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Pray the Devil Back to Hell makes Oscar Shortlist

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:24:23 GMT

Monday, November 24, 2008

Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the extraordinary story of a small band of Liberian women who came together in the midst of a bloody civil war, took on the violent warlords and corrupt Charles Taylor regime, and won a long-awaited peace for their shattered country in 2003. The movie may now be nominated for an Oscar.

Source: http://www.analystliberia.com/nov18c_nov08.html

LIBERIA: No relief as most Monrovians go without toilets

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:16:40 GMT

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

With just one in 25 Liberians having access to a toilet, most use the nearest bush or beach, unwittingly committing what the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) calls “the riskiest sanitation practice”.

Liberia’s 3.5 million people share just 19,690 toilets, according to a government water and sanitation sector assessment from October 2008, and fewer than one in three Liberians have access to safe drinking water, according to the head of Liberia’s Water and Sewer Corporation, Hun-Bu Tulay.

“Open defecation is one of the riskiest sanitation practices," Chris Cormency, UNICEF's regional water and sanitation adviser, told IRIN. "Disease-carrying materials are basically shared with neighbours and the community as a whole, allowing numerous vectors for contamination as the faeces is not isolated.”

Poor water and sanitation infrastructure contributes to high child deaths from malaria and diarrhoea, which kill 42 percent and 22 percent of Liberian children under age five, respectively, according to the NGO members of the water and sanitation or ‘WASH’ consortium in Liberia. The NGOs support the government to build up the country’s water and sanitation network and advocate for more donor funding.

Many other West African countries have similarly poor water and sanitation systems. UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) predict that if current trends continue, not a single country in the region will be on target to meet the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

The non-profit World Toilet Organization, hoping to highlight the need for better toilets worldwide, has designated 19 November 'World Toilet Day'.

Urban squeeze

While rural water and sanitation facilities usually fare worse than urban ones in West Africa, partly due to government expenditure patterns and relatively higher poverty levels, the capital Monrovia’s “dire sanitation facilities” bucks this trend, according to WASH consortium advocacy manager Muyatwa Sitali.

Congested housing, no requirement that landlords provide working toilets, and virtually no urban planning have combined to create lethal sanitation conditions in the capital, Sitali said. Monrovia’s population has almost tripled since the end of the war in 2003, straining the capacity of the city’s outdated water-pipe network.

“Most of our pipes and other facilities are obsolete and need to be upgraded to improve water supply,” the Water and Sewer Corporation’s Tulay said. But many of the facilities were looted during the war.

In the Monrovia neighbourhood of West Point up to 70,000 people share 32 public washrooms which have four functioning toilets among them. “And this is one of the better managed water and sanitation areas in the capital,” Sitali said.

Cannot afford to flush

The decrepit infrastructure means toilet-users may have to use up to four gallons of water each time they flush, according to civil servant Florence Nimely, who lives in the city-centre.

“At US 25 cents a gallon, for some it is a choice between flushing and affording to buy food at the end of the day,” Nimely said. Per capita income in Liberia was US 40 cents per day in 2007, according to the World Bank.

Most Liberians are forced to buy all their water – for drinking and other uses – from street vendors at inflated prices.

“When some of my neighbours defecate they cannot get enough water to flush their toilets, so they sometimes throw the faeces around the place, exposing us all to health hazards,” Monrovia shopkeeper Samuel Tweh told IRIN.

Without regular running water, waste flushed into the system often backs up, causing sewage to spill out of manholes into the streets, according to inhabitants who rated sanitation as their top development priority in a series of assessments undertaken by the NGO Water Aid in 2008.

National and international efforts

The government has not been idle, Tulay told IRIN, adding that since President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came into power in Monrovians’ water supply has become more regular.

But much work remains. Currently just one water treatment station of nine across the country is working. “If we can get our facilities fully rehabilitated so all nine stations work, then most of the interior of Liberia could access safe drinking water,” Tulay said.

The government needs US$143 million to revitalise the water and sanitation network, according to the latest poverty reduction strategy issued at an April 2008 Liberia donor conference in Bonn, Germany, but as of May 2008 just $57.5 million had been committed.

“The government is doing the best it can, but its resources remain far below the amount needed,” the WASH consortium’s Sitali told IRIN. “Water and sanitation interventions should be given as much priority as meeting health, education or other development goals. This ‘development emergency’ is not being taken on board by the international community.”

The Liberian government recently launched its 2008-2011 sanitation management programme, which aims to deliver clean water to half of Monrovia’s residents by 2011, and improve access across all 15 regions.

WASH consortium members Oxfam GB, Concern, Tearfund, Action Contre La Faim, and Solidarité plan to help the government reach its goals, with funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the European Union’s humanitarian branch, ECHO, and Irish Aid. UNICEF and the African Development Bank are also providing assistance.

IRIN

Chuckie Taylor convicted of torture

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:29:41 GMT

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Chuckie Taylor, son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, was found guilty of torture and related crimes by a US court on Thursday 30 October.

Taylor could face between 20 years to life imprisonment for the crimes he committed in Liberia, while serving as the head of the former Liberian President's Anti Terrorist Unit (ATU). These include the use of electric shocks on the genitals, burning victims with cigarettes and hot irons and melting plastic and rubbing salt into wounds.

According to media reports, sentencing is scheduled for 9 January 2009. The charges Taylor was convicted on cover acts of torture between 1999 and 2003.

This is the first conviction under the US Torture Victim Protection Act since that law was enacted in 1994. Chuckie Taylor is also the first person to be tried and convicted for crimes under international law committed during Liberia's decade-long conflict, which ended in 2003.

The trial of Chuckie Taylor (also known as Roy Belfast, Jr, Charles Taylor II and Charles MacArthur Emmanuel) started on 28 September 2008 in Miami, where he was originally arrested for passport fraud, before the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The federal anti-torture statute authorizes US Federal courts to exercise universal jurisdiction over persons found in the US who are suspected of torture committed anywhere in the world. The statute applies to US citizens and to those present in the United States, regardless of nationality and regardless where the crimes occurred.

Chuckie's trial took place at the same time that his father, Charles Taylor, was on trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague. The former president faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity he is alleged to have committed in Sierra Leone.

Liberia was embroiled in conflict characterized by war crimes and crimes against humanity between 1989 and 2003. In 2006 a new government came to power. To date, however, no one in Liberia has been investigated and prosecuted for torture or any other crime under international law.

In addition, the Liberian government has failed to enact the necessary legislation defining torture as a crime under national law consistently with the definition in the Convention against Torture. Amnesty International believes that just as prosecutors in the USA have now started to fulfil their responsibilities under the Convention against Torture to investigate and prosecute those alleged to have committed crimes against Liberians, the Liberian government, should without delay, enact the necessary legislation and implement it.

Amnesty International

LIBERIA: Mental health problems breed violence

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:14:32 GMT

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Liberia’s only mental health specialist says the country is experiencing an increase in post-traumatic stress disorders because the country’s two disarmament processes during 14 years of conflict did not address the psychosocial needs of ex-combatants, especially that of youths.

Dr. Benjamin Harris said he returned to his home country of Liberia in 1996 to oversee health services for the UN-organised demobilisation, disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) of fighters following Liberia’s first civil war from 1989-1996.

But violent political in-fighting after former president Charles Taylor took office in August 1997 ended nascent social services, said Harris. “The [DDRR] program ended without catering to the psychosocial needs of the ex-combatants,” Harris said.

Weapons gone, problems remain

Harris told IRIN the most recent DDRR exercise conducted after renewed fighting that ended in 2003 was another “missed opportunity.” DDRR efforts focused primarily on taking guns away without addressing ex-fighters’ social challenges, such as HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and sexual-based violence, according to Harris.

“There was a focus on rapid demobilisation and the psychosocial needs of the ex-combatants were not cater[ed] to,” Harris told IRIN. “The focus of the [DDRR] program was to get the arms away from the ex-combatants and now we are beginning to experience the repercussions of a failed demobilisation program relating to the psychosocial needs and mental well-being of the ex-combatants.”

Liberia’s Minister of Information, Lawrence Bropleh, told IRIN the government is trying to fill the potentially deadly social service gaps revealed in previous DDRR efforts: “There were lots of problems during the 2003-2004 disarmament process. What this government is trying to do is to take care of the flaws. As a society, we have not been placing a focus on it [mental health needs]. I think we have a better appreciation of the problem today than before.”

Bropleh said the government is finalising a draft of a nationwide mental health policy.

Mental health specialist Harris said such services are urgently needed: “Granted the [past DDRR] program was successful in getting most of the arms away, but what are the repercussions? The repercussions… include sexual and gender-based violence and aggressive and violent behaviour are being manifested all over the society, and [we are seeing] substance abuse on a wide scale.”

Drugs

Harris said in the absence of mental health services, some Liberians are turning to readily available illicit drugs. Cocaine can be bought for as little as US$5 and marijuana for less than 50 US cents in the capital, Monrovia, according to a draft of the country’s substance abuse prevention policy.

Harris said drug abuse complicates mental health treatment, and requires more community intervention to save youths, who are at higher risk for drug abuse, based on World Health Organization (WHO) research conducted in Monrovia earlier this year: “There is lots of work that can be done in the various communities at the church levels, among religious and traditional leaders, among others, who can play a major role in providing mental health services to the young people,” he said.

He added that as the country’s only clinically-trained mental health provider, he cannot serve more than three million people emerging from conflict. “My concern now is to provide training, guidance and direction to others in society [who] have been able to acquire a certain amount of training in the community to provide services at their level of professional expertise.”

Harris said Liberians have learned to live with mental illness during and immediately following brutal years of conflict. “People have been able to cope with the problem at a certain level, but that was during the war and they did it just for survival. But now they realise the difficulties caused by the war and they cannot cope any longer and so some are beginning to take their lives.”

Survival skills have their limits, Harris warned.

IRIN

LIBERIA: Would you fight again?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:43:51 GMT

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Female ex-combatants are twice as likely as men to take up weapons again to escape poverty, based on a recent US-funded survey of more than 1,000 former fighters in Liberia. Almost 30 percent of the people surveyed said they were willing to take up arms again to earn a living wage, family and community acceptance, and respect for their tribe or religion.

Researchers concluded that ex-fighters at risk of returning to violence can destabilise a country still recovering from war.

Surveyors with the US-based non-profit CHF International, formerly known as Cooperative Housing Foundation, focused mostly on former fighters in rural Lofa county. The former seat of recruitment for both government and rebel forces and current home to many of Liberia’s former fighters is 65km northeast of the capital Monrovia.

Ex-combatants answered the following questions, among others, for the US Institute of Peace-funded study, released in September 2008: “Is life better now than before the war?” and “What events might make you decide to fight again?”

Mary Die Die

Mary Tarweh told IRIN she joined the government’s Liberian Armed Forces (AFL) in May 1988, when she was 24 years old, and that she came to be known as “Mary Die Die” for her fearlessness in combat during both phases of Liberia’s civil war.

Now, the 38-year-old mother of three said she is “likely” to fight again to support her three children, if economically things do not improve: “If the suffering persists and there is no sign of hope and people laugh at [mock] me, then it is likely that I can accept.”

One-third of those surveyed by CHF International said both the army and rebels had promised them cash, education or jobs for fighting during the civil war. Among these 312 respondents, 19 percent said they would be willing to fight again.

Tarweh told IRIN things have become progressively more difficult for her since rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy forces killed her children’s father in 2001: “Although my current husband sometimes helps, he does not have a better [decent] paying job to meet all the family’s needs.”

She said her small business is not enough to feed her family, and she is looking for different ways to earn more money: “When someone approaches you and says, ‘I have a mission and I will give you US$15,000 or more. Here is at least US$10,000 of that amount let us go and fight,’ you could be moved by that,” Tarweh said.

Tens of thousands of Liberian fighters were registered with UN-led demobilisation, disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) programmes at the end of both waves of fighting in 1997 and in 2003. But a civil war in next-door Côte d’Ivoire that broke out in 2002, and deadly government protests in neighbouring Guinea, most recently in 2007, have presented restive Liberian ex-fighters nearby opportunities to make a living through violence.

DDRR

The study’s authors concluded past DDRR programmes did not focus adequately on post-war trauma.

Tarweh said she has only a faint memory of trauma counseling. “I can remember when I was in the DDRR camps, counseling was provided [to] us for only five days. I do not think this is enough because some of us face physical and mental trauma.”

The authors noted that economic integration tends to train fighters for a market that does not have enough jobs. “Most rehabilitation and reintegration programming places immediate emphasis on skills training and only secondary emphasis on job creation,” CHF International wrote. “This order of operations is intuitive, but perhaps misguided…a push for immediate, state-supported job creation may be the best way to reduce the risk of impoverished, idle ex-combatants slipping back into violence.”

Tarweh said she briefly participated in both DDRR programmes’ skills training classes in tourism and typing. She dropped out of both before completion, discouraged with the low prospects of unemployment.

The World Bank has estimated Liberia’s unemployment rate to be as high as 70 percent, which government officials have disputed.

Tarweh told IRIN regardless of how many people are poor in Liberia, there are former fighters who are ready to resort to violence for the right price. “Money can convince people especially when [they] are not employed and the suffering is too much.”

IRIN

LIBERIA: FGM continues in rural secrecy

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:31:50 GMT

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Thousands of young girls annually prepare for their initiation into a women’s secret association, Sande Society, which operates mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. As part of their initiation, young women take a vow of secrecy after weeks of training in the forest, promising not to not tell uninitiated girls or men what happens to them, to assume new names, and to have their clitorises cut off - known as female
genital mutilation (FGM) - according to women in the secret society.

About half of Liberia’s some 16 ethnic groups, including the Bassa, Mende, Gola and Kissi, observe the rules of this historically-secret, centuries-old society.

One Mende member from Tubmanburg, Western Liberia, who asked not to be named, told IRIN removing a girl’s clitoris helps her become a “prolific child bearer.”

Another member, 42-year-old Jebbeh Sonneh, explained to IRIN, “Those who perform such [FGM] acts are typically elderly women in the community designated for the task, or traditional birth attendants.”

Secrecy shrouds outreach

Sociologist Theo Kerkulah at the University of Liberia in Monrovia says even though the practice of rural forest initiations is common in Liberia, it is not openly discussed. “It is a difficult topic to teach. Most girls who joined the society are now in the classroom and never feel happy when you talk about it in the open. They feel [it is a betrayal]. Perhaps because of the myths that are associated with it.”

Kerkulah says the girls are bound by secrecy vows and the time they spend together in the forest where they undergo trainingto enter adulthood, learning domestic skills and moral lessons.
The lecturer told IRIN many girls believe the spirit of Sande, the guardian of women, guides them into and during adulthood.

Monrovia-based medical researcher Deddeh Siah says physical pain is an additional factor binding the young girls, “In some Sandes [initiates], not only is her genitalia removed, the student is marked [cut] so that large scars remain on the skin of the initiate for life.”

She estimates about 5,000 puberty-aged adolescents join the group every year, either by force or choice.

Culture can kill

Sandes are a part of Liberia’s cultural heritage, says Jomo Weah who works at a government-run culture centre in Kendeja, on the outskirts of Monrovia. “We cannot stop it. It is our culture. We can only intervene by allowing them to go about doing it when the girls are on school break.”

Local civil society groups including Girls Movement for Education have tried to discourage parents from allowing their girls to join Sande Society.

Government health worker Mary Mah says FGM is killing hundreds of girls in Liberia every year. “Over 20 percent of the initiates die from excessive bleeding after their clitoris has been removed.”

Mah told IRIN if excessive pain and extreme bleeding do not kill the girls, FGM can scar or disfigure her for life. “Risk of serious potentially life-threatening complications [include] ongoing bleeding, infection including HIV, urine retention, stress, shock…[and] psychological trauma.”

Catherine Watson Khasu, an elected leader in Grand Cape Mount County in Western Liberia, about 140 km from Monrovia, dismisses these risks, “People have said all sorts of things against our cultural heritage, which are not true. I am a member of the Sande [Society] and I’m proud of it. There is nothing harmful about the Sande.”

She told IRIN the government and human rights organisations should respect the tradition of Liberia’s indigenous groups, “We know the [1989-2003 civil] war did a lot of damage to our country, but that does not mean we should desecrate our traditional shrines.”

IRIN

LIBERIA: Flood relief efforts continue

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:39:00 GMT

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Hundreds of residents along Monrovia’s coast have lost, or are still blocked from their homes nearly two months after storms started on 20 July 2008, according to relief workers.

The Liberian Red Cross Society estimates flooding has affected about 1,400 people.

Red Cross relief worker Pappie Toe, said efforts are still underway to assist flood victims who have been sheltering with family and friends. “We give them food as well as medicine. And another package is given to families [whose] conditions are more critical.”

John Sah, a father of six, told IRIN he is still not able to go home. “The situation is frustrating us. Our house was filled with water. We had to rush kids out immediately [after the storms in July 2008]. We are seeking refuge here until the water can be reduced. But it is a terrible situation for my family.”

The Red Cross’ director of health and disaster management, Kokpar Wohwoh, said the most damaged communities are coastal areas on the outskirts of Monrovia, including Banjor, Popo Beach, Hotel Africa and King Gray. “We are still monitoring these communities to make sure they are safe for living.”

Coastal communities still vulnerable

Government officials say these coastal communities are at higher risk for flooding and water damage because rising sea waters along the Gulf of Guinea, which are linked to climate change, have pushed the ocean dangerously close to seaside homes.

Officials with Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said another reason for this year’s intense flooding is the city’s clogged drainage system.

EPA’s deputy director, Jerome Yenkan, told IRIN new business constructions have obstructed parts of the drainage system by illegally building over it. “We have taken a decision to drastically deal with people who [obstruct] water paths [the drainage pipe system].” he said.

This year’s flooding has prompted the national government to set up its first disaster control committee in charge of preventing and responding to floods.

IRIN

Liberia ALERT: Journalist’s equipment briefly seized in Senate Chamber

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:43:01 GMT

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Fredrick Cherue, a member of the Upper House of Liberia’s parliament on August 27, 2008, seized the equipment of a radio journalist for allegedly recording a private discussion in the open plenary session of the House.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that, Julius Kanubah, a reporter of Star Radio a Monrovia-based independent station was the recording bitter exchanges between two senators, when his recorder was seized.

Senator Cherue, a former President of the National Bar Association’s action provoked a swift reaction from another senator, Theodore Momo who argued that the senate chamber was not a private facility.

Senator Cherue however, returned the journalist’s recorder at the close of the session.

Media Foundation for West Africa

8 Liberian fans reported dead

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:58:18 GMT

Monday, June 02, 2008

The death of at least eight football fans in Monrovia at Liberia's game with the Gambia has overshadowed the start of Group 6 qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

A doctor says the fans died of suffocation during the game at a stadium in Liberia's capital.

The Liberian Football Association's chief doctor Sam Harris says the victims' bodies were taken to the country's main hospital.

The game eventually finished 1-1, with Mustapha Jarju scoring the goal for the Gambia after 15 minutes.

Senegal struggled to a 1-0 victory at home to Algeria in Dakar.

The only goal of the game came in the 80th minute from Abdoulaye Faye, who plays for Newcastle United in the English Premier League.

The Algerian players claimed the ball had not crossed the line but television replays confirmed that the goal was legitimate. Algeria also had a goal disallowed for off-side.

Author: by Nanama Keita

LIBERIA: Coastal erosion displaces hundreds

Wed, 28 May 2008 11:07:22 GMT

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Coastal erosion has wiped out dozens of homes and left nearly 200 inhabitants homeless in Buchanan, the second largest city in Liberia, and government officials say the whole city of 200,000 people is threatened.

“The situation is clearly posing a threat to the entire city. Since 2006 the sea has been gradually encroaching on Buchanan leaving more than one hundred homes destroyed and displacing hundreds of people, and it is still getting worse,” Julia Duncan-Cassell, superintendent of Grand Bassa County said.

She told IRIN if nothing is done immediately, the entire city could be rubbed off the map.

“We have made several appeals to government and international organisations to come in and find a way of stopping the ocean, but to no avail. If nothing is done, I am afraid the whole of Buchanan could be wiped away”.

Coastal erosion is a problem all along Liberia’s coastline as eight of Liberia’s 15 counties have their main settlements on the coast. However the culprit is apparently not climate change.

According to a joint survey prepared by the Liberian government and the United Nations Development Programme on the state of the environment in Liberia two years ago, most of the erosion is caused by unregulated sand mining.

Liberia’s Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy Eugene Shannon recently told reporters in Buchanan that people are looting metal barriers and even rocks that were previously used as sea defences.

“One of the major factors responsible for the coastal of the coast in Buchanan is the extraction of the breakwaters which some of the residents are using for construction purposes,” Shannon said.

“As a result of this, the corridor where those rocks and metals were placed are now opened allowing the sea to hit the shorelines and devastating homes, which has now affected residents in Buchanan.”

The short-term measure would be to dump breakwaters into the Atlantic Ocean to prevent the ocean from reaching shorelines, Shannon said. A long-term fix entails a coastal assessment study to determine the level of risk to our coastal communities – quite a stretch in a country which has not even completed a national census for decades.

For Buchanan’s struggling fishermen, that assistance is likely to come too late.

“Because of the erosion, we are no longer fishing on a large scale and there is a shortage of fish locally on the market. How can we catch fish when we do not have homes to sleep in?” Sundaygar Togba, a fisherman told IRIN.

Source: IRIN NEWS http://irinnews.org