- Title: LIBERIA: Weak police and courts holding Liberia back
- Date: 29th September 2010
- Summary: ROBERTSFIELD HIGHWAY, LIBERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LIBERIAN ARMY TROOPS MARCHING THROUGH BUSH/SWAMP AT EDWARD BEYAN KESSELLY BARRACKS MONROVIA, LIBERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN LIBERIA (UNMIL) SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL (SRSG), ELLEN MARGRETHE LOJ, LISTENING TO CONVERSATION PHOTO ON WALL OF CONFERENCE ROOM SHOWING LIBERIAN WOMEN HARVESTING CROPS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ELLEN MARGRETHE LOJ, UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN LIBERIA (UNMIL) SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL (SRSG), SAYING: "There's still a lot to be done to get the Liberian security institutions up and running and become, fully independently operational... and that goes in particular for the police, but also for the Bureau of Immigration and the Corrections Services." VARIOUS OF LIBERIAN POLICE DIRECTING TRAFFIC/STANDING AT SIDE OF BUSY ROAD (SOUNDBITE) (English) SEYDU DIALLHO, TAXI DRIVER, SAYING: "Every day they pester taxi drivers. Anywhere you park they will say no parking, even if there isn't a 'no parking' sign. Any time they see you they will stop you and will want money from you." LIBERIAN POLICE DIRECTING STANDING AT SIDE OF BUSY ROAD VARIOUS OF CENTRAL MONROVIA PETER CHAPMAN, CARTER CENTRE PROJECT OFFICER, SITTING AT DESK (SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER CHAPMAN, CARTER CENTER PROJECT OFFICER, SAYING: "I think certainly in rural areas there's a mistrust of, the justice sector, but I think that's largely due to the fact that their, I mean their interaction with it is either them or people they know paying bribes, either to magistrates or to police." ROBERTSFIELD HIGHWAY, LIBERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LIBERIAN ARMY TROOPS MARCHING OVER SAND AT EDWARD BEYAN KESSELLY BARRACKS MONROVIA, LIBERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER CHAPMAN, CARTER CENTER PROJECT OFFICER, SAYING: "If you're shooting for the justice system of the UK or France or something, I mean, you know, it took hundreds of years to get there and it's not like you can get there so quickly after conflict." ROBERTSFIELD HIGHWAY, LIBERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TROOPS BEING BRIEFED/AIMING PLASTIC TRAINING RIFLES IN SMALL GROUPS UNDER TREES AT EDWARD BEYAN KESSELLY BARRACKS MONROVIA, LIBERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) LIBERIA TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION CHAIRMAN, JEROME VERDIER, SITTING AND TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEROME VERDIER, LIBERIA TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION CHAIRMAN SAYING: "If those issues are ignored, if those recommendations are ignored, in the next ten years so to speak, I can see Liberia embroiled in another conflict, maybe of a dimension more serious than what we have already experienced." ROBERTSFIELD HIGHWAY, LIBERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LIBERIAN ARMY TROOPS MARCHING IN FORMATION BACK TOWARDS BASE AT EDWARD BEYAN KESSELLY BARRACKS
- Embargoed: 14th October 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Liberia
- Country: Liberia
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA3KIXMHA4VJIZJ1EYLATRQRS2K
- Story Text: Lack of progress in reforming Liberia's police and judiciary is undermining efforts to restore confidence in the state as the country struggles to recover after years of war, analysts have said.
Security and justice sector reforms are central to ensuring that the nation now attracting billions of dollars in investment does not slip back into conflict as a 500 million U.S. dollar-a-year United Nations peacekeeping force eventually pulls out.
When 14 years of fighting died down in 2003, instead of integrating the various factions into a new force, Liberia scrapped all the armed groups and the U.S. government has so far spent 250 million U.S. dollars on building a new army.
"There's still a lot to be done to get the Liberian security institutions up and running and become, fully independently operational... and that goes in particular for the police, but also for the Bureau of Immigration and the Corrections Services," said Ellen Margrethe Loj, Special representative for the the UN secretary General and the UN mission in Liberia, UNMIL.
The 2,200-strong force is due to be ready by 2012 but in the meantime predatory police officers and ineffective courts were the main worry according to a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Police have been stripped of weapons, but they still man checkpoints which aid workers and business vehicles sail through, but where taxis and other commercial vehicles are halted and often not released until money changes hands.
Taxi driver Seydu Diallho has been driving a cab in Monrovia for 15 years and is very angry about the situation: "Every day they pester taxi drivers. Anywhere you park they will say no parking, even if there isn't a 'no parking' sign. Any time they see you they will stop you and will want money from you," said Diallho.
Aside from filling in for the absent army, U.N. peacekeepers are helping to train and equip the police.
But Liberia's lack of resources -- an annual budget of around 350 million U.S. dollars -- means police officers look elsewhere to top up their monthly salaries of 80 U.S. dollars.
Peter Chapman, from the Carter Center, said it will take generations to restore confidence after years of abuse by the authorities and rebels.
"I think certainly in rural areas there's a mistrust of, the justice sector, but I think that's largely due to the fact that their, I mean their interaction with it is either them or people they know paying bribes, either to magistrates or to police," he said.
"If you're shooting for the justice system of the UK or France or something, I mean, you know, it took hundreds of years to get there and it's not like you can get there so quickly after conflict," said Chapman.
A relatively heavy peacekeeping presence has smothered local discontent. But the force is gradually being reduced, and tensions are simmering amid unemployment levels of around 80 percent.
Conflicts, which often erupt out of minor issues, frequently pit predominantly Muslim Mandingo against other Christian communities. U.N. peacekeepers had to intervene in February over one such incident in the northern Lofa county.
Lack of trust in institutions often leads to Liberians taking the law into their own hands, and to violence.
There are fears of further escalation as the country nears elections in 2011.
Spillover to or from neighbouring Guinea and Ivory Coast, both seeking to hold elections this year, is also a threat.
Unlike in neighbouring Sierra Leone, where a special U.N.-backed court tried those involved in the 1991-2003 war, Liberia sought to rebuild first, and tackle the question of crimes committed during fighting later.
The country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission now wants to set up a tribunal for those accused of the most serious crimes and bar others, including incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, from office. This has so far been ignored.
Commission head Jerome Verdier blames the vested interests of the elite for delays in reforms and warns of the implications of failing to deal with corruption, poverty and the lack of education, which he said were at the heart of the war.
"If those issues are ignored, if those recommendations are ignored, in the next ten years so to speak, I can see Liberia embroiled in another conflict, maybe of a dimension more serious than what we have already experienced," said Verdier.
"There's no political will to address the underlying root causes of conflict in Liberia," he said.
Efforts to try members of a transitional government accused of stealing millions of dollars failed. The current government has also been hit by scandals, including the resignation of the interior minister accused of embezzling development funds and rights groups complain a weak judiciary means few of the corrupt are ever convicted. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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