Government courting Liberia’s ex-combatants, human rights group says

The Ivorian government is recruiting soldiers, including children, in neighbouring Liberia to pad its ranks as fears of renewed fighting in Cote d’Ivoire mount, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. Ex-combatants from Liberia’s civil war – including a 13-year-old – told HRW this month they had been approached by Liberian and Ivorian recruiters “to join a fighting ‘mission’ on behalf of Cote d’Ivoire’s government,” the rights group said in a communique. “The international community must do all it can to ensure that these children are demobilised and their recruiters are prosecuted,” Peter Takirambudde, head of HRW’s Africa operations, said. The Ivorian government has denied the charge. Cote d’Ivoire, once a bastion of stability in West Africa, has been split into a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north since a failed coup in 2002. With presidential elections postponed and opposition and rebel leaders disgruntled at the UN’s backing an extension of President Laurent Gbagbo’s term, there are fears of a fresh wave of violence after October 30, the date on which Ivorians were scheduled to vote. In this tense climate, HRW reports that recruiters from both sides of the border are offering money, food and clothing to Liberians willing to fight alongside government forces in Cote d’Ivoire. Liberia just emerged from 14 years of civil war in 2003 and the hopes of a population starved for renewal rest on the outcome of next month’s presidential election run-off. Among those HRW interviewed - a handful of Liberia’s more than 100,000 ex-combatants - most said they had signed up for education or training programmes since the war ended but, in a country where unemployment is estimated at 85 percent, options are limited. “I don’t have money in Liberia and if I stay here I’d probably be forced to steal and do other bad things,” a 14-year-old Liberian told HRW. “It’s better I go to Ivory Coast and when I’m back I can go to school. I know it will carry me somewhere.” But Denis Glofiei Maho, who reigns over western Cote d’Ivoire’s four main pro-government militia groups - known collectively as the Resistance Forces of the Grand West - dismissed such talk. "We have never used Liberian soldiers here, we are already strong," Maho said from the veranda of his home. The Ivorian government vehemently denied HRW’s allegations. “As far as we’re concerned, the war is over and we’re in the diplomatic phase with all the factors in our favour,” presidential spokesperson Desire Tagro told IRIN. “Why would we recruit children in Liberia? It’s a claim that just doesn’t make any sense.” However, the charges of cross-border recruitment are not new. When Cote d’Ivoire’s fighting broke out three years ago, Ivorians in the border region say, both the government and rebels used ethnic ties with Liberian communities to expand their manpower rapidly and cheaply. And HRW has reported two other periods of increased cross-border recruiting in the past twelve months – in October just before a major government offensive and in March before negotiations in South Africa. According to the International Criminal Court, it is a war crime to enlist children under the age of 15.