LIBERIA: More Mass Graves Discovered in Five Liberian Counties

There are reports of the discovery of more mass graves in several counties in Liberia. According to a local non-governmental organization the Liberia Massacre Survival Association (LMSA) operating in the country, the graves were recently identified in the counties of Margibi, Grand Gedeh Nimba, Bong and Montserrado.

An executive of the organization Peterson Sonyeh who made the disclosure of the discovery said the mass graves were not part of findings which were recorded by Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) during its operation which ended in June of 2009.

In June 2006, two separate mass graves were discovered in Tenebu village, Lofa County. A former town chief Jefferson Wanly at the time told reporters that "that over hundred persons, mostly women and children were "gruesomely" murdered in cold blood, allegedly by fighters of the now disbanded Lofa Defense Force (LDF) in February, 1993 at the height of the Liberian civil war. The smallest grave held about 78 bodies.
The LDF was one of several warring factions in the country but operated principally in the northwest Lofa County.

According to Ms. Corrine Dufka of the Human Rights Watch senior researcher for West Africa and an expert on Liberia, "Lofa County was an epicenter of both military activity and human rights abuses."

Another mass grave which is believed to have held over 2000 persons was discovered near the beach area in the diplomatic enclave of Mamba Point in Monrovia in the first quarter of 1996. This area was notorious for scores of executions carried out by the warring factions during a fierce and indiscriminate battle known as World War Three" between forces loyal to then former President Charles Taylor and dissidents.
Health workers cleaning up after the fighting were forced to bury victims in mass graves. Even some of the factions also disposed of their victims by burying them in hastily dug mass graves.

Liberia's TRC has identified nearly 200 mass graves across the country.

In October, 1996, health workers also discovered dozens of mass graves in Tubmanburg, Bomi County which lies about 50 miles north of the capital Monrovia. According to reports at the time, health workers were investigating the graves which contained nearly 2,000 victims of starvation and factional fighting.

The Liberia Massacres Survivors Association says the 62 new mass graves discovered recently are believed to contain the remains of victims killed by the warring factions. The group says it will continue its work.