Rape a Weapon in Liberian War

The mother could only watch, hysterical and helpless, as a gunman raped and murdered her daughter. It was the little girl’s 10th birthday.

“I just wanted to commit suicide,” said the 42-year-old woman weeks later, shaking with sobs as she recalled the scene. “I just wanted to die.”

The story told by the woman, who out of fear identified herself only by her first name, Rita, illustrates one of the most brutal aspects of Liberia’s 14-year war. Aid workers and Liberian medical experts say rape has become a weapon of choice.

Rape victims accuse government soldiers as well as rebels fighting to oust President Charles Taylor.

“Rape is seen as a weapon of this civil war -- as a tool to humiliate, bring fear and terrify the society,” said Edward Grant, thought to be Liberia’s only psychiatrist. “Before 1990, you could hardly hear about rape. Now things have gone [through] the roof.”

Abuses often escalate during times of conflict, but human rights groups say the scale of the atrocities in Liberia is almost unfathomable.

Figures are impossible to track. Many victims feel ashamed and choose to stay silent. Others are trapped behind rebel lines, where aid workers say no counseling services are available.

Amnesty International said in a 2001 report that “women and girls have been raped -- often by gangs of soldiers -- after fleeing the fighting and being arrested at checkpoints.”

Sometimes women are accused of backing the opposing faction or having relatives on the other side.

But often, women are attacked indiscriminately by drunk or drugged fighters intent on taking advantage of easy prey.

“When an attack takes place and an area has been captured, whoever captures the place, commits the crime,” said Miatta Roberts, a counselor with the Liberian-run Concerned Christian Community, the only remaining group in the country that counsels rape victims.

A shaky truce is now in place after the arrival in Monrovia last week of the first contingent of West African peacekeepers. Taylor has said he will cede power to his vice president today and has promised to leave the country, which was founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

In a farewell address broadcast Sunday, Taylor said he was stepping down to end the bloodshed. He didn’t say anything about his pledge to go into exile in Nigeria but declared: “God willing, I will be back.”

The situation in Liberia remains volatile, and despite the presence of the peacekeeping force, women in particular feel vulnerable.

Roberts’ group is caring for 626 rape victims who have taken refuge at a Monrovia soccer stadium crammed with displaced families. The women are given individual trauma counseling, and every morning scores of them gather to play games, sing traditional songs and chat.

But because of the stigma, few are willing to share their stories.

“The rape victim feels hopeless,” said Roberts. “They feel embarrassed.”

Rita, the mother of the 10-year-old, still is numb with anguish.

Seated on a bench in the tented headquarters of the Concerned Christian Community, she related how government soldiers broke into her house on July 20. One hit her in the head with a hammer and tore off her clothes but found out that she was menstruating.

Another fighter who called himself Black Dog dragged the screaming child, Nanu, from her mother’s side and threw her to the ground.

“They raped her to death in front of my eyes,” said Rita, who has not been able to make contact with the girl’s father in Belgium. “Can you imagine for a mother to see that?”

One fighter slashed Rita’s 16-year-old son on the hand. Another grabbed her 14-year-old daughter, who also was raped.

Once a well-established businesswoman who owned a boutique and several cars, Rita said most of her belongings, including her photo album, were looted. Her one cherished possession is a single picture of her deceased daughter, taken when she was 11 months old.

Specialists say that years of war in Liberia have destroyed the ethical standards of much of society.

“All the morals, the cultural norms, everything has broken down that used to keep society together,” said Grant, the British-trained psychiatrist. “Before, you were not the son of one person, you belonged to the whole village. People could beat you if you misbehaved. But now, all that is gone. Abnormality has become normal.”

Under Liberia’s penal code, rape is punishable by a prison term of up to 10 years. But there is no functioning court system, and violators act with impunity.

In the absence of justice, victims would like revenge.

“If I had a brother who had a gun, I would recommend that he shoot them,” said Komasa Jallah, 31, who was raped three times in one day when rebel soldiers captured her hometown in the country’s northern Voinjama district.

She managed to flee to the outskirts of Monrovia, where she was seized by another rebel commander and held as his concubine. She escaped after two weeks and made her way to the soccer stadium with the other rape victims.

Being repeatedly raped often crushes the women’s dreams of marriage and children. Many men shun rape victims, and complications of venereal disease often leave the women sterile, Roberts said.

Raped three times by government and rebel fighters in 2001, 20-year-old Cecelia Nyumah said she now suffers from abdominal cramps and genital pain. The young woman has had three miscarriages. “What happened to me,” she said, “I can’t forget.”