Fears for safety of students in Liberia

Amnnesty International has voiced concern about the safety of student protesters detained by security officers after a raid on the University of Liberia in Monrovia in March.

Dozens of students were reportedly whipped and beaten and women students were stripped naked after the special operation division, a unit of the security forces, brought to a halt a peaceful demonstration in support of four imprisoned journalists. The journalists, who worked for the Liberian newspaper The News, were detained and charged with espionage after publishing an article criticising the government's spending on spare parts for helicopters while delaying the payment of several months' wages to civil servants.

According to reports, students and professors were indiscriminately whipped and beaten, while some students were seen being taken away by the antiterrorist unit, an élite unit that has frequently been implicated in political killings and cases of torture. Amnesty International UK's director Kate Allen has called on the Liberian authorities to ensure that no student is held incommunicado or tortured and to release any student who is still being arbitrarily held.

Neil Durkin, a spokeman for Amensty International UK, said, "It is often students who are at the blunt end when it comes to political repression or challenge. A healthy civil and political culture is often dependent on a vibrant student culture on campus-any challenge to that, as is taking place in Liberia, is very worrying indeed."

This is the latest incident in the recent escalation of internal repression in Liberia, with critics of the government including students, journalists, human rights defenders, and political opponents labelled as dissidents and being subjected to physical and verbal abuse. It is not the first time that students have been at the end of government attempts to clamp down on political criticism in the past year.

The increased intolerance of criticism and subsequent repression of critics comes as a result of the publication of a United Nations report in December 2000. This accused Liberia of profiting from the illegal trade in Sierra Leone which funds the current war, and also of providing military support to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)-the armed opposition group in Sierra Leone which is responsible for widespread human rights abuses. Following the report the UN security council ordered the Liberian government to cease providing military support to the RUF, expel RUF members from Liberia, and stop the import of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone. A UN resolution has threatened a ban on diamond exports from Liberia and travel for senior officials unless the government complies with the security council's demands. The ban will come into effect this month.

Deborah Cohen, Manchester


studentBMJ 2001;09:129-170 May ISSN 0966-6494