Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1990
LIBERIA
At the beginning of 1990, Liberia was a nation which, while
theoretically under a constitution and legal system patterned
on America's, was in essence ruled by one man: Samuel K. Doe,
through his army and political party. In late December 1989,
a small group of insurgents from the National Patriotic Front
of Liberia (NPFL) , led by Charles Taylor, crossed into Liberia
from the Ivory Coast to attack government targets in
northeastern Liberia's Nimba county. The Armed Forces of
Liberia (AFL) responded by carrying out a brutal series of
attacks on civilian targets in Nimba, singling out members of
the Mano and Gio tribes for retribution because of their
perceived support for the rebels.
The Gio and Mano responded by siding with the insurgents and,
in turn, targeting Doe's tribe (the Krahn) , along with the
Mandingo, whose role as small merchants made them unpopular,
and many of whom were perceived as supporting the government.
The insurgency spread throughout Liberia, but, although NPFL
forces reached the suburbs of Monrovia in early June, they
were unable to defeat the AFL. By early July all semblance of
the old government's authority had vanished, leaving a
stalemate in which various military commanders wielded de
facto executive and judicial power in their respective areas
of control. Eventually the NPFL was driven back by a
five-nation West African Peacekeeping force (ECOMOG), which
entered Monrovia at the end of August, and a splinter rebel
group, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia
(INPFL), led by former Taylor military commander Prince
Johnson. An "Interim Government of National Unity" (IGNU),
formed in Banjul in August by Liberian exiles, with Amos
Sawyer as President, was then able to enter Monrovia and
slowly begin to assert administrative control over the ravaged
city. The three warring factions (NPFL, INPFL, and AFL) met
in Banjul on December 20-21 and agreed to hold additional
meetings to work towards a cease-fire and holding another
all-Liberia conference in Liberia to form an interim
government within 60 days.
Both the rebel and the AFL soldiers killed innocent civilians
for reasons ranging from ethnic identity to suspected
collaboration with one of the other sides. Most of the
soldiers involved in the conflict are poorly trained and
barely, if at all, disciplined. Their behavior has been the
greatest source of human rights abuses in Liberia in 1990, and
they are collectively responsible for the deaths of thousands
of civilians.
Liberia began 1990 with a mixed economy based on traditional
agriculture and exports of iron ore, rubber, and timber.
Virtually all export activity has ceased, and a great deal of
the traditional agriculture has been disrupted by the massive
population displacements caused by the war. With the
exception of a single rubber plantation operating behind rebel
lines, almost all organized economic activity had ceased at
year's end.
The overall human rights situation in Liberia in 1990 was
appalling. All combatants routinely engaged in indiscriminate
killing and abuse of civilians, looting, and ethnically based
executions, with one of the worst single episodes occurring in
July when AFL soldiers killed approximately 600 persons taking
refuge in the courtyard of St. Peter's Church. Leaders of all
the armed groups did little or nothing to stop the killings
and, in some cases, may have encouraged them or been directly
responsible for the abuses. Thousands, if not tens of
thousands, of civilians died in the Liberian civil war, many
of them from malnutrition and disease brought on by economic
collapse, and over 50 percent of the population has been
displaced. Not even Doe himself was immune. On September 9,
he was captured and tortured to death by Prince Johnson and
his INPFL forces.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
In addition to the thousands of civilians killed
extrajudicially by the warring parties (see Section l.g),
there were a number of killings specifically committed for
political reasons. In January former political activist
Robert Phillips was brutally murdered in his Monrovia home.
Although the Doe government's Special Antiterrorist Unit was
probably responsible, there was no government investigation.
As fighting drew nearer Monrovia, reports proliferated of
suspected NPFL sympathizers—including Mano and Gio members of
the AFL being detained and killed. On the other side, there
are reliable reports that the NPFL executed several prominent
Liberian political figures, including former Liberia Action
Party leader Jackson F. Doe. On September 9, President Doe
was tortured by Prince Johnson and the INPFL, later dying of
his wounds.
b. Disappearance
Disappearances were common throughout Liberia in 1990, with
the AFL, NPFL, and INPFL abducting and killing civilians,
sometimes in large numbers, who were perceived as enemies,
based primarily on ethnic identity. The full extent of this
activity may never be known. NPFL and INPFL leaders
threatened severe consequences to members of their
organizations engaging in such activities, but it is unlikely
that these warnings had any real effect.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The most graphic example of torture in 1990 was the videotaped
interrogation and torture of President Doe by rebel leader
Prince Johnson and his followers. The AFL is reported to have
routinely beaten captives, often severely, and both sides
subjected prisoners to mock executions, including the NPFL '
s
mock execution of an American journalist held by them in
September. Reports of the torture of captives in the
Executive Mansion by Doe's followers were frequent and
credible but in most cases difficult to confirm as most of the
victims were subsequently executed. As the fighting
intensified, AFL soldiers brutally tortured and systematically
executed suspected NPFL sympathizers held in the grossly
overcrowded Barclay Training Center prison. Both the NPFL and
the INPFL severely beat and tortured prisoners in order to
extract information. There are also reports that some ECOMOG
troops resorted to similar tactics.
Before the civil war began, conditions for prisoners in the
nations 's jails were hazardous to life and limb. Prisoners
were denied access to family and medical care. Cells were
small, crowded, and filthy, and care of captives was haphazard
at best. Several inmates of a county jail in Zwedru, Grand
Gedeh county, had to be admitted to a local clinic suffering
from malnutrition when the commander of the prison embezzled
their rations; one died. Conditions at the maximum security
facility at Belle Yella have long been of concern; there have
been many credible reports that inmates there have died in the
last few years as a result of disease, malnutrition, or
torture. Some prisons were reportedly opened by forces of all
the factions, but there was little information on the fate of
individual prisoners.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The 1985 Constitution provides specific legal safeguards for
the rights of the accused, including warrants for arrests, and
the right of detainees to be charged or released within 48
hours. These rights, although sometimes enforced, were
frequently violated, either due to procedural incompetence or
to willful acts by the authorities, particularly in cases
involving national security. Brief detentions were frequently
used as a form of petty harassment. Judicial inefficiency and
neglect often resulted in prolonged detention without charge.
However, by early July the entire legal system had ceased to
function, and whatever legal safeguards that had previously
existed had vanished.
At the outset of the civil war, Doe's followers rounded up
hundreds of male Gio and Mano residents of Monrovia during
January and February. No warrants were issued for their
arrests, and no judicial officer reviewed the action. Many
were questioned and released, others were held for long
periods or killed. During the fighting throughout the war,
both sides detained members of opposing ethnic groups at will,
with no procedural safeguards. As fighting drew nearer the
capital, the frequency of arbitrary arrest and execution of
perceived enemies by both the government and the NPFL
increased markedly.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
In January Liberia possessed a legal system modeled closely on
that in the United States, including a judicial structure with
a Supreme Court at its apex, protections for civil rights such
as the right to be charged or released within 48 hours of
arrest, and a requirement for arrest and search warrants. In
practice, however, the system afforded little protection for
defendants' rights. Corruption was pervasive among court
officials, lack of training and supplies hampered the work of
those who had the will to work, and the system as a whole was
subject to inordinate executive interference. By July, the
system had completely collapsed along with the rest of civil
authority, and justice was in the hands of military commanders
and their units.
In March, in an effort to win public and international
support. President Doe made a number of conciliatory gestures
towards his critics, including ordering the release of
imprisoned Liberia Unification Party leader Gabriel Kpolleh,
attorney Ceapar Mabande and several others. They had been
awaiting a retrial ordered by the Supreme Court of their
controversial 1988 treason convictions.
There were a number of other political prisoners at the time
of the collapse of the Doe government. Many of these are
believed to have been released.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
The almost complete lack of discipline among AFL and rebel
soldiers and the collapse of civil authority made instances of
military interference with civilian life common in 1990. Many
of these instances centered around theft or extortion, with
many AFL and rebel soldiers regarding possession of a weapon
as a license to steal or intimidate. In the early months of
the fighting, refugees from Nimba reported AFL soldiers going
from village to village, demanding cash and goods from the
residents and beating or killing those who refused to
surrender their possessions. In some cases, entire villages
were looted and then burned by marauding troops. Similarly,
when NPFL forces took the port city of Buchanan in May, they
looted the town's shops. There was extensive looting by the
AFL and later the NPFL, INPFL, and even ECOMOG in Monrovia and
its suburbs. The INPFL, AFL, and NPFL routinely commandeered
vehicles, equipment, gasoline, and food from rubber
plantations and other businesses with no compensation. During
the fighting in Monrovia, even diplomatic facilities were
subject to forcible entry and looting, primarily by NPFL and
AFL forces.
g. Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian Law in Internal Conflicts
The vast majority of killings in Liberia over the course of
the civil war occurred when both government and insurgent
soldiers deliberately killed civilians with no semblance of
trial, hearing, or impartial judgment, and with no fear of
being held accountable for their acts. Liberians of all ages
were killed on the basis of ethnic identity, religion, of
having worked for the government, or in many cases for refusal
to surrender money or possessions to undisciplined soldiers.
The majority of AFL and NPFL soldiers throughout the war had
free reign to kill civilian members of opposing ethnic
groups. INFPL soldiers also sought out and killed Krahn and
Mandingo civilians, albeit much less frequently than the NPFL,
especially during their 5 month occupation of Bushrod Island.
The total number of civilians killed will never be known, but
is likely to number in the thousands. Atrocities were
initially confined almost entirely to Nimba county, where the
NPFL launched its insurgency, but as the fighting continued
and control of territory changed from government to insurgent
forces, different ethnic and religious groups were
victimized, From the outset of the conflict, the AFL
primarily killed Gio and Mano persons but also targeted
Americo-Liberians . In one of the most horrific acts of
brutality, AFL soldiers entered the compound of St. Peter's
Lutheran Church in Sinkor on July 29, where hundreds of Gio
and Mano civilians had gathered for safety. The soldiers
shot, stabbed, and hacked to death men, women, and children
throughout the compound. Journalists and others who later
visited the site estimated the number of dead at over 600.
The AFL also killed scores of Gio and Mano who sought refuge
at other Monrovia churches and the United Nations compound.
Reports that the AFL was killing civilians and dumping their
bodies at the end of the runway at Spr iggs-Payne airfield were
confirmed when ECOMOG forces recaptured the area, and
journalists counted over 100 corpses at the edge of the swamp
that borders the airfield. Two specialized units within the
AFL, the Executive Mansion Guard (EMG) and the Special
Anti-Terrorist Unit (SATU), were primarily responsible for
such killings, although regular AFL units were also involved.
The NPFL also killed civilians, again based primarily on
ethnic considerations. From the January attack on Karnplay in
Nimba county, where they executed government officials as well
as private citizens, rebel forces routinely singled out
members of the Krahn and Mandingo ethnic groups for killing.
Numerous incidents occurred in Nimba county in January, during
the capture of Buchanan in May, and in Voinjima in July, and
in Paynesville, Gardnersville, and Sinkor areas, in and around
Monrovia, in August, September, and October when as many as
several hundred Krahn and Mandingo, including women and
children and a number of Nigerians and Ghanaians, were
summarily killed. In late September, after the NPFL entered
Grand Gedeh county, there were reports by refugees who fled
the area that the NPFL was again hunting down and killing
Krahns.
The NPFL ordered residents to evacuate areas under its control
and forced them through checkpoints where anyone suspected of
being Krahn or Mandingo or a former government employee was
identified and killed. At one such checkpoint dubbed "no
return," the NPFL was reliably reported to have killed more
than 2,000 people. In the Monrovia area ECOMOG buried
hundreds of NPFL victims in a mass grave at the end of Dupont
Road in Paynesville. The NPFL also shot hundreds of
civilians, according to credible reports, at Fendall and the
Gardnersville Housing Estate. Following Charles Taylor's
remarks over NPFL radio on September 14 that one ECOMOG
national would be killed for every Liberian killed by ECOMOG
forces, NPFL soldiers turned on Nigerians, Ghanaians, Sierra
Leoneans, and possibly other West Africans in Paynesville and
Fendall. At food distribution points and medical clinics, the
NPFL required that registrants identify themselves by tribal
affiliation. Krahns and Mandingos were subsequently sorted
out and killed.
Although with less frequency than the NPFL, Prince Johnson's
INPFL faction is reliably reported to have singled out and
killed Krahn and Mandingo, including Krahn legislator Chea
Kayee, removed from a refugee encampment by Johnson's men in
mid-September and later found dead. INPFL soldiers also
identified Krahn and Mandingo civilians on Bushrod Island and
killed them, including women and children. Some 200 corpses
were reported to have been left near the base of a bridge to
Bushrod Island.
In both the AFL and NPFL, few soldiers were ever disciplined
for such actions, and almost no attempt was made to stop
them. The government did relieve the first commander of the
forces in Nimba, General Smith, on January 23 because of poor
discipline within the ranks. However, his replacement,
General Craig, was also relieved of his post within weeks, and
General Smith resumed command. Neither side made m.ore than a
token effort to stop killings of civilians throughout the war.
The INPFL did issue a field command that soldiers guilty of
looting or killing civilians should be summarily executed, and
some were. However, INPFL abuses did not end, and the
soldiers themselves were mistreated and received no trial or
legal protection. INPFL leader Johnson claimed to have
executed some INPFL members found guilty of harassing and
killing civilians. Although the level of INPFL abuses
decreased somewhat, it was not eliminated. Despite frequent
claims that such deaths resulted from civilians being "caught
in the crossfire," none of the killings discussed here were
incidental to combat, although there were an unknown number of
civilian casualties from ECOMOG air raids against the
NPFL-cont rolled port of Buchanan and near Monrovia in November.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
At the beginning of 1990, the Liberian press was under
increasingly serious restrictions and intimidation from the
government. The passage of an act creating a "Communications
Commission" designed to "monitor and control" the media and
the fact that ECLM, a private radio station, remained closed
further encouraged the practice of self-censorship among many
Liberian journalists. It was exacerbated by the firebombing
of the editorial offices of The Daily Observer, Monrovia's
largest circulation paper, in March. The paper continued to
publish, as did several others, until the proximity of
fighting to Monrovia forced them to close. AFL soldiers
subsequently burned down the Daily Observer offices as the
rebels closed in on Monrovia.
As the government's control slackened, the independent media
began to cover the civil war with considerable candor and
generally gave full coverage to AFL abuses and losses and to
rebel activities, although a few newspapers had reported AFL
atrocities from the start of the civil war. As the war
continued, even the government-owned electronic media began to
provide fuller coverage, and several independent newspapers
called for Doe's resignation. Although there were no direct
reprisals against these newspapers, the government called
meetings with the relevant editors, issued threats and
warnings, and otherwise tried to intimidate the press. In
March President Doe declared that The Sun Times and Footprints
Today, two newspapers he had banned in 1988, could begin
publishing again. They never did. In June the government
lifted the ban imposed on the newsletter of the Liberia Action
Party, but it did not resume operations.
Indeed, by the third quarter of the year, no one was
publishing anything in Liberia except for the occasional
propaganda leaflet. There were no newspapers or television
stations, and the only functioning radio stations were
broadcasting foreign news and propaganda on behalf of the
NPFL. In November, when the security situation had improved
in Monrovia, a new newspaper. Torchlight, and a radio station,
ELBC Monrovia, began operations. A second newspaper. The New
Times, appeared in December.
Although domestic journalism ceased to function, from the
beginning of the conflict foreign reporters arrived in Liberia
to cover the war. They were generally treated well by both
sides, allowed to enter and leave the country without undue
interference, and even given guided tours of "liberated
Liberia" by the NPFL. However, the NPFL did beat an American
journalist held by them briefly and subjected him to a mock
execution. The NPFL reportedly still has two Nigerian
journalists under detention. Reportedly, dissemination of
news is tightly controlled within NPFL territory.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Before 1990, the constitutional guarantees of freedom of
assembly were honored more often in urban areas than in
rural. In Monrovia, several political parties were active,
although none organized large gatherings in 1990. In rural
areas, although at least one party did undertake some
organizing work, partisans were subject to a greater degree of
harassment and interference from local authorities. Within
the first weeks of the incursion, government troops tried to
arrest one rural organizer for the opposition United People's
Party (UPP) , possibly because of his role in opposition
activities in Nimba county.
As the fighting in Nimba dragged on and began to spread to
other areas, efforts began in Monrovia to organize peace
groups. Several groups, particularly the Interfaith Mediation
Committee, held organizational meetings declaring their
interest in a peaceful solution to the conflict and ultimately
calling for Doe's resignation. Several public marches and
rallies were held by such groups, with major human rights,
legal, journalists, and teachers' associations participating.
While most were peaceful, government forces fired on the last
such march in late June, possibly killing several persons, and
beat protesters suspected of calling for Doe's resignation.
As the fighting grew closer to the capital, peace groups, like
all other organized activity, drew to a halt. In an
unsuccessful bid to appease critics calling for his
resignation. Doe lifted the ban on two political parties and
lifted restrictions on the student union and business caucus
in June. In December ECOMOG banned demonstrations and
nonreligious public gatherings when the INPFL planned a march
protesting allegations of ECOMOG brutality, but the ban was
not rigidly enforced. The Press Union of Liberia resumed
meeting in Monrovia during the last quarter of the year.
c. Freedom of Religion
The 1985 Constitution states that freedom of religion is a
fundamental right of all Liberian citizens, and in practice
there are no restrictions on this right. No religion has
preference over others, and there is no established state
religion. Christianity, brought by 19th-century settlers and
spread through the interior by missionaries, has long been the
religion of the political and economic elite, and public
figures often refer to the "Christian principles" on which
Liberia was founded. The majority of the rural population
follow traditional religions. Although Mandingos, who are
predominantly Muslim, have been targeted by rebel forces,
other Liberian Muslims have not received the same treatment.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
The Constitution provides every person the right to move
freely throughout Liberia and to leave or enter the country at
any time. Hundreds of thousands of Liber ians have done so,
beginning in early January when reports of AFL massacres began
to circulate in Nimba county. The Gio and Mano residents of
Nimba fled the fighting by crossing the borders to Guinea and
Cote d'lvoire by the tens of thousands, often by simply
walking across unguarded borders. Others walked to Sierra
Leone, and, as the NPFL entered Grand Gedeh county, most of
the Krahn fled to Cote d'lvoire.
Within Liberia, the checkpoints which hampered internal
movement for years were dramatically increased once the
fighting began, and many of the AFL and NPFL checkpoints
became scenes of harassment, robbery, and killings. The Ganta
checkpoint, on the road from Nimba county to Monrovia, was
reported to be the scene of dozens of killings in January, and
when the fighting reached Monrovia there were checkpoints
every few blocks. The NPFL set up checkpoints in areas it
controlled and harassed civilians fleeing the country,
particularly on the main road from Monrovia to Sierra Leone.
On that route, at the checkpoint at Gbah, harassment and
killings were especially common. The INPFL also established
checkpoints in areas of Monrovia it controlled, at which
government workers, and occasionally Krahn, were identified
and sometimes killed. Despite these restrictions, there has
been massive internal displacement within Liberia; one U.S.
Government estimate put the number at 600,000 Liberians
displaced within the country, in addition to the 750,000
refugees outside the borders, by the end of the year. This
amounts to around 50 percent of Liberia's prewar population.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Despite constitutional and legal guarantees of free and fair
elections, the ability of Liberians to exercise their right to
change the government was put in serious doubt by the
fraudulent 1985 elections that kept the Doe government in
office. The Liber ian government as it existed in January was
in theory modeled on the American system and included a
bicameral legislature, an independent judiciary, and a
two-term limitation on presidential service. In practice, the
President held a preponderant share of the power. Once the
fighting began. Doe virtually ignored the other, mostly
moribund, branches of government, although the legislative
branch, largely a rubber stamp throughout Doe's tenure,
rejected the President's June call for early elections and
urged negotiations with the rebels. Some members of the
legislature did call for Doe's resignation and voiced their
concern about the widespread abuses perpetrated by the AFL.
Charles Taylor claims to be President of Liberia and reports
he has held "traditional" (head count) elections for seats in
a national assembly, but his claim to the executive rests on
his military victories.
In August a group of exiled Liberian political, social, and
religious leaders meeting in Banjul formed an Interim
Government of National Unity (IGNU), headed by political
scientist and opposition leader Amos Sawyer. The IGNU arrived
in Monrovia in mid-November, after ECOMOG and INPFL forces had
pushed NPFL forces away from the capital city. At the Banjul
meeting in December, agreement was reached that an all-party
conference would be held in Monrovia by mid-February 1991 that
would choose a new interim government which would hold office
until general elections could be held.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
Despite the overwhelming evidence of military atrocities on
all sides of the fighting, both the government and the rebel
groups insisted that civilians were not being targeted.
Government officials dismissed early reports of killings by
the AFL, claiming that those reports concerned civilians
caught in the crossfire between government troops and rebels.
When it became clear that unarmed civilians were being shot
outside of combat, they complained that it was difficult to
differentiate between rebels and civilians. Similarly, the
NPFL denied for months that there was any systematic killing
of Krahn and Mandingo civilians by its troops, attempting to
brush off reports by attributing incidents to occasional
indiscipline. Prince Johnson, who has personally executed
individuals in front of witnesses without any pretense of a
trial, also denied reports of atrocities. He murdered one
local relief worker on the spot for selling rice even though
he had earlier approved the scheme for charging nominal prices
for such relief food.
Aside from these almost pro forma denials, neither the
government nor the rebels seemed particularly concerned about
whether their abuses became known. The AFL, INPFL, and NPFL
allowed journalists and human rights activists relatively easy
access to areas near the fighting. Some journalists returned
with videotapes of opposing troops and civilians being beaten
and threatened, and Prince Johnson deliberately made a
videotape of the torture of President Doe, which he then
released to the media. In December Prince Johnson invited
Amnesty International to visit Monrovia and investigate the
alleged killing of 400 of his INPFL troops by ECOMOG. The
ECOMOG commander welcomed the visit.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Language, or Social Status
During the Doe regime, the perception of domination by, and
government favoritism toward, Krahns grew and gave rise to
ethnic tensions that had been either nonexistent or at least
dormant. Thus, from the beginning of the insurgency the
country fractured along ethnic lines. Until the fighting
moved out of Nimba county, it was almost entirely a tribally
based affair. The Krahn-dominated AFL was intent on
suppressing the Gio and Mano tribes, which in turn saw their
chance at revenge on the Krahn and the Mandingo. Even after
the war widened in scope to engulf all of Liberia, rebels
continued to single out Krahn and Mandingo for retribution,
while the AFL focused its depredations in Monrovia primarily
but not exclusively on Gio and Mano residents there.
Americo-Liberians were also singled out for harsh treatment.
The Constitution provides that only "persons of Negro descent"
may be citizens or own land, denying full rights to many
nonblack residents who have lived their lives there.
The status of women in Liberian society varies by region, with
women holding some skilled jobs in Monrovia, including
cabinet-level positions, in the past. Even prior to the war,
however, there was some discrimination against women in
education and employment. In some rural areas, in particular,
traditional attitudes hold sway, e.g., that women are the
property of their husband.
In the massive violence against civilians, women have suffered
the gamut of abuse, especially rape. Even prior to the war,
domestic violence against women was probably extensive but was
never seriously addressed by the government or womens ' groups
as an issue. Female circumcision is widely practiced in rural
areas and in 1990 was debated openly and extensively in the
Monrovia press. There are no statistics on domestic violence
against women, but it is considered to be fairly common.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
Like virtually all other organized activity in Liberia, unions
had disappeared by July, with industries shut down and their
workers scattered. Worker rights, along with other rights,
were essentially ignored in the chaos that enveloped Liberia
as the year progressed. The following paragraphs reflect the
situation prior to the disintegration.
The Constitution states that workers have the right to
associate in trade unions. Over 20 trade unions were
registered with the Ministry of Labor, representing roughly 15
percent of the monetary sector work force. Ten national
unions were members of the Liberian Federation of Labor Unions
(LFLU), an affiliate of the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions. The Government did not recognize the right
of civil servants or employees of public corporations to
unionize or strike.
On April 27, the U.S. Trade Representative announced that
Liberia's status as a beneficiary of trade preferences under
the Generalized System of Preferences program had been
suspended as a result of Liberia's failure to take steps to
provide internationally recognized worker rights. The
suspension remains in effect.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
With the important exception of civil servants and employees
of public corporations, workers had the right to organize and
bargain collectively. Labor laws had the same force in
Liberia's one export processing zone as in the rest of the
country.
The 1990 report of the Committee of Experts (COE) of the
International Labor Organization (ILO) reiterated that
Liberian labor legislation fails to provide workers adequate
protection against discrimination and reprisals for union
activity, fails to protect workers' organizations against
outside interference, and does not give eligible workers in
the public sector the opportunity to bargain collectively.
The COE noted that these deficiencies violate the provisions
of ILO Convention 98 on the right to organize and collective
bargaining which Liberia has ratified.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The Constitution prohibits forced labor, and the practice was
firmly condemned by the Doe government. Liberia has also
ratified both ILO force labor Conventions. However, serious
questions have been raised by the ILO and others about the
degree of enforcement of that prohibition, especially on rural
community development projects.
The COE report cited above urged the Government to bring its
law and practice into conformity with ILO Convention 29 on
forced labor by adopting legislation providing penal sanctions
for illegal use of forced labor and improving the inspection
program for enforcing the prohibition of forced labor. The
COE repeated its earlier criticism of a law providing prison
sentences, with an obligation to work, for certain proscribed
criticism of the Government; such sentences are in violation
of ILO Convention 105 on the abolition of forced labor.
d. Minimum Age for the Employment of Children
The government prohibited employment of children under age 16
during school hours. Again, such employment is a moot point,
although it should be noted that many rebel soldiers are
reported to be very young, with some less than 12 years of age.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The labor law of Liberia provides for a minimum wage, paid
leave, severance benefits, and safety standards. Before the
economy collapsed, the minimum wage for agricultural workers
was approximately 90 cents per day, with industrial workers
receiving three to four times that amount. These wages did
not provide a decent standards of living but were generally
supplemented by other sources of income. As there was little
or no economic activity in Liberia at the end of 1990, these
regulations had little meaning.
