A weeping woman told commissioners of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission how fighters of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy-Johnson (ULIMO-J) faction beheaded her brother after he refused orders to have sexual intercourse with her.

Testifying recently at Public Hearings in Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County, the victim, (name withheld) said when ULIMO-J fighters captured the city in 1993 she and her brother escaped and while en route to Monrovia they encountered a checkpoint where he was ordered to have sexual intercourse with her.

“The fighters ordered my brother to have sex with me. I was very scared and I began to tremble. They told him that if he refused they will kill him, but he still refused. I was too scared for his life but he told the fighters he could not have sex with me,” the petrified witness told the bewildered audience in the Robertsport City Hall.

Rebecca said her brother pleaded with the fighters to spare his life, but they insisted that he either carry out their orders or be killed.  “He cried and cried for them to spare his life, but none of them could listen to him. They said he should either have me or else he will be killed,” the witness explained.

She said upon his refusal, the fighters ordered him to lie down between her legs and he was beheaded. The witness said she saw her brother struggle as one of the fighters slit his throat with a sharp knife.

After they cut his throat half way, she explained: “His blood splashed all over my body.” Rebecca said she wept profusely leaving behind the body.

She explained that after she left the rebel’s checkpoint, she encountered another group of rebels who sexually assaulted her using their genitals and other blunt objects following the discovery of a $50.00 JJ Roberts Liberian banknote in her possession.

She said the rebels who accused her of being a spy of another faction flogged her with cutlasses causing her wounds before they ordered her to strip herself naked. In words which are indecent to repeat, Rebecca explained that the fighters raped her and then used sticks and other objects in her genital.

“I beg them to leave me but they still put me at gunpoint. They used sticks and other things on me. I cried hard but they refused to listen. After they left me, I was bleeding for three months and I can still feel pain in my body,” the witness said.

TRC is an independent body set up to investigate the root causes of the Liberian crisis, document human rights violations, review the history of Liberia, and put all human rights abuses that occurred during the period from 1979 to 2003 on record.

Their mandate is to also identify victims and perpetrators and make recommendations on amnesty, prosecution and reparation. The hearings in Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County which marked the end of the commission’s Public Hearings in the 15 political sub-divisions of Liberia was held under the theme: “Confronting Our Difficult Past, For A Better Future.”

UN Boss Draws Attention To Women’s Health

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon has been commenting on the health situation women around the globe are faced with, saying that the rate of death for women remains “the starkest indicator” of the disparity between rich and poor.

	• UN Secretary Ki-Moon

In his message on World Population Day, he said they are aware as to what is needed to be dome to meet the basic health needs of women throughout their life cycle, especially during what he called “during the reproductive years, pregnancy and childbirth.”

The UN Secretary General said there are three interventions necessary to improve maternal health skilled attendance at the time of birth, facilities to provide emergency obstetric care and family planning.

“Forty years ago, world leaders proclaimed that individuals have a basic right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children.  Millennium Development Goal 5, improving maternal health, affirms this right and yet shows the least progress to date. 

On World Population Day, let us focus on the critical importance of family planning if we are to successfully achieve the Millennium Development Goals,” Mr. Ban said.

He said family planning is a fundamental component of reproductive health as it allows for determining the spacing of pregnancies.  “Studies show that family planning has immediate benefits for the lives and health of mothers and their infants. 

Ensuring basic access to family planning could reduce maternal deaths by a third and child deaths by as much as 20 per cent,’ he said.

According to him, the benefits of family planning remain out of reach for many, especially for those he said often have the hardest time getting the information and services they need to plan their families, such as the poor, marginalized populations and young people.

He added that demand will only increase, as more than one billion people ages 15-24 enter their reproductive years. At the same time, the UN Secretary General called on governments to honor the commitments made at the International Conference on Population and Development.

It may be recalled that at the Cairo Conference, nations agreed that all couples and individuals have the basic human right to not only decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children, but also to have the information, education and means to do so. 

“As we intensify our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, let us take action to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015.  Let us devote greater attention and resources to the work to improve the health and quality of life for all people,” he concluded.