With a nearly 15000-strong, robust, UN inter-positional intervention security force (UNMIL) in place, with the Security Sector Reform program well in its third year and nearing completion, and with the concession of the UN that Liberia’s peace and security is key to global and regional peace and security.

Liberia’s security is still fragile and seemingly deteriorating. Violent criminals have literally swarmed the capital and other large urban centers across the country and launch a war of despondency, death, and mayhem.

There are suggestions that the swarm is no doubt undermining the peace process and government’s effort to revive the economy through the revitalization of the private sector. The question many are asking is, “Where all this does leave the security concern of the international community, the government, and the security operations of UNMIL and LNP?”

The Analyst Staff Writer has been looking at some recent incidents of violent crimes in light of this reigning question. 

Monrovia and other large cities in the country are in a state of war with armed robbers taking over nightlife, raiding vulnerable homes, and dispossessing of and/or harming innocent people, victims and observers said here over the weekend.

In the midst of this upsurge of violent crimes, there are indications that the United Nations inter-positional force (UNMIL) that is mandated by the UNSC to ensure public safety by assisting the government of Liberia establish security grids across the country is a shadow of its former self and so is the nation’s police, LNP.

The Analyst has learnt that as vulnerable Liberians flinch in numbing fear of armed robbers and wish the police were up to their statutory obligation to the people and as UNMIL passes the buck of security to the Liberian government, there are indications that the revitalization of the private sector is in danger.

Prospective investors are reportedly folding their briefcases and reconsidering their decisions to invest in Liberia. Reports say the situation has become so grave that residents mainly of the nation’s capital, Monrovia, have resorted to self-imposed curfew as early as 8pm-9pm.

“The situation is so grave that if you are not home by 8-9 p.m. depending on where you live or how far you are from home you may not get a vehicle to get home. Or if you do, you have a 9 out of 10 probability of being waylaid and robbed and/or harmed,” says Logan Town resident Emmanuel Walker who said he works as attendant at a downtown Monrovia nightclub. 

Emmanuel may sound too exaggerated to be believed, but Police Chief Col. Beatrice Sieh and the Acting Commissioner of United Nations Police (UNPOL), Mr. Henrik Stiernblad, suggested last week that he may not be too far from grasping the point of how far security has declined over the last few months.

Rising Incidence of Armed Robbery

“For April 2008, we have already noted 47 cases of armed robbery in the country and this has to be dealt with,” UNPOL Chief, Henrik Stiernblad said during a press briefing at the UNMIL Headquarters, April 16, 2008.

Stienblad said the security of Liberia’s communities and business squares was the responsibility of its security forces but conceded that it was also the responsibility of UNMIL to support the Liberia National Police (LNP) to deal with the upsurge of crime in the country.

He did not say what form and shape the support should take or why it was not forthcoming at this crucial time, but he noted that combating crimes was not about carrying weapons but using experience, intelligence, and in a timely way taking steps to prevent the criminals from doing their deeds.

There, in his view, is no lack of expertise in this regard in Liberia as there are over 600 armed formed police units in the country which can be deployed for any operation that will be conducted by the LNP.

Again the UNPOL Chief came short of saying why UNMIL or UNPOL has not urged or mandated the deployment of the so-called armed 600-strong formed police units but chose to keep quiet as LNP complains about logistics, cash, and arms to launch an effective crackdown on the new wave of armed robbery.

He disclosed that UNMIL and LNP have increased the number of joint patrols to about 41 patrols across the city of Monrovia, but decline to say what impact that increase was having on nighttime violent crimes in Monrovia.

“We will be gathering information on exactly who these robbers are, where they are located and other details. Once we come to the stage when we are ready to do search and arrest, the LNP will take the lead with backup provided by the UNPOL,” the Acting Commander of UNPOL chief said.

According to him, this was a parallel to night patrols around the city that was being put into place by the LNP in collaboration with UNPOL. LNP Inspector General Sieh was in agreement but implied that the police have inherent drawbacks that were likely to hamper their community policing and the overall national security agenda.

“I know that the government is going through a lot of constraints and it has been difficult; however, since the 14th April 2008, the police has only received 450 gallons of fuel from the Minister of Justice for night patrols,” Inspector General Beatrice Munah Sieh during the April 16 press briefing at the UNMIL Headquarters.

	• Col. Beatrice Sieh

She said despite the limited logistics, the police and its partners managed to put into place what she called “Operation Thunder Storm” that is intended to support vigorous clampdowns on armed robbery.

“We are going after these people, we are arresting them and they are going to be processed which is ongoing; but in the end they will be bailed,” Inspector Sieh said, suggesting to observers that she was either dissatisfied with or found the criminal justice system too cumbersome as part of the fight against crimes in post-war Liberia.

She said the operation which coincided with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s concern about increasing armed robbery in the city, has so far netted 18 armed robbers three of whom were lynched by community mobs on Bushrod Island.

Inspector General Sieh then warned the communities against using mob justice against suspected armed robbers in the same breath that she conceded that communities would remain vulnerable because some “3,000 trained and competent police officers who are willing to do their work” were unlikely to be deployed due to the lack of logistics.

She did not say what effect the troop shortage is likely to have on the so-called “Operation Thunderstorm”, which some say is nothing more than a white-washed model of the failed operations “Spider Web” and “Sweeping Wave”.

It may be recalled that President Sirleaf, during a recent state of the nation address, called for a step-up in security patrols and intelligence gathering to put a lid on the rising insecurity and armed robbery in the country.

“There is nothing that pains me more than to see innocent citizens who are trying to rebuild their lives fall victims to these criminals,” the President said.

She then requested UNMIL to be more vigilant and proactive in patrols and ordered the Minister of Justice to do more in terms of logistical support for the police and the strengthening of the effective system of justice.

An LNP source told The Analyst over the weekend that neither has the Justice Minister provided the needed logistics, nor has it done anything to ensure that criminals are speedily prosecuted to prevent people bailing them out only to be found back on the streets and in the community visiting havoc upon innocent Liberians.

Police Drawbacks, Infighting

Inspector General Sieh and UNPOL chief Henrik Stiernblad may be diplomatic about what is hampering police patrols and giving incentives to armed robbers to raid vulnerable communities, but insiders told The Analyst over the weekend that deep-seated mistrust and in-fighting were to blame.

According to police and Justice Ministry sources, LNP has no budget of its own and that all procurements for police operations were being made by the Ministry of Justice, which often act on its own without the input of the police authority.

“Whatever they think the police need that’s what they buy. If the police needs something and they thought it was not necessary even though it was, they would not purchase it. Plus the fact that most of the patrol vehicles are down, the police get only 2.5 gallons of fuel for a night patrol,” the insiders said.

The insiders who are close to the leadership of the LNP and the Justice Ministry said as the result of the lack of logistics, police patrols were poorly-motivated, making response to distress call painstakingly slow and most often meaningless.

“I mean the police is strangulated,” the insiders said, prevailing on the media to publicize the police’s plight for quick action.

They did not say why the LNP authorities were not speaking out and making their case, but they disclosed further that the Justice Minister has appointed his own security advisor who runs separate police operations without consultations with LNP authorities.

	• Cllr. Philip Banks - MOJ

The insiders, implying that pecuniary interest wassuperseding the success of police community operations, then claimed further that even though “Operation Thunderstorm” was launched few months ago, the Justice Ministry has re-launched it because “some money is coming in for the operation”.

The Analyst was unable to verify these claims. The fight and mistrust, naturally, should be between the Justice Ministry and the LNP, but th ere are suggestions that it has expanded to include some operatives of UNMIL responsible for security.

“UNMIL, for its part, has expressed lack of interest in the leadership of the LNP and is calling for changes,” an UNMIL insider told The Analyst over the weekend.

The insider quoting an UNMIL communication said the mission believes the performance of the LNP leadership was not only poor and weak but that there was also a lack of trust within the police.

“The communities have no trust in the police; instead, they fear the police because of weak leadership. Then there is rising corruption. All of this calls for a big shake-up to put in qualify Liberians or foreign nationals, like in the case of AFL, to take charge and impove conditions,” the UNMIL insider who refused to be named “because I’m not the spokesman” said.

When it was put one Liberian security officer whether he thought putting foreign nationals at the helm of the LNP as part of the solution of increasing LNP’s performance was a good idea, he said “No.”

“We will not sit here to allow what happened to the AFL to happen to the police; the present Chief of Staff of the AFL is a Nigerian. If this is the only way they will give the police assistance then we beg to differ,” he said, citing what he called foreign indifference to Liberia’s immediate compelling peace and security as the reason for finding their placement at the helm of administration appalling.

Grisly incidents, Public Outcry, Collective Action

Stanley Seakor is Managing Editor of The Analyst newspaper. He was traveling from Central Monrovia last Saturday night at about 11:45 pm. when his vehicle ran out of gasoline around the Jamaica Road area.

The Seakor’s unsuspecting driver, Otis Seakor, cautiously stepped out of the vehicle with a gallon container and told the two other passengers in the vehicle to stay with his boss who happened to be his brother.

Just as he turned to close the driver’s door behind him, two men stepped out of the jet-black shadows, unknown number of others in the shadows perhaps for backup, machetes at the ready for hacking flesh and bones, and ordered Otis back into the vehicle. The tone as expected was unhurried, dead cold, and ominous.

“Anybody talk in this car will die now, just give the phones and the money on you people,” the man who seemed to be the lead robber said.

According to the victimized managing editor, who said he has for the first time in many years come face to face with the result of a deteriorating security situation, they handed over their cell phones, money, and jewelries to the robbers. He gave no estimate value of the items he said they handed over to the armed robber.

“Can you imagine, vehicles and even UNMIL cars were passing near where we were being robbed,” said Managing Editor Seakor.

He said when the police got on the crime scene later; they were both impotent and apologetic: “Nothing we can do with this situation that is getting too serious in the city because the police are not empowered logistically and armed.”

“On April 18, 2008 at 021hrs, the homes of some residents on the Old Road were attacked by unknown armed men. During robbery, a female was raped,” Police Inspector General Col. Sieh told journalist last week.

The victims who preferred not to be named disclosed that they were raped after the ‘rapists took away valuable items.

“He told me to lie down and sexually abused me in the living room of my house while my fiancé was coping with cutlass wounds he sustained on the other side of the house,” one of the victims said.

Inspector General Sieh said five persons have been arrested and detained in connection with the rape even though she did not give the current status of the case. 

In another instance of violent attack on innocent Monrovians in the vulnerability of their homes and communities, she noted that one Irene Solo and her husband, together with their son, sustained serious body wounds when armed robbers splashed acid water on them in the Perry Street neighborhood in Monrovia. The incident occurred on April 17, 2008.

“On January 12, 2008 at 02001hrs, one Madam Fahnbulleh, a resident of the S. D. Cooper Road Community in Paynesville was attacked by Archie Zondo with the following accomplices; Samuel Toe, Abu Kromah, Prince Tweh and Prince Kennedy and others who are at large,” the LNP boss said.

Zondo, according to her, again led a group of armed criminals on February 1, 2008 to attack one Joseph Henries and family at their Police Academy residence in the Paynesville Community.

She said battling crimes in Monrovia was viciously cyclical because those arrested and detained were soon bailed out only to be caught in other crimes more vicious than the ones for which they were arrested previously.

“These suspects were arrested, charged and forwarded to court only to be found in the streets of Monrovia, thereby sustaining our earlier statement that the armed robbery situation is a vicious circle,” she noted.

Meanwhile reports say increased public outcry against the increase in armed robbery in Monrovia in recent weeks has forced the police to begin holding strategic dialogue with community leaders across the city.

A community-police strategy meeting involving some 20 communities in Monrovia and its environs agreed to pool their efforts in order to end the wave of armed robbery by proffering intelligence information, reporting criminal incidents and movements, and organizing vigilante and community-watch groups.

The meeting, which was facilitated by Grand Kru County Representative in the National Legislature Gbenima B. Slopadoe, hopes to improve the free movement of commuters in the capital by proposing speedy trials for suspected armed robbers and petitioning the National Legislature to enact laws that will make armed robbery a non-bailable offense punishable by life sentence for offenders.

The five-hour meeting with the community leaders also agreed to set up a 5-man task force with the mandate of demarcating Monrovia into five security zones and organizing vigilante or watch groups in the within communities in each zone. 

Community watch or vigilante groups had been used in past situations of upsurge in violent crimes in Monrovia without noticeable success and observers are worried that it may not be success this time.

“Vigilante or community-watch groups can be useful in fighting crimes, especially where the state police is impotent. But experience shows that it will not be too long before the same criminal take over the watch teams and begin intimidating and harassing the same people that are intended to be protected. We saw that before. So we are just going back to square one.

The solution is the police must be armed so that they can fight crimes and criminals,” said community leader Zarwolo Norman of Paynesville. He said UNMIL and the LNP were shadows of their former selves and all that was required now was for UNMIL to go back to its original mandate and stop shifting blames.

“As it shifts blames on the Liberian government and saying that the government should deal with the security situation even though it knows the government does not have logistics to arm and move the police in vehicular patrols, UNMIL is relegating Liberia’s security and undermining its own presence in the country,” Zarwolo claimed further.

All set and done, the police seem hard pressed to fight crimes and even though they complain of the acute shortage of logistics and money to run crack security operations, they released a five-zone emergency reaches to help people in distress reach the police. Here they are.

 Passing the buck?

Even though it does not seem to be lost on UNMIL, the Liberian government through LNP, and the international donor community that Liberia’s peace and security is tied to the overall global and regional peace and security, not much has been achieved more than five years after former cessation of hostilities in Liberia.

So the questions many are asking are, “How has the international community been able to match work with action? Is UNMIL meeting its responsibility to the last sip of its robustness or simply passing the buck to avoid take blame for Liberia’s slide back into chaos?”

	• Special Rep. of the Secretary General Ellen Margrethe Løj

Special Representative of the Secretary General Ellen Margrethe Løj told the Security Council recently that despite significant progress made in maintaining peace in Liberia, further progress is needed in some critical areas, such as security, rule of law, governance and economic development in order to truly consolidate the peace.

“Liberia today is a place of hope, characterized by many positive developments,” she stated. She noted that the security of the country still relied heavily on the presence of UNMIL military and police forces.

“The hope and tranquility we see today is tempered by a tenuous and fragile peace. This is clear evidence that peace has not taken roots and it is not yet time to declare victory and leave the country.”

Giving the fragility of peace in the country, the deputy secretary general told the Security Council that the process of troop drawdown would also ensure that UNMIL is able to assist the government in dealing with any serious disruption or civil disturbances, while providing the time and space needed for Liberia to build up its own police and military forces and progressively assume full responsibility for national security.

SRSG Loj underscored the need to address this comprehensively as the government finalizes the ongoing national security strategy and the reforms of the security institutions.

“Any further delays will make it impossible for the new army to be fully operational before late 2009, and would impact directly on the timeline for UNMIL’s drawdown plan,” she said.

Observers say it was one thing to say that the security of the country still relied heavily on the presence of UNMIL, to realize that the government of Liberia needed time and space to build up its own security forces, but yet quite another to put into perspective the lapse in security and the passing of the buck by UNMIL commanders on the ground.

“Armed robbers have taken over the nightlife of Monrovia and other large cities. It is only UNMIL that is armed in the country and it is only UNMIL, in collaboration with the national police that can fight armed criminals by arresting, detaining, and prosecuting them.

But when you tell UNMIL about rising crimes, it will tell you it is the responsibility of the LNP which is not armed. It resorts to passing the buck as a way of avoiding blame for Liberia’s shaky security situation,” said one observer. 

He said security may be the national focus now but that the revival of the private sector was being undermined by the current argument of who should crack down on Liberia’s new criminal war.

“Business people are reconsidering their decisions to invest in a country like Liberia where violent criminals is being pampered. Many are simply leaving without asking questions. How does government hope to convince investors to invest in this country when the police and UNMIL seem impotent in this situation?

This is ridiculous and the government needs to confront UNMIL on this matter or risk plunging this country into another bloodbath when criminal gangs turn on one another or against whole communities,” said another observer. 

It may be recalled that UNSC established UNMIL on September 19, 2003 when it determined that “the situation in Liberia continued to constitute a threat to international peace and security in the region, to stability in the West Africa subregion, and to the peace process for Liberia.”

With that understanding, it acted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to mandate the “stabilization force”, UNMIL, to …”without prejudice to the efforts of the government, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence” as in the case of the prevailing security situation in the country today.

With that understanding also, it mandated UNMIL to contribute towards international efforts to protect and promote human rights in Liberia, with particular attention to vulnerable groups including refugees returning refugees and internally displaced persons, women, children, and demobilized child soldiers, within UNMIL’s capabilities and under acceptable security conditions, in close cooperation with other United Nations agencies, related organizations, governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations.

With that understanding still, the UNSC mandated UNMIL to ensure an adequate human rights presence, capacity and expertise within UNMIL to carry out human rights promotion, protection, and monitoring activities; to develop a civilian police training programme, and to otherwise assist in the training of civilian police, in cooperation with ECOWAS, international organizations, and interested States.

The decision to establish UNMIL was itself the result of UNSC’s deep concern on August 1, 2003 over the conflict in Liberia and its effects on the humanitarian situation, including the tragic loss of countless innocent lives, and its destabilizing effect on the region.

The decision at the time, as it is now according to observers, stressed the need create a secure environment that enables respect for human rights, including the well-being and rehabilitation of children, protects the well-being of civilians.

Five years on, it is not clear where those fine ideals that went into establishing UNMIL went. Many say those ideals may have spun on their tails, become UNMIL deficiency or indifference, and ultimately turned into blame for the government of Liberia.

SRSG Loj told the Security Council recently that “There is mistrust in the justice and security structures of the country, thus propelling citizens to opt for mob justice.” But the question is, “Where does this criticism leave UNMIL’s original mandate to create a secure environment that protects the well-being of civilians when armed robbers are crawling all over the place despite the force’s robust presence?”

“Whose fault it is when UNMIL sits comfortably on the fence while despite Government’s efforts to enhance the rule of law, ‘deficiencies in the justice system continued to pose serious challenges to the administration of justice country-wide’?” wondered schoolteacher Paul M. Saydee of Clara Town in Monrovia.

Analysts say perhaps when the question of security is discussed, it is important to revisit UNMIL’s original mandate to see how much of Liberia’s security burden it must carry in order to restore security and thus peace to Liberia and safeguard the peace and security of the subregion as part of global efforts for peace and security.

“Unless that happened, unless the issue of security goes beyond the passing of the buck with the hope of staying above blame when the nation slides back into chaos, armed robbers will continue to have field days thereby undermining the nation’s security and UNMIL drawdown schedule.

More so the government is unlikely to pursue with success its economic recovery program with focus on a vibrant private sector revival agenda” they noted.