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U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2006 - Liberia

Despite limited resources, untrained personnel, and a weak judicial system, all products of 14 years of civil war, the Government of Liberia demonstrated a willingness to cooperate with the United States and the international community to combat terrorism. Through rule of law and security sector reform assistance programs, the United States supported a number of initiatives that addressed Liberia's vulnerabilities, which included porous borders, rampant identification document fraud, lax immigration controls, wide-scale corruption, and underpaid law enforcement, security, and customs personnel. The Liberian government was eager to engage the United States on counterterrorism, international crime issues, and security sector reform.

There have never been any acts of transnational terrorism in Liberia. Of concern, however, were reports that hundreds of Middle Eastern businessmen purchased legitimately issued but fraudulently obtained Liberian diplomatic passports from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) officials. These documents would permit free movement between the Middle East and West Africa. The government took steps to stop this Charles Taylor-era practice by requiring that diplomatic passports be issued only by the MFA in Monrovia.

The government's failure to surrender fugitives for extradition was a source of frustration in bilateral relations. In January, a circuit court erroneously held that the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and Liberia expired in 1944. The Government of Liberia appealed that decision, and it is pending in the Supreme Court.

Since 2003, there has been a resurgence in the number of visits by foreign Islamic proselytizing groups, overwhelmingly Sunni organizations from Pakistan, Egypt, and South Africa. Liberian security services reported that none of these groups publicly espoused militant or anti-U.S. messages. Liberia's indigenous, war-weary, and predominantly Sunni Islamic community, which represented roughly 20 percent of the country's population, has demonstrated no interest in militant strains of Islam to date. That said, outstanding land disputes negatively affecting large numbers of Muslim land owners in Nimba and other counties could fan ethnic and religious tensions with the predominantly Christian central government.

As in other West African states, reports of possible Hizballah connections within the Lebanese community in Liberia indicated that Lebanese businessmen provided financial support and engaged in fundraising activities for Hizballah. There were no other terrorist groups known to be operating within Liberia.

Topics: Terrorism,