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Liberia: Update to LBR 28675.E of 11 February 1998 on the treatment of the Krahn under the current government (1997-1999)

Country Reports 1998 reported that "the security forces committed many extrajudicial killings. Police shot and killed suspects in custody, and security forces on September 18 encircled and killed perhaps hundreds of ethnic Krahns who were affliated with a faction that opposed Taylor during the civil war" (1999). It further stated that  "a very large but undetermined number of innocent citizens who happened to be of the Krahn ethnic group were victimized during house-to-house searches following Operation Camp Johnson road. Government security forces also turned away from hospitals virtually every Krahn who sought treatment for wounds received during the fighting" (Dec. 1998 241).

However, the Liberian government reportedly dismissed the Country Reports human rights report saying that it was neither "credible" nor "authentic" and "further demonstrates the naivete and gullibility of some US State Department Officials who claim to be so-called West African experts"(PANA 8 Mar. 1999).

Nonetheless the Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 also documented reports of harassment experienced by members of the Krahn ethnic group.

On 6 June, six former fighters of Johnson's ethnic Krahn group, the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO-J), "disappeared " at the international airport where they were scheduled to depart on flight to the Gambia. Their papers were reportedly seized by immigration officials and none of them boarded the plane, although the Ministry of Justice later denied that they had been stopped and claimed that they reached their destination in the Gambia where they had planned "military training to destabilize  the government." Throughout the year, there were complaints by members of the Krahn and Mandingo groups of harassment and threats by security forces who accused them of supporting Mr. Johnson, particularly in Lofa and Nimba counties (1999, 51).

In April 1999, Liberia's criminal court reportedly sentenced 13 people to 10 years' imprisonment for plotting to overthrow President Charles Taylor (IRIN Weekly News 3-9 Apr. 1999). The 13 were "charged in connection with fighting in Monrovia on 18 and 19 September between government forces and supporters of former faction leader Roosevelt Johnson…the convicted persons belong to Johnson's Krahn ethnic group " (ibid.). They reportedly included a former political adviser to Taylor, Bai Gbala, ex-senator James Chelly and a former minister in the previous transitional government, Charles Breeze" (ibid.).

According to the Perspective, a Liberian magazine published in Smyrna, Georgia, the 18 September 1998 Camp Johnson massacre, and the 21 April 1999 Voinjama incident triggered a refugee exodus of an "estimated 4,000 Liberians, Mostly from the Krahn ethnic group" to Ivory Coast (29 July 1999). Two rival ULIMO wings were reportedly based in north western Lofa County during the Liberian civil war that ended in 1997 (AFP 25 Aug. 1999). In April 1999, the border town of Voinjama, was reportedly attacked by rebel forces suspected to be members ULIMO-K, lead by Alhaji Kroham, who "fled the country after losing the 1997 elections to Charles Taylor" (IPS 26 April 1999).

The United States Committee for Refugees (USCR) country report for Liberia stated that in 1998 the government continued to discriminate against some ethnic groups, and "ethnic Krahn, affiliated with the former faction leader Roosevelt Johnson, were a particular target (1999). During the 18 September 1998 fighting, "government security forces, joined by combatants from Taylor's former rebel faction, conducted an armed assault against Johnson's headquarters in the capital, Monrovia," and "unconfirmed reports claimed casualties among ethnic Krahn were as high as 300" (ibid.).

Additional information on the treatment of the Krahn is contained in the Amnesty International Report for 1998 and the Human Rights Watch Report 2000 available on the internet, all of which corroborate the above information.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Amnesty International. Amnesty International Report 1999. London: Amnesty International Secretariat.

Agence France Press (AFP). 25 August 1999. "Liberia Arrests Dissident Commander, Investigation Launched." (NEXIS)

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998. 1999. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

Human Rights Watch. December 1998.Human Rights Watch World Report 1999: Events of December 1997-November 1998. New York: Human Rights Watch.

IRIN Weekly News. 3-9 April 1999. "Liberia; Thirteen Sentenced to 10 Years for Treason." <http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/wa/weekly/19990409.htm>

[Accessed: 23 Dec. 1999]

Inter Press Service (IPS). 26 April 1999.  Jeff Cooper and Lansana Fofana. "Politics-Liberia: Fears Grow of Looming Civil War." (NEXIS)

Panafrican News Agency (PANA). 8 March 1999. Peter Kahler. "Liberia: Liberia Criticises US Human Rights Report." (NEXIS)

The Perspective [Smyrna, Georgia]. 29 July 1999. "Liberia: Liberia: A Nation in Exile." (NEXIS)

United States Committee for Refugees: Country Information: Liberia." 1999. <http://www.refugees.org/world/countryrpt/africa/liberia.htm>[Accessed 23 Dec.1999]