Religion & Media in Liberia's Civil War

I AM HAPPY to be chosen to share my experiences with you on the Liberian war, and to delve further into the impact of the war on journalists and the role played by the religious community.

I find myself best suited to speak on this topic because, throughout the crisis, I lived and still continue to live in Liberia and have a first-hand experience as a journalist to be able to say how many of us were affected by the civil war. Like most of my other colleagues, I was directly affected and had to stay away from home and my family for weeks because of clashes between the warring factions in my residential area.

Since the late 1980s, early 1990s and up to early 2000s, the sub-region witnessed political instabilities, specifically with the four Mano River Union (MRU) countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast) being at the epicenter of these crisis.

Since its formation by freed black slaves in the 1800s, Liberia had been a citadel of peace and stability in Africa. The nation cracked this enviable tradition in a most brutal and horrific way, when the nation’s civil crisis broke out leading to the death of thousands of people, including journalists.

The outbreak of the Liberian crisis was followed by similar crisis in Sierra Leone, Guinea and then to Ivory Coast. In countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone for example, the belligerent forces were split based on tribal and religious lines, although on the other hand religion played a vital role in the resolution of the crisis in these two countries. I will dwell briefly on how religion helped end these conflicts later on in my speech, but let me talk about how religion interplay with these crisis.

In Liberia, religion complicated the war and became one of the key factors that prolonged it. Religion caused massive death and destruction and deaths in the war because at some point in time people became targets or were eliminated merely on the basis of their religion.

In the early 1990s, tribal and factional groups that saw each other as rivals went to the extent to prosecute the war based on their religious beliefs because their fighters were drawn to their factions or forces based on where they were established, who the leaders were, and the religion of the group.

For example, during the first course of the Liberian civil war in the 1990s, the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), which became the second largest warring faction in the country reportedly got much of its backing and support from Liberia’s neighbor Guinea with most of its members and fighters hailing from the majority-Muslim Mandingo ethnic group. This made the force (ULIMO) to appear as a Muslim organized warring faction, although in fact it had members from other religious groups in key positions.

Additionally, it was generally believed among warring groups that they should come together in a more unify manner to protect their members and the faith they practice since in fact it became obvious that some people were being murdered or targeted based on their religious affiliation, which could be determined also by the faction they support or back in the crisis.

A classical example of such a division was the battle for control of Monrovia in 1996, when Liberia’s second largest warring faction next to Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), split into two groups based on religious and tribal lines opposing each other militarily for control of the city. What is ironic, is that one of the breakaway groups within the ULIMO faction, which had earlier opposed Mr. Charles Taylor, joined him against the other splinter group in that battle.

The two groups were ULIMO-K, headed by the only journalist to lead a Liberian warring faction Mr. Alhaji Kromah, who is Muslim and is now a professor of Mass Communication at the University of Liberia. The other was ULIMO-J, headed by the late Roosevelt Johnson, a former school teacher from the Krahn Ethnic group in Liberia.

Members of these two groups just did not see each other as military rivals, but they felt that they were contending for religious supremacy as well and were under obligation to defend their members including people sharing their faith.

Another example of how religion interplay in the Liberian crisis came a decade later in the crisis of 2003, which led to the forceful departure from the country of former President Charles Taylor. It was a war from three fronts. The players were government troops loyal to President Taylor on one hand, and the two rebel groups: the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), which drew most of its support from the Muslim community and headed by Sekou Konneh, a Muslim who traveled between Liberia and Guinea, as well as the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), which was based in southeastern Liberia and headed by Thomas Yaya Nimely, a former certified Nursing Assistant who later became Minister of Foreign Affairs in a power sharing government. Nimley was a Christian.

That war was also prosecuted based on religious grounds, as it was said that government troops targeted people who were Muslims after the LURD rebels launched the insurrection. Additionally, it was widely believed among the government fighters that the LURD rebels were Muslims hailing mainly from Guinea, where they drew support from the government of the late Lassana Conteh.

This perception on the part of the government forces, who claimed on many occasions that when they repel rebel attacks, the rebels run into Guinea for safety, soon began to harass and attack Muslims, alleging that they were supporters and sympathizers of the main rebel group LURD and its largely Muslim, Mandingo character. This made the war to appear at some point in time as if it was a Muslim versus Christian clash.

The Role of Different Religious Communities In the Conflict

Despite the fact that religion prolonged the civil war in Liberia and caused great havoc in the process, it also played a pivotal role in finding a resolution to the civil conflict in the country.

It was the Liberian Council of Churches (LCC), a body consisting of Christian leaders and the Inter Religious Council, which consist of both Christian and Muslim leaders, that stood in the forefront in organizing important peace negotiations and lobbying with African and world leaders on the need to find a quick and lasting solution to the crisis.

The efforts of these religious communities convinced other West African leaders to send in a peace-keeping force. They also succeeded in the organization of a number of interim administrations to lead Liberia to a democratic process and helped stabilize the situation.

Furthermore, these groups succeeded in bringing the warring factions together and made them realize that dialogue was the way out of the crisis, rather than continuous fighting.

Despite spiritual differences between these religious groupings, they began to work together under one banner calling on factional leaders to act collectively in bringing the war to an end and offering prayers at churches and Mosques on behalf of the nation to end the crisis.

Christian and Muslim leaders began to preach against the atrocities and cruelty of the war, condemning the killings and destruction it has caused and calling on factional leaders to pay heed to the call of the people to cease fire and end the war immediately. Christians and Muslims began to come to the realization that irrespective of their differences, they needed to cooperate with one another using their religious influences in the country to ensure there is peace and stability.

Group like the Women in Peacebuilding Network WIPNET, a civil society group consisting of Christian and Muslim women joined in the effort for peace and became a cooperative and effective group in pressurizing the Liberian warring parties during the Accra Peace talks to sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the war in 2003.

It’s important to note that while the religious community played such a pivotal role in finding a solution to the crisis, the body also experienced some of the worst atrocities and destruction caused by the war.

Just to cite a few, churches and mosques were attacked and burnt and in some cases worshipers or people seeking refuge in these worship places were massacred. In Liberia, one of the most notable massacres in a worship center occurred at the Lutheran Church Compound, where it is said that the government forces under the late former President Samuel Doe, massacred a number of people who were suspected of sympathizing with the rebel forces trying to oust his government.

Also, during the course of the country’s civil war, five American Catholic Nuns who had been working in the country before the outbreak of the civil war in 1989 were gruesomely murdered in Mr. Charles Taylor’s NPFL rebel control area, prompting the Catholic Church as well as the United States government to pressure factional leaders to ensure peace and stability in the country.

The Effect of the War on Journalists

Like most of their colleagues in the sub-region, the Liberian media was confronted with intimidation, death and destruction before the outbreak of the country’s civil war, but the pains and agony caused by the war on the media community will forever remain memorable in the history of journalism in the country.

Let me cite a few instances where the Liberian media suffered harassment and intimidation before the outbreak of the civil war just for the record and to educate you that the suffering and pains media personnel have undergone just did not start from the war.
 
It will interest you to know that Liberia is probably the only country or one of the only countries in the region, where a journalist has stayed in jail for up to 15 years for his independent writing. That journalist was C. Fredrick Taylor, Editor of the Independent African Nationalist Newspaper published in Monrovia in the 40s.

His crime was writing an editorial opposing the re-election of former Liberian President Williams V.S. Tubman in 1948, when it became increasingly clear that the President was seeking a second term.  He was imprisoned in 1951 and was later released with other political prisoners, who the government claimed were trying to assassinate the President.
 
Others like the late Tuan Wreh, a young and talented journalist who later became a politician, was arrested and imprisoned on similar charges. Soldiers forced him to carry human feces around Monrovia until the process nearly drove him insane.

Additionally, Journalists like Charles Gbeyon, a television producer with the state owned Liberia Broadcasting System (ELBC/TV) was gruesomely killed while performing his journalistic duties, during the infamous 1985 failed coup/invasion against the government of slain President Samuel Doe.
 
Some of the nation’s leading publications, the Daily Observers, The Inquirer [where Patrick was employed] and the New Democrat Newspapers were attacked with arson and ordered to cease publication by successive Liberian administrations as a move intended to silence the independent press in the country.

These are just a few of many cases I could cite to demonstrate the Liberian media's struggles and hard times, which were difficult even before the civil war compounded the problem.

The war years themselves paralyzed the work of the media to a large extent.  It divided the media, and made the media not appear credible, dependable and trusted. Journalists suddenly found themselves on various sides of the conflict and under territorial control of a belligerent faction, and to preserve their own safety, they were forced to promote the ideology of these groups, thereby compromising independent journalism.
 
In fact the media was divided primarily into two groups during the first course of the Liberian civil crisis in the 90s. Those who were considered “Monrovia Journalists,” because they operated in the control area of the interim government backed by the ECOWAS peace keeping forces centered in Monrovia.  The remainder were part of what was referred to as “Greater Liberia Journalists” who operated in the area held by Mr. Charles Taylor and his forces in rural Liberia.
These two groups of journalists saw each other as servants of competing interests, despite the fact that the media on an overall basis should serve and uphold the public interest. This division made movement difficult for journalists as those who attempted to cross over to the other side of the divide were suspected of spying. A journalist on either side of the divide could have been harassed and tortured, or in some instances killed, if they were found on the other side.

Another effect of the war was an exodus of journalists from the profession. Sincerely speaking, the bulk of the country’s highly trained and most respected journalists were forced to flee the country for fear of being killed and due to the suppression of press freedom and democracy in the country. This institutional brain drain has created a deep gap in media professionalism, a fate other professions in the country have also suffered. Others left in search of greener pastures because the civil war de-capitalized the media. We will need to infuse enormous capital into the operation of the media and into better incentives if we are to attract these professionals back in the profession.

The umbrella organization of journalists in the country, the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), published an assessment report in 2003 showing that combatants had massively looted media institutions during the civil crisis. Vehicles and other equipment were carted away leaving media houses in a deplorable state and forcing many media institutions to concentrate on re-developing their institutions and replacing what was lost. Moreover, for those newspapers that were able to publish during the course of the civil war, sales declined due to the collapse of the economy and collapse of business advertising.

Infrastructure failures, such as the loss of electricity, also disastrously affected the media during the crisis. Many media institutions still have to rely on private electricity sources, since the country’s hydroelectric dam was destroyed during the war. This gets very expensive for most media institutions in a society where sales are always poor due to the growing poverty caused by the war.

The infrastructure challenges also extend to the printing process itself. Liberian media contend with a limited number of printing presses, and those who control the presses demand high prices be paid in US dollars, even though the newspapers collect their revenue in the comparatively low value Liberian dollars.

Additionally, let me not the human toll of the war. Some journalists were manhandled and brutalized to death in the execution of their respective duties.

The BCC Liberian Correspondent, journalist John Vambo, who reported from Monrovia on the crisis in the 90s, was allegedly beaten by ECOWAS peace keepers for reporting on an incident that a rocket fired by Mr. Charles Taylor’s NPFL landed near the interim government headquarters in Monrovia. The peace keepers were angered and claimed that his report endangered the life of the peace keepers and the head of the interim government, who was University of Liberia Professor Dr. Amos Sawyer.

Vambo was taken abroad for treatment but died few days later from wounds sustained from the alleged flogging.

Others, like seasoned television journalists Tommie Raynes and Moses Washington, all with the State Broadcaster, Liberia Broadcasting System, were killed by rebel fighters under mysterious circumstances when they tried to escape the country. Their bodies are yet to be found.

Another BBC reporter Nyenti Allison, who was escaping the fighting was held captive by rebels for days and reportedly mistreated. He was later released and is now in the United States.

Journalist Sebo Daniels of the Touch Light Newspaper, the nation’s first daily after the crisis in the early 90s, was held captive in Mr. Charles Taylor’s NPFL control area on suspicion that he was a spy. He was intimidated and it took the intervention of the leadership of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) before he was released.

The war displaced some many journalists and most of them have to survive under taxing conditions. Some have died from starvation and other from common diseases because the collapse of the media industry left them with nothing for livelihood. Others in the “Greater Liberia,” died from air raids launched by the regional peacekeeping force ECOMOG.

I was forced to stay away from my family for several weeks in central Monrovia because I could not cross a strategic bridge to go to the outskirts of the city, where I reside. The bridge was a tense battle ground for control of Monrovia, and no one who was not a fighter dared to cross that bridge. I had to stay in central Monrovia displaced by the fighting for months until the peacekeepers arrived and the bridge was finally declared opened. I had no clothes and had to survive with friends who were actual residents of Monrovia.

Conclusions

Despite of the significant progress made in Liberia to sustain the peace and bring the people together, the nation is still experiencing the pinches of the civil war.

For instance, deep division of intolerance for religion brought about by the war is still visible in most parts of country. A clear example of this occurred in February 2010, when Muslims and Christians based in northern Liberia clashed when some Christians reportedly attacked a Mosques after the remains of a teen age girl was discovered in the area.

It was alleged that the girl was killed by some Muslims for ritualistic purposes to open a new Mosque. The Christians aggravated over the girl’s death reportedly attacked the Mosque and an Imam. When the Muslims retaliated, it led to a Muslim and Christian clash. There was massive destruction in the area with the burning down of several worship places, residential and business centers.

One of the war's most persistent legacies is the high degree of suspicion and mistrust among Liberians.