On Friday 26 February, a violent clash errupted between Muslims and Christians in Voinjama, the capital of Lofa country in northern Liberia, that left four dead (3 Christians) and 18 wounded, 3 critically. Calm has been restored and investigations are underway, but tensions and fears remain.
On 23 Feb. 14-yr-old Korpo Kamara, a student at the local Luthern school, went missing in Konia town, some 55 miles south-east of Voinjama. On 24 Feb. police dispatched from Voinjama found her body near a Konia mosque. When local Christians (ethnic Lormas) arrived at the mosque and began asking the local Muslims (ethnic Mandingos) what had happened, the Muslims denied having any knowledge of the incident. Some ethnic Lormas reportedly blamed the Muslims, saying that Muslims have been known to kill for ritual sacrifice (see The Inquirer). Now this might be true, or it might not. It could possibly be a case of blame shifting as ritual sacrifice is widespread in Liberia. Hopefully the investigation will uncover the truth.
According to Liberia's Daily Observer, during the confrontation at the Konia town mosque, a Muslim made a telephone call to the Muslim community in Voinjama, the county capital, delivering the false rumor that Christians had torched the Konia mosque.
The Muslim community in Voinjama responded to this false report by mobilising against Voinjama's Christian community. The Catholic Church on the Macenta Road was torched and the Voinjama Free Pentecostal CHurch was "massively looted". Private homes and vehicles belonging to Christians were also burned.
Eyewitnesses told the Daily Observer that automatic weapons-fire was heard coming from the Mandingo quarter, and that during the confrontation, Pakistani peacekeepers deployed tanks around the Konia's two mosques and protected them from looters, but left the churches and other Christian-owned establishments to be vandalized.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has expressed her grave concern over the development, and promised that a full investigation will be undertaken and that the perpitrators will be prosecuted in keeping with the law. In the meantime, the Council of Churches and the National Muslim Council will initiate mediation.
Violence Erupts in Lofa
27 Feb 2010
http://www.liberianobserver.com/node/4844
Four Killed In Voinjama Violence
1 March 2010
http://liberianobserver.com/print/4880
Four dead in religious clashes in Liberia: official
AFP 1 March 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jwcBPvPiQdkWURQ3VJqaZohaGmrg
Calm Returns To Voinjama…4 Killed, 18 Wounded
By Patrick K. Wrokpoh
http://theinquirer.com.lr/story.php?record_id=2398&sub=14
Showing posts with label Liberia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liberia. Show all posts
Monday, March 1, 2010
Monday, November 14, 2005
Guinea: Future in the balance.
Date: Monday 14 November 2005
Subj: Guinea: Future in the balance.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
---------------------------------------------------
GUINEA: FUTURE IN THE BALANCE
---------------------------------------------------
Nzerekore is located in the Forest Region of southeastern Guinea, West Africa, close to where the borders of Liberia, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire meet. In the words of Major Algassimou Barry, the Prefect (government administrator) of Nzerekore and the surrounding district, "We're at the heart of a region in turmoil." (July 2004, Link 1)
BAPTISM SERVICE ATTACKED IN NZEREKORE
On Wednesday 19 October, a Christian baptism ceremony in the Gonia neighbourhood of Nzerekore was attacked by Muslims who were complaining that music from the church was disturbing their prayers in a nearby mosque. Ten people were injured, two seriously, and several houses were sacked. The Muslims rioted again on the Friday evening and razed a local video store. Elite soldiers, known as Rangers, had to be deployed to restore calm. Several guns were confiscated and a curfew was imposed. Over the weekend (22-23 October) some 100 people were arrested, with 56 still detained. (Link 2)
The Christians belong to the Guerze ethnic group which has a long history in the Forest Region of southeastern Guinea. Most Guerze practise Christianity or African Traditional Religion (ATR). The Muslims are Konianke, a sub-group of the Mandingo (also known as Malinki or Mandinki) people who have been Muslim since the 13th Century. The Konianke, who are traditionally nomadic traders, migrated south from northern Guinea during the late nineteenth century when Guinea was under French rule and the French had established a colonial administration in the Forest Region.
Ethnic-religious violence had previously erupted in Nzerekore on 16 June 2004 when, according to the US Department of State Human Rights Report 2004, "a Guerze youth on a motorcycle collided with a crowd leaving a mosque". Of the 238 people arrested, 234 were Konianke and 90 percent were Liberian. Two people died in that clash, but the toll would have been much higher had the Guinean security forces not moved so quickly to quell the fighting. (Link 1)
The incidents in Nzerekore arise out of several much larger issues: the ethnic tensions created by Mandingo southward migration; the religious tensions created by Muslim migration into regions historically populated by settled Christian and Animist tribes; the ethnic and religious superiority complex of many of the Mandingo Muslims, and the proliferation of weapons, bored ex-combatants and entrepreneurial criminals and soldiers for whom "war is more lucrative than peace".
Clearly, the Forest Region of southeastern Guinea must be viewed as a potential flash-point for future, major ethnic-religious conflict. Attention must be given to this region now, before disaster strikes and spreads like shock-waves.
ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS TENSIONS
The ethnic and religious tensions in the Forest Region of Guinea are similar in many ways to the ethnic and religious tensions that have manifest themselves around the wider region and all along Africa's ethnic-religious fault-line. Migration by Muslim tribes, into regions long inhabited and farmed by non-Muslim tribes, has created competition for land and resources. Increasingly over the past decade, religious tension has been exacerbated by the revival of Islamic zeal and orthodoxy. This has caused Muslim intolerance and anger to escalate in proportion to Muslim feelings of both superiority and victimhood. Once violence erupts it is virtually impossible to prevent it taking on a religious dimension. The main threats to peace come from Islamists stirring up feelings of Muslim supremacy and inciting conflict; and provocation by those who profit (financially or politically) from conflict. The primary needs are good governance, justice and disarmament.
Twelve months ago WEA RLC released a News & Analysis posting on ethnic-religious violence in Monrovia, in neighbouring Liberia, which touched on many of the same issues. Likewise, many of the WEA RLC posting concerning neigbouring Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) over the past 3 years, and on the religious violence in Plateau state, central Nigeria, have dealt with the same issues.
The main difference in Guinea, when compared to the above mentioned nations, is that in Guinea, Christians are a very small minority (less than 5 percent) in a country that is more than 85 percent Muslim, making the Christians even more vulnerable.
"LIBERIA, THE LURD AND GUINEA'S FOREST REGION" (ICG)
Thrown recently into this pot of simmering ethnic-religious tension is the most dangerous ingredient of all: a large quantity of armed, bored, exiled Muslim Liberian ex-rebel fighters. Guinea's support for Liberian rebel groups has come back to bite it.
In an excellent report entitled "Stopping Guinea's Slide" (June 2005), International Crisis Group (ICG) looks at the Forest Region as a potential flash-point where conflict could have dire consequences. ICG warns: "For some time, both Guineans and Guinea-watchers have been worried that a conflagration in the Forest Region could spark a generalised meltdown throughout the country." (ICG report: Link 4)
There is considerable documentary evidence that the government of President Conte in Guinea trained, armed, funded and gave refuge to Liberian rebels fighting against the government of Liberian President Charles Taylor during the Liberian War. ICG maintains "LURD fighters trained at the Kankan and Macenta military bases and were armed by the government from 1999 if not 1998." (ICG report, p 21)
ICG notes that 80 percent of Liberian refugees are Mandingos who are unwilling to return to Liberia where they feel they are not accepted and are regarded as 'foreigners'. But as ICG also notes, "A similar dynamic exists in Guinea, primarily in Macenta and N'Zerekore prefectures, where tensions between Forestier peoples, who consider themselves the original settlers, and Mandingoes, who are considered strangers, as in Liberia, are very high." (p 21)
The tension has been stretched to crisis levels in recent years because, since peace was brokered in Liberia in August 2003, many hundreds of LURD rebels have moved across the border into the Forest Region of Guinea where they can blend in amongst the thousands of Liberian refugees and find protection amidst their fellow Konianke Muslim brothers and sisters. Tension is further exacerbated by the fact that Taylor was from the same ethnic group as the non-Muslim peoples of Guinea's Forest Region.
The UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reported in July 2004, "Residents in Nzerekore said the town was packed with hundreds of Liberian gunmen made idle by a peace agreement which ended 14 years of civil war in their own country in August last year. 'The town is full of them, everybody knows that,' a local human rights activist in Nzerekore told IRIN. '...we know that they're still carrying their weapons and that they help their brothers the Konianke when the disputes explode between the two [Konianke and Guerze] communities,' he said." (Link 1)
The ICG adds a further layer to this situation. Under the sub-heading "LURD and the lost Mande Empire" (p 21), ICG explains that between 1905 and 1915, African warriors menaced the Manenta and Nzerekore prefectures and the wider region, preventing the French, English and American-Liberians from claiming control of the region.
LURD emerged in the Forest Region and is made up primarily of Mandingoes. The Mandingo fighters have a strong sense of history. They not only remember the warriors' dominance of the region in the early 20th Century, but they also remember and long for the days of the great Mali (or Mande) Empire (14th to 17th Centuries), when the Mandingoes, the founding fathers of Mali, controlled trans-Saharic trade from the Middle East to West Africa. According to ICG, "These [LURD] fighters sometimes talk about their longer-term mission being the restitution of a glorious Mandingo empire."(p 21)
ICG also notes that for many, "war is more lucrative than peace" (p 15). According to ICG, the military "has entrenched interests in pillage". ICG claims the military is involved in cross-border trade and in regional arms flows, including to the rebel "Forces Nouvelles" in Cote d'Ivoire (p 19). But as ICG notes, what usually starts out as a simple economic interest, can develop into serious security problems.
FUTURE IN THE BALANCE
Only months after the Liberian war ended, ICG released a report on the possible consequences for Guinea. It was entitled, "Guinea: Uncertainties at the End of an Era". (Africa Report No 74. 19 December 2003). ICG commented, "The large number of weapons and irregular combatants circulating in this region is one of the principal elements of concern. These armed groups with their unpredictable allegiances could serve the interests of politico-military elites who seek to create disorder and or to take power by force."
The June 2005 ICG report claims that today many LURD former combatants in Guinea are angry, believing that Conte has abandoned them. Also, in Liberia there are both pro- and anti-Guinean forces actively recruiting ex-combatants. ICG even comments that it is difficult to understand why no attacks have yet materialised. (p 21,22)
In the midst of this, Guinea is approaching a period of political uncertainty. President Conte is critically ill, there is no obvious successor, and the nation is soon to hold its first local elections for 10 years. On Sunday 18 December, Guineans will be able to vote for majors and rural councils in an election that will be seen as a test of the country's democratic reform process.
IRIN reports, "Guinea, where more than half the population lives on less than a dollar a day, has been ruled by Lansana Conte since he came to power in a 1984 coup. But his ill health and the lack of a clear successor in either the government or the opposition have led to worries that a dangerous power vacuum is looming.
"In its [June 2005] report, [International] Crisis Group said that disaster could only be averted if both the opposition and the international community engaged fully in the reform process, starting with these critical municipal elections. They will largely determine the quality of Guinean democracy. If they fail, the presidential succession will likely be disastrous." (Link 5)
After decades of Marxist, pro-Islamic persecution of the Church, there is now religious freedom in Guinea, which is 85.4 percent Muslim, 9.7 percent African Traditional Religion (ATR), and 4.7 percent Christian. Operation World reports that the Guinean Church has embraced mission and in the past decade indigenous workers have begun witnessing cross-culturally to previously unreached people groups. The Guinean Church is growing. But many analysts fear that Guinea is "primed for instability" (IRIN), and heading for a crisis. IRIN reports that diplomats and aid workers have long worried that the Forest Region is "a powder keg waiting to explode". For Guinea, and especially for the Church in Guinea, the future is truly in the balance.
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) GUINEA: Ethnic tensions threaten to explode in southeast.
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) 7 July 2004
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42067
2) GUINEA: Dozens arrested after ethnic clashes in south-east.
IRIN 24 October 2005
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=49722
ALSO
WEA Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin - No. 351 - Wed 02 Nov 2005
GUINEA: BAPTISM SERVICE VIOLENTLY ATTACKED
3)
4) ICG Stopping Guinea's Slide.
Crisis Group Africa Report No 94, 14 June 2005
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3509&l=1
5) GUINEA: Opposition throws hat into ring for local elections
CONAKRY, 31 Oct 2005 (IRIN)
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=49850
Subj: Guinea: Future in the balance.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
---------------------------------------------------
GUINEA: FUTURE IN THE BALANCE
---------------------------------------------------
Nzerekore is located in the Forest Region of southeastern Guinea, West Africa, close to where the borders of Liberia, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire meet. In the words of Major Algassimou Barry, the Prefect (government administrator) of Nzerekore and the surrounding district, "We're at the heart of a region in turmoil." (July 2004, Link 1)
BAPTISM SERVICE ATTACKED IN NZEREKORE
On Wednesday 19 October, a Christian baptism ceremony in the Gonia neighbourhood of Nzerekore was attacked by Muslims who were complaining that music from the church was disturbing their prayers in a nearby mosque. Ten people were injured, two seriously, and several houses were sacked. The Muslims rioted again on the Friday evening and razed a local video store. Elite soldiers, known as Rangers, had to be deployed to restore calm. Several guns were confiscated and a curfew was imposed. Over the weekend (22-23 October) some 100 people were arrested, with 56 still detained. (Link 2)
The Christians belong to the Guerze ethnic group which has a long history in the Forest Region of southeastern Guinea. Most Guerze practise Christianity or African Traditional Religion (ATR). The Muslims are Konianke, a sub-group of the Mandingo (also known as Malinki or Mandinki) people who have been Muslim since the 13th Century. The Konianke, who are traditionally nomadic traders, migrated south from northern Guinea during the late nineteenth century when Guinea was under French rule and the French had established a colonial administration in the Forest Region.
Ethnic-religious violence had previously erupted in Nzerekore on 16 June 2004 when, according to the US Department of State Human Rights Report 2004, "a Guerze youth on a motorcycle collided with a crowd leaving a mosque". Of the 238 people arrested, 234 were Konianke and 90 percent were Liberian. Two people died in that clash, but the toll would have been much higher had the Guinean security forces not moved so quickly to quell the fighting. (Link 1)
The incidents in Nzerekore arise out of several much larger issues: the ethnic tensions created by Mandingo southward migration; the religious tensions created by Muslim migration into regions historically populated by settled Christian and Animist tribes; the ethnic and religious superiority complex of many of the Mandingo Muslims, and the proliferation of weapons, bored ex-combatants and entrepreneurial criminals and soldiers for whom "war is more lucrative than peace".
Clearly, the Forest Region of southeastern Guinea must be viewed as a potential flash-point for future, major ethnic-religious conflict. Attention must be given to this region now, before disaster strikes and spreads like shock-waves.
ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS TENSIONS
The ethnic and religious tensions in the Forest Region of Guinea are similar in many ways to the ethnic and religious tensions that have manifest themselves around the wider region and all along Africa's ethnic-religious fault-line. Migration by Muslim tribes, into regions long inhabited and farmed by non-Muslim tribes, has created competition for land and resources. Increasingly over the past decade, religious tension has been exacerbated by the revival of Islamic zeal and orthodoxy. This has caused Muslim intolerance and anger to escalate in proportion to Muslim feelings of both superiority and victimhood. Once violence erupts it is virtually impossible to prevent it taking on a religious dimension. The main threats to peace come from Islamists stirring up feelings of Muslim supremacy and inciting conflict; and provocation by those who profit (financially or politically) from conflict. The primary needs are good governance, justice and disarmament.
Twelve months ago WEA RLC released a News & Analysis posting on ethnic-religious violence in Monrovia, in neighbouring Liberia, which touched on many of the same issues. Likewise, many of the WEA RLC posting concerning neigbouring Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) over the past 3 years, and on the religious violence in Plateau state, central Nigeria, have dealt with the same issues.
The main difference in Guinea, when compared to the above mentioned nations, is that in Guinea, Christians are a very small minority (less than 5 percent) in a country that is more than 85 percent Muslim, making the Christians even more vulnerable.
"LIBERIA, THE LURD AND GUINEA'S FOREST REGION" (ICG)
Thrown recently into this pot of simmering ethnic-religious tension is the most dangerous ingredient of all: a large quantity of armed, bored, exiled Muslim Liberian ex-rebel fighters. Guinea's support for Liberian rebel groups has come back to bite it.
In an excellent report entitled "Stopping Guinea's Slide" (June 2005), International Crisis Group (ICG) looks at the Forest Region as a potential flash-point where conflict could have dire consequences. ICG warns: "For some time, both Guineans and Guinea-watchers have been worried that a conflagration in the Forest Region could spark a generalised meltdown throughout the country." (ICG report: Link 4)
There is considerable documentary evidence that the government of President Conte in Guinea trained, armed, funded and gave refuge to Liberian rebels fighting against the government of Liberian President Charles Taylor during the Liberian War. ICG maintains "LURD fighters trained at the Kankan and Macenta military bases and were armed by the government from 1999 if not 1998." (ICG report, p 21)
ICG notes that 80 percent of Liberian refugees are Mandingos who are unwilling to return to Liberia where they feel they are not accepted and are regarded as 'foreigners'. But as ICG also notes, "A similar dynamic exists in Guinea, primarily in Macenta and N'Zerekore prefectures, where tensions between Forestier peoples, who consider themselves the original settlers, and Mandingoes, who are considered strangers, as in Liberia, are very high." (p 21)
The tension has been stretched to crisis levels in recent years because, since peace was brokered in Liberia in August 2003, many hundreds of LURD rebels have moved across the border into the Forest Region of Guinea where they can blend in amongst the thousands of Liberian refugees and find protection amidst their fellow Konianke Muslim brothers and sisters. Tension is further exacerbated by the fact that Taylor was from the same ethnic group as the non-Muslim peoples of Guinea's Forest Region.
The UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reported in July 2004, "Residents in Nzerekore said the town was packed with hundreds of Liberian gunmen made idle by a peace agreement which ended 14 years of civil war in their own country in August last year. 'The town is full of them, everybody knows that,' a local human rights activist in Nzerekore told IRIN. '...we know that they're still carrying their weapons and that they help their brothers the Konianke when the disputes explode between the two [Konianke and Guerze] communities,' he said." (Link 1)
The ICG adds a further layer to this situation. Under the sub-heading "LURD and the lost Mande Empire" (p 21), ICG explains that between 1905 and 1915, African warriors menaced the Manenta and Nzerekore prefectures and the wider region, preventing the French, English and American-Liberians from claiming control of the region.
LURD emerged in the Forest Region and is made up primarily of Mandingoes. The Mandingo fighters have a strong sense of history. They not only remember the warriors' dominance of the region in the early 20th Century, but they also remember and long for the days of the great Mali (or Mande) Empire (14th to 17th Centuries), when the Mandingoes, the founding fathers of Mali, controlled trans-Saharic trade from the Middle East to West Africa. According to ICG, "These [LURD] fighters sometimes talk about their longer-term mission being the restitution of a glorious Mandingo empire."(p 21)
ICG also notes that for many, "war is more lucrative than peace" (p 15). According to ICG, the military "has entrenched interests in pillage". ICG claims the military is involved in cross-border trade and in regional arms flows, including to the rebel "Forces Nouvelles" in Cote d'Ivoire (p 19). But as ICG notes, what usually starts out as a simple economic interest, can develop into serious security problems.
FUTURE IN THE BALANCE
Only months after the Liberian war ended, ICG released a report on the possible consequences for Guinea. It was entitled, "Guinea: Uncertainties at the End of an Era". (Africa Report No 74. 19 December 2003). ICG commented, "The large number of weapons and irregular combatants circulating in this region is one of the principal elements of concern. These armed groups with their unpredictable allegiances could serve the interests of politico-military elites who seek to create disorder and or to take power by force."
The June 2005 ICG report claims that today many LURD former combatants in Guinea are angry, believing that Conte has abandoned them. Also, in Liberia there are both pro- and anti-Guinean forces actively recruiting ex-combatants. ICG even comments that it is difficult to understand why no attacks have yet materialised. (p 21,22)
In the midst of this, Guinea is approaching a period of political uncertainty. President Conte is critically ill, there is no obvious successor, and the nation is soon to hold its first local elections for 10 years. On Sunday 18 December, Guineans will be able to vote for majors and rural councils in an election that will be seen as a test of the country's democratic reform process.
IRIN reports, "Guinea, where more than half the population lives on less than a dollar a day, has been ruled by Lansana Conte since he came to power in a 1984 coup. But his ill health and the lack of a clear successor in either the government or the opposition have led to worries that a dangerous power vacuum is looming.
"In its [June 2005] report, [International] Crisis Group said that disaster could only be averted if both the opposition and the international community engaged fully in the reform process, starting with these critical municipal elections. They will largely determine the quality of Guinean democracy. If they fail, the presidential succession will likely be disastrous." (Link 5)
After decades of Marxist, pro-Islamic persecution of the Church, there is now religious freedom in Guinea, which is 85.4 percent Muslim, 9.7 percent African Traditional Religion (ATR), and 4.7 percent Christian. Operation World reports that the Guinean Church has embraced mission and in the past decade indigenous workers have begun witnessing cross-culturally to previously unreached people groups. The Guinean Church is growing. But many analysts fear that Guinea is "primed for instability" (IRIN), and heading for a crisis. IRIN reports that diplomats and aid workers have long worried that the Forest Region is "a powder keg waiting to explode". For Guinea, and especially for the Church in Guinea, the future is truly in the balance.
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) GUINEA: Ethnic tensions threaten to explode in southeast.
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) 7 July 2004
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42067
2) GUINEA: Dozens arrested after ethnic clashes in south-east.
IRIN 24 October 2005
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=49722
ALSO
WEA Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin - No. 351 - Wed 02 Nov 2005
GUINEA: BAPTISM SERVICE VIOLENTLY ATTACKED
3)
4) ICG Stopping Guinea's Slide.
Crisis Group Africa Report No 94, 14 June 2005
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3509&l=1
5) GUINEA: Opposition throws hat into ring for local elections
CONAKRY, 31 Oct 2005 (IRIN)
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=49850
Friday, November 5, 2004
Liberia: Provocateurs threaten religious harmony.
Date: Friday 5 November 2004
Subj: Liberia: Provocateurs threaten religious harmony.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
On Thursday evening, 28 October 04, an incident in Paynesville, an eastern suburb of Monrovia, Liberia, triggered violence that escalated rapidly and spread to several Monrovia suburbs. Order was only restored through the "robust" peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and Liberian National Police, as well as a government-imposed 24-hour, indefinite curfew. Rioters were warned that anyone found with a weapon would be regarded as an extreme threat and dealt with accordingly. UN peacekeepers were given permission to use "maximum force" against anyone found attempting to disturb the peace. On Saturday the curfew was amended to 4pm-7am. By Monday 1 November relative calm had been restored.
While any threat to Liberian peace is tragic, the most serious aspect of this incident is the religious nature of the violence. It is critical to note however, that the religious violence appears not to have been instigated by people with religious zeal or purpose. Rather, it appears that those who profit from conflict, those who thrive on war, and those who would stop at nothing to disrupt the disarmament process (due for completion on Sunday 31 October), either took advantage of a relatively minor situation to whip up unrest, or strategically planned and then created that situation and orchestrated the unrest for their own purposes. It is emerging now that it is these criminals who set fire to both mosques and churches. Those seeking conflict clearly believe that the best way to return the country to war is to incite religious violence.
While the authorities have been firm and effective in dealing with the crisis, the incident has doubtless raised religious tensions and in particular, Islamic zeal. (Muslims are a minority in Liberia.) Evangelical elements in the Liberian Church and the interim government of Gyude Bryant will need our prayers and support, that the nation's journey towards disarmament, reconciliation and peace may not be hijacked.
----------------------------------------------
HOW THE VIOLENCE UNFOLDED
The trigger for the unrest was a land dispute in Monrovia's eastern suburb of Paynesville at around 5p.m. on Thursday evening 28 October. The Inter Regional Information Network (IRIN) (from the UN's office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) reports: "Residents in Paynesville said the trouble began when a group of former fighters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group beat up a man who objected to them building a house on his land. These men were from the Mandingo ethnic group. The injured man's family and neighbours subsequently set up a manhunt for all Mandingos in the area that led to the burning of the mosque." (Link 1)
The former LURD fighters who provoked this incident are Mandingos – the main ethnic group associated with LURD. There is deep resentment and mistrust of Mandingos in Liberia due to the appalling atrocities committed in recent years by LURD. The Mandingo are historically and predominantly Muslim. The victim was not Mandingo and was not Muslim. While his family and neighbours sought revenge by attacking local Mandingos, it is not to be assumed that these particular rioters are responsible for the burning of the local mosque.
According to IRIN, "Muslim crowds subsequently burned down three churches and on Friday morning, Christian youths armed with sticks, knives and broken bottles burned down the Muslim Congress High School in central Monrovia, the only Islamic high school in the city. They also tried unsuccessfully [due to the intervention of Nigerian peacekeepers – EK] to burn down the two main mosques in central Monrovia."
Religious violence also erupted in Kakata, a town 50 km northeast of Monrovia, in Liberia's second city Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Liberia, and Ganta, on the northern frontier with Guinea. According to Reuters, some of the Muslim youths were armed with AK-47 rifles.
Reporters from the Monrovian newspaper, The Analyst, attempted to drive into Paynesvilles late on Thursday night (28 Oct) in order to find the cause of the violence. They describe the Paynesville region as "a no go zone with the northern entry route to the city cut off effectively by marauding bands of angry youths brandishing sticks and other crude weapons and vowing to kill anyone believed to be supporting their enemies". At one point, the Nigerian peacekeepers ahead of them are surrounded by "a large group of the thugs, believed to be Muslim youths chanting, 'Allah Akbar' meaning God is Great. They chanted the same slogans at UNMIL, saying 'Y'all think we are stupid? We will die tonight. Eh, they burnt our mosque? We will burn all the churches too'." (Link 2)
The youths then attacked the vehicle belonging to The Analyst reporters, smashing its windows. Eventually the reporters fled for their lives, noting that many building were in flames.
The National Muslim Council of Liberia condemned the violence as "barbaric and unacceptable". The Council also noted however, "An attack on the Mandingos would be inimical to peace in the country because such attack could be interpreted as an attack on all Muslims in the country, adding that Mandingos in Liberia are not just 'co-terminal to Muslims, but also inseparable, particularly as Mandingos are one of the founding fathers of the Islamic Community of Liberia'." (Link 3)
According to The News, Monrovia, at least two people were reportedly hacked to death on Sunday (31 Oct) while en route for church services in the Jacob Town, Paynesville and Doe community areas where much of the rioting occurred.
CASUALTIES AND ARRESTS
The casualty figure stands at 16 people dead and 208 injured, of whom 47 are critical (UNMIL 1 Nov). UNMIL also reports that some 250 males have been arrested. Interestingly, around 200 of these are reported to be "non English-speaking foreigners".
Witnesses told IRIN that UN peacekeepers arrested some 80 people from the home of Philip Kamara, a former senior commander within LURD, and confiscated rifles and petrol bombs.
UNMIL spokesman James Boynton comments: "There are factions of LURD that, we believe, don't want to see an end to DDRR." (DDRR - Demobilization, Disarmament Rehabilitation and Reintegration.)
Liberia's Head of State, Interim Chairman Gyude Bryant, believes the violence was planned and orchestrated. Several individuals, arrested in connection to the riots, have already been charged with orchestrating "Terroristic Threats".
PROVOCATEURS THREATEN RELIGIOUS HARMONY
The editorial in The Analyst on 1 November comments, "Those involved in the plot against the Liberian people seemed determined to project themselves as the patriarchs and heralds of religious renaissance in Liberia when the fact, and their true intention, is that they want to protect their shady deeds and ill-gotten wealth. 'What we're seeing is the death throes of the [old] regime,' UN envoy Jacques Klein told the BBC. 'In the old days they used tribal differences which don't seem to be working now so now they've hit on religious differences'." (Link 4)
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) LIBERIA: Religious riots erupt in Monrovia, curfew imposed
MONROVIA, 29 Oct 2004 (IRIN)
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43935
2) Churches, Mosques in Flames!
The Analyst (Monrovia), 1 November 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200411010963.html
3) Muslim Council Condemns Violence
The Analyst (Monrovia), 1 November 2004
By Bill K. Jarkloh
http://allafrica.com/stories/200411010962.html
4) An Unmistakable Telltale Sign
The Analyst (Monrovia)
EDITORIAL, 1 November 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200411010960.html
Subj: Liberia: Provocateurs threaten religious harmony.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
On Thursday evening, 28 October 04, an incident in Paynesville, an eastern suburb of Monrovia, Liberia, triggered violence that escalated rapidly and spread to several Monrovia suburbs. Order was only restored through the "robust" peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and Liberian National Police, as well as a government-imposed 24-hour, indefinite curfew. Rioters were warned that anyone found with a weapon would be regarded as an extreme threat and dealt with accordingly. UN peacekeepers were given permission to use "maximum force" against anyone found attempting to disturb the peace. On Saturday the curfew was amended to 4pm-7am. By Monday 1 November relative calm had been restored.
While any threat to Liberian peace is tragic, the most serious aspect of this incident is the religious nature of the violence. It is critical to note however, that the religious violence appears not to have been instigated by people with religious zeal or purpose. Rather, it appears that those who profit from conflict, those who thrive on war, and those who would stop at nothing to disrupt the disarmament process (due for completion on Sunday 31 October), either took advantage of a relatively minor situation to whip up unrest, or strategically planned and then created that situation and orchestrated the unrest for their own purposes. It is emerging now that it is these criminals who set fire to both mosques and churches. Those seeking conflict clearly believe that the best way to return the country to war is to incite religious violence.
While the authorities have been firm and effective in dealing with the crisis, the incident has doubtless raised religious tensions and in particular, Islamic zeal. (Muslims are a minority in Liberia.) Evangelical elements in the Liberian Church and the interim government of Gyude Bryant will need our prayers and support, that the nation's journey towards disarmament, reconciliation and peace may not be hijacked.
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HOW THE VIOLENCE UNFOLDED
The trigger for the unrest was a land dispute in Monrovia's eastern suburb of Paynesville at around 5p.m. on Thursday evening 28 October. The Inter Regional Information Network (IRIN) (from the UN's office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) reports: "Residents in Paynesville said the trouble began when a group of former fighters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group beat up a man who objected to them building a house on his land. These men were from the Mandingo ethnic group. The injured man's family and neighbours subsequently set up a manhunt for all Mandingos in the area that led to the burning of the mosque." (Link 1)
The former LURD fighters who provoked this incident are Mandingos – the main ethnic group associated with LURD. There is deep resentment and mistrust of Mandingos in Liberia due to the appalling atrocities committed in recent years by LURD. The Mandingo are historically and predominantly Muslim. The victim was not Mandingo and was not Muslim. While his family and neighbours sought revenge by attacking local Mandingos, it is not to be assumed that these particular rioters are responsible for the burning of the local mosque.
According to IRIN, "Muslim crowds subsequently burned down three churches and on Friday morning, Christian youths armed with sticks, knives and broken bottles burned down the Muslim Congress High School in central Monrovia, the only Islamic high school in the city. They also tried unsuccessfully [due to the intervention of Nigerian peacekeepers – EK] to burn down the two main mosques in central Monrovia."
Religious violence also erupted in Kakata, a town 50 km northeast of Monrovia, in Liberia's second city Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Liberia, and Ganta, on the northern frontier with Guinea. According to Reuters, some of the Muslim youths were armed with AK-47 rifles.
Reporters from the Monrovian newspaper, The Analyst, attempted to drive into Paynesvilles late on Thursday night (28 Oct) in order to find the cause of the violence. They describe the Paynesville region as "a no go zone with the northern entry route to the city cut off effectively by marauding bands of angry youths brandishing sticks and other crude weapons and vowing to kill anyone believed to be supporting their enemies". At one point, the Nigerian peacekeepers ahead of them are surrounded by "a large group of the thugs, believed to be Muslim youths chanting, 'Allah Akbar' meaning God is Great. They chanted the same slogans at UNMIL, saying 'Y'all think we are stupid? We will die tonight. Eh, they burnt our mosque? We will burn all the churches too'." (Link 2)
The youths then attacked the vehicle belonging to The Analyst reporters, smashing its windows. Eventually the reporters fled for their lives, noting that many building were in flames.
The National Muslim Council of Liberia condemned the violence as "barbaric and unacceptable". The Council also noted however, "An attack on the Mandingos would be inimical to peace in the country because such attack could be interpreted as an attack on all Muslims in the country, adding that Mandingos in Liberia are not just 'co-terminal to Muslims, but also inseparable, particularly as Mandingos are one of the founding fathers of the Islamic Community of Liberia'." (Link 3)
According to The News, Monrovia, at least two people were reportedly hacked to death on Sunday (31 Oct) while en route for church services in the Jacob Town, Paynesville and Doe community areas where much of the rioting occurred.
CASUALTIES AND ARRESTS
The casualty figure stands at 16 people dead and 208 injured, of whom 47 are critical (UNMIL 1 Nov). UNMIL also reports that some 250 males have been arrested. Interestingly, around 200 of these are reported to be "non English-speaking foreigners".
Witnesses told IRIN that UN peacekeepers arrested some 80 people from the home of Philip Kamara, a former senior commander within LURD, and confiscated rifles and petrol bombs.
UNMIL spokesman James Boynton comments: "There are factions of LURD that, we believe, don't want to see an end to DDRR." (DDRR - Demobilization, Disarmament Rehabilitation and Reintegration.)
Liberia's Head of State, Interim Chairman Gyude Bryant, believes the violence was planned and orchestrated. Several individuals, arrested in connection to the riots, have already been charged with orchestrating "Terroristic Threats".
PROVOCATEURS THREATEN RELIGIOUS HARMONY
The editorial in The Analyst on 1 November comments, "Those involved in the plot against the Liberian people seemed determined to project themselves as the patriarchs and heralds of religious renaissance in Liberia when the fact, and their true intention, is that they want to protect their shady deeds and ill-gotten wealth. 'What we're seeing is the death throes of the [old] regime,' UN envoy Jacques Klein told the BBC. 'In the old days they used tribal differences which don't seem to be working now so now they've hit on religious differences'." (Link 4)
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) LIBERIA: Religious riots erupt in Monrovia, curfew imposed
MONROVIA, 29 Oct 2004 (IRIN)
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43935
2) Churches, Mosques in Flames!
The Analyst (Monrovia), 1 November 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200411010963.html
3) Muslim Council Condemns Violence
The Analyst (Monrovia), 1 November 2004
By Bill K. Jarkloh
http://allafrica.com/stories/200411010962.html
4) An Unmistakable Telltale Sign
The Analyst (Monrovia)
EDITORIAL, 1 November 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200411010960.html