U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1998 - Liberia
About 475,000 Liberians were refugees at the end of 1997, including an estimated 240,000 in Guinea, 200,000 in CÔte d'Ivoire, 15,000 in Ghana, about 15,000 in Sierra Leone, and 5,000 in Nigeria. At least tens of thousands of Liberians repatriated during the year. An estimated 500,000 Liberians were internally displaced. An estimated 100,000 or more refugees from Sierra Leone were in Liberia at year's end. Liberia's fragile peace process received a vital infusion of hope during 1997, as factional leaders appeared to abide by most elements of a 1996 peace accord. Liberian voters elected Charles Taylor, the strongest of the former factional leaders, to the Liberian presidency in July. During a September 1997 site visit, USCR found that many uprooted Liberians were actively planning to return to their home areas.
Pre-1997 Events Liberia's armed conflict began in late 1989 when the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by Charles Taylor, attacked government forces. Fighting quickly degenerated into largely inter-ethnic massacres. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled to neighboring countries or to Monrovia, the capital. Regional countries operating under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deployed peacekeeping troops, known as ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group). A two-year cease fire froze Liberia into a divided country: NPFL rebels controlled 95 percent of the countryside; an interim Liberian government, protected by ECOMOG troops, ruled Monrovia. The peace process collapsed in 1992, and new armed factions mobilized. Most factions appeared to lack a political ideology, and simply pursued sustained warfare, exploitation of natural resources, and looting. Despite numerous peace agreements, violence intensified. General insecurity kept most of the country inaccessible to relief workers and peacekeeping troops. In 1995, factional leaders signed a peace accord that created a new transitional government, headed by the six-member Council of State. The factions failed to honor their pledge to disarm, however, and ECOMOG struggled to obtain funding to expand its peacekeeping efforts. In April 1996, full-scale violence erupted in Monrovia, killing an estimated several thousand persons. Property and equipment belonging to the UN and NGOs suffered wholesale looting. Factional leaders signed a revised peace agreement in August 1996. The agreement called for a new cease-fire, set a new schedule for disarmament and elections, and appointed a new leader to the ruling Council of State. Overt warfare ceased in Monrovia, although factional violence continued in the southwest and southeast corners of the country through the end of the year. Tens of thousands of displaced persons were able to return home, however, especially on the outskirts of Buchanan, Liberia's second largest city. At the end of 1996, about half of Liberia's estimated 3 million people were uprooted inside or outside the country.
Developments in 1997 ECOMOG, plagued for most of its history by poor leadership, unprofessional conduct, and insufficient logistical and material support, took a significant step toward redeeming itself in 1997, in the eyes of many observers. Major General Victor Malu, who took control of ECOMOG in late 1996, impressed Liberians and international observers alike. New troop contributions enlarged the force, and logistical services funded by the U.S. government greatly enhanced ECOMOG's mobility. USCR and other NGOs sponsored a "Liberia Advocacy Day" in the U.S. Congress in February. Participants met with members of Congress and their staffs to push for greater U.S. involvement in implementing Liberia's peace accord. USCR and 13 other NGOs wrote to President Clinton in March to urge the United States to provide additional financial, logistical, and technical support to enhance ECOMOG's effectiveness. "It is critical that the United States take action that ensures a sustainable peace and true democracy in Liberia," wrote the NGOs. Demobilization of factional fighters, which began slowly in November 1996, accelerated as the February 1997 deadline for its conclusion approached. More than 20,000 combatants officially demobilized. Many observers believed, however, that thousands of fighters either did not present themselves for demobilization or came forward without their weapons. Thirteen political parties contested Liberia's July election. Only Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Party, however, had a well-financed organization and a radio station capable of broadcasting to all of Liberia. International observers noted that the election, although conducted freely, was not held on a "level playing field." Taylor received 75 percent of the more than 600,000 valid votes cast in the election; his nearest rival received less than 10 percent of the vote. Many Liberians apparently voted for Taylor because they believed a Taylor loss might reignite the war. Liberian refugees were not able to vote in asylum countries. Taylor was sworn in as Liberia's president in August. The generally peaceful conduct of the election produced a discernible sense of achievement and relief in many Liberians and represented a major milestone for the country. Humanitarian assistance operations, reduced to minimal levels following Monrovia's April 1996 violence, expanded, reaching many regions of the country, especially following the election. President Taylor's relationship with ECOMOG remained contentious, however. Taylor rejected the peace accord's provision that made ECOMOG responsible for training a new national army. In November, Taylor called for ECOWAS to replace Major General Malu, and reportedly armed former factional fighters to patrol Liberia's border with Sierra Leone. In December, ECOMOG began to withdraw. National and international observers expressed concern over aspects of President Taylor's human rights policy, and inter-ethnic relations, particularly in southeastern and northern counties, remained a source of potential confrontation.
Humanitarian Conditions Liberia's long conflict left much of the country lacking clinics, hospitals, and schools in 1997. Conditions for returnees and other Liberians were harsh. Armed attackers had looted and reduced many towns to rubble. Persistent food shortages were common. For the first time in eight years, however, Liberians generally were spared the threat of armed attack. Some counties, including Grand Gedeh, in the southeast, and portions of Lofa, in the north, were particularly hard-hit. Elsewhere, areas long under a single faction's control, such as Nimba County, in north-central Liberia, appeared to function relatively well, with schools and clinics operating. International aid programs generally targeted only easily accessible regions early in the year, including Monrovia, Buchanan, and sites along the main, paved highway from Monrovia to Nimba County. In the aftermath of the April 1996 violence in Monrovia, aid programs emphasized a "do-no harm" approach, focusing on health and agriculture sectors, and eschewing widespread distribution of food aid, which had proved deadly to some recipients in 1996. Following the election, however, international organizations expanded their programs to include long-neglected regions. By 1997, general food distribution had virtually ceased in favor of targeted programs focused on displaced persons living in government designated shelters, food-for-work projects, and special one-time distributions in areas of notable food scarcity. As assistance moved along the relief-to-development continuum, the European Union funded development and rehabilitation projects in the southeast, while the UN concentrated on similar programs in the northern and central portions of the country.
Internal Displacement The UN estimated that some 750,000 Liberians were internally displaced at the beginning of the year. That this estimate remained essentially unchanged at year's end reflected the uncertainty about the number of displaced persons living outside formal shelters. In the absence of definitive reports, USCR estimated that at least 500,000 Liberians remained internally displaced at year's end. Most displaced persons lived in Monrovia. As disarmament progressed in late 1996 and early 1997, some displaced persons began to return to home areas or resettle outside major cities, especially Buchanan. In September 1997, UN agencies estimated that about 200,000 displaced persons were living in government-approved shelters. Displaced persons in Monrovia, including an estimated 40,000 or more people in unapproved shelters, often inhabited filthy, overcrowded, government-owned buildings, which government officials sought to empty so that their offices could reopen. Following the election, aid agencies began to plan for the return of internally displaced persons, which many observers expected to accelerate in early 1998. International NGOs generally opposed assistance programs only for returnees, arguing that assisting returnees, but not other Liberians with similar needs, was potentially destabilizing. International NGOs circulated a discussion paper that called for aid based on "agreed criteria of vulnerability regardless of [inclusion in] groups such as refugee, displaced, recent returnee, or resident." Above all, the NGOs argued, "[H]umanitarian aid should support or [at least] not damage this [return] process." The return plan approved by the UN and government officials‹and grudgingly accepted by international NGOs‹called for providing returning displaced persons who had lived in shelters with an assistance package similar to that provided to repatriating refugees, including short-term food assistance. Returning displaced persons who lived outside shelters would not be eligible for special return packages. All persons in returnee areas would receive some forms of assistance, such as seeds and tools.
Repatriation of Liberian Refugees At the start of 1997, UNHCR reported that nearly 700,000 Liberian refugees were in asylum countries in West Africa. Refugee census results subsequently released in Guinea and CÔte d'Ivoire in mid-1997, however, lowered that estimate to about 480,000. The demobilization exercise for factional fighters that began in late 1996 encouraged some Liberian refugees to return home spontaneously in early 1997. Deteriorating security and reduced humanitarian assistance in asylum countries, especially Guinea, contributed to the repatriation movement. Thousands of refugees returned from Guinea to Lofa County. Often, adult male family members returned first, building small, temporary shelters before beginning work in long-abandoned fields. Some returnees received seed rice and tools from NGOs. Although most refugee children remained in asylum in Guinea, in large part to continue their schooling, others returned home to join parents. UNHCR appealed for $14 million to fund the 1997 portion of its repatriation and reintegration program for Liberian refugees, and in September announced that it would promote repatriation, despite the near total absence of UNHCR staff and offices from Liberia's interior. UNHCR's decision to promote repatriation appeared to be a response to the stated desire of many Liberians to repatriate, and also a recognition that donor countries would be unlikely to contribute to UNHCR's repatriation appeal unless UNHCR was actively encouraging refugees to return. During USCR's September 1997 site visit, signs of new construction in Lofa County were widespread. Thousands of Liberians were busy expanding or replacing the temporary shelters built six months before. Returnees reported that they had experienced few if any security problems since their return, and that their main concerns were the relative lack of food, shelter materials, and social services. Ethnic Mandingo returnees, however, reportedly faced harassment from members of other ethnic groups, especially in Lofa and Nimba Counties, where they had difficulty reoccupying their property. For much of the war, ethnic Mandingo fighters had fought against Taylor's rebels. Some ethnic Krahn refugees also expressed concern about security in Liberia. Liberia's last pre-war president, whom Taylor sought to overthrow, was an ethnic Krahn. Some ethnic Krahn saw Taylor's ascendence to power as a potential threat to their survival. Many ethnic Krahn refugees interviewed by USCR in September in neighboring CÔte d'Ivoire said that although they accepted Taylor as their president, they would closely watch his treatment of perceived political opponents before deciding if and when to repatriate. During its site visit to Liberia, USCR encouraged Liberian officials to recognize that donor governments might hesitate to contribute assistance funds to Liberia if Liberia's new government did not respect the human rights of returnees and other civilians. Reports of the number of Liberian refugees who repatriated in 1997 were contradictory and unverifiable. ECOMOG reported that some 140,000 Liberian refugees repatriated in the two months immediately preceding the July election. UNHCR officials cautioned, however, that ECOMOG counts at border crossing points generally did not distinguish between refugees and other Liberians. UNHCR's office in Monrovia reported that it assisted more than 2,500 Liberians to repatriate during the year, primarily from Guinea, Ghana, CÔte d'Ivoire, and Nigeria. UNHCR reported in November that at least 9,000 Liberians had repatriated since the election. The total number of spontaneous returns in 1997 was significantly higher, however. Estimates ranged from tens of thousands to more than 100,000. In late 1997, UNHCR established two sub-offices in Liberia: one in Gbarnga, in Bong County, and another in Voinjama, in Lofa County. UNHCR planned to open additional offices in early 1998 in Harper (Maryland County, in the extreme southeast), Zwedru (Grand Gedeh County), and Vahun (Lofa County). USCR wrote in November to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, requesting that she recommend a 6- to 12-month extension of temporary protected status (TPS) for Liberians in the United States. The imminent departure of ECOMOG troops was among the concerns USCR raised. "[O]nce ECOMOG departs," USCR warned, "the security environment in Liberia will necessarily become more fluid, with an increased potential for instability or large-scale confrontation." The United States subsequently extended Liberian TPS until September 1998.
Refugees from Sierra Leone A rebel insurgency in neighboring Sierra Leone forced more than 100,000 Sierra Leonean refugees into Liberia in the early 1990s. An estimated 100,000 Sierra Leoneans remained in Liberia at the start of 1997, many beyond the reach of UNHCR's humanitarian assistance programs. Improved security during the year, however, encouraged some NGOs to extend their programs to Sierra Leonean refugees not generally served by UNHCR. UNHCR estimated the Sierra Leonean refugee population in Liberia at the end of 1997 at more than 125,000, primarily in Lofa, Grand Cape Mount, and Montserrado Counties. UNHCR's estimates were based, in part, on information provided by refugee leaders and governmental authorities. Some observers suggested these estimates were inflated. UNHCR assisted some 1,800 Sierra Leonean refugees in Liberia to repatriate in two movements, in February and May 1997. Others reportedly repatriated spontaneously. Renewed conflict and a coup in Sierra Leone later in May, however, subsequently pushed an estimated 10,000 to 25,000 Sierra Leonean refugees into Liberia, and forced UNHCR to suspend the repatriation program, which remained stalled for the rest of the year. About 50,000 Sierra Leoneans, many of them ethnic Mende, lived in settlements in Lofa County, in northwestern Liberia. UNHCR had little contact with this population in much of 1997. UNHCR reported that 35,000 Sierra Leoneans lived in the extreme southwestern portion of the country, in Grand Cape Mount County, while 30,000 others lived in Montserrado County, primarily near Monrovia. Smaller numbers of Sierra Leonean refugees lived in other counties, according to UNHCR.
New Refugee Influx Following renewed fighting and a subsequent coup in Sierra Leone in May 1997, thousands of Sierra Leoneans fled to Liberia. Some reportedly had repatriated earlier in the year. Most entered Grand Cape Mount County, in the southwest, while smaller numbers entered Lofa County, in the northwest. During USCR's September site visit, UNHCR officials estimated that 15,000 or more Sierra Leoneans had arrived in Liberia's Grand Cape Mount County since the May coup. UNHCR officials told USCR that they were unable to confirm reports that thousands of Sierra Leoneans had arrived in Lofa County since the coup. NGOs in September hired a helicopter to investigate reports of the influx. Local officials responsible for refugee registration reported that about 11,000 Sierra Leoneans had arrived in the area in 1997. Most of the recently arrived refugees appeared to be sympathetic to the civilian militia opposing the Sierra Leonean military, according to observers. That sympathy, combined with ECOMOG support for the militia and the ability of militia members to enter Liberia freely, brought into question the civilian nature of some refugee sites near the border. Bo-Waterside, the border settlement in Grand Cape Mount County on the main road to Sierra Leone, was shelled from Sierra Leone on several occasions at mid-year, endangering refugees and Liberians alike. Both UNHCR and the Liberian government encouraged Sierra Leonean refugees to move to Sinje, a site farther east. By year's end, more than 5,000 Sierra Leoneans were registered at Sinje, UNHCR reported. Most refugees, however, preferred to remain close to the border, in areas familiar to them. In September, the head of Liberia's refugee agency informed USCR that the government had decided to move Sierra Leonean refugees about 150 km from the border. That decision was not implemented by year's end, however. The Liberian government announced in October that it was officially closing its border with Sierra Leone for security reasons. The announced border closure did not affect the admission into Liberia of refugees fleeing conflict in Sierra Leone, according to UNHCR. In December, following further conflict in Sierra Leone, 60 Sierra Leoneans reportedly drowned when their canoe capsized on a river separating Liberia and Sierra Leone. UNHCR was unable to confirm the report.
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