern outskirts of Monrovia have meanwhile complained of harassment by a much feared government militia unit in recent days. One of them, Rev. James Railey, told reporters: "The Wild Geese militias entered the village, forcibly beating the villagers, looting food and extorting money. This has made more than 75 of the villagers to leave and move towards Monrovia for safety." The Wild Geese were accused of abducting 15 persons from Todee, a town 40 km north of Monrovia two weeks ago. The missing people have not been seen since.