Skeletons found in Liberia

2004-06-06 09:22

Monrovia - The skeletons of 75 people massacred by former Liberian president Charles Taylor's militia have been found in a football field in northwest Liberia, Catholic-run Radio Veritas reported on Saturday.

The skeletons were found in Suehn-Mecca in Bomi county, about 40km from Monrovia, the report said.

A radio Veritas reporter, who accompanied politician Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to the site on Friday, quoted residents saying government militia had massacred the people shortly after rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) forces retreated in 2003.

"It is disheartening that former government militia could perpetrate such atrocity merely on suspicion that residents were rebel collaborators," Johnson, the only female presidential candidate in the 1997 elections, told Radio Veritas.

Government forces are reported to have rounded up the residents, including children and shot or hacked them to death on suspicion of supporting the rebel LURD.

Only residents who fled into the bushes are believed to have escaped the massacre.

Militia loyal to exiled, former president Taylor are reported to have turned their anger on innocent civilians when they sustained casualties on the battlefield.

According to the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, the most credible rights group in Liberia, Taylor's militia are also believed to have rounded up hundreds of civilians shortly after LURD rebels retreated from the provincial town of Tubmanburg and massacred them on the banks of the Maher River on the Monrovia Tubmanburg motorway in 2003. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA