Liberia's peace threatened

2009-07-08 09:48

Monrovia - Long-standing land disputes have fuelled ethnic tension in northern Liberia, which some fear could flare into armed conflict and threaten the country's fragile peace following two civil wars.

The spats are over property in Nimba County on the border with Guinea, a region that saw some of the heaviest fighting in the 14 years of bloodshed and where animosity still runs deep.

Pointing to a nearby house, Mamadee Fofana, a Mandingo - one of the area's three main ethnic groups with the Manos and Gios - tells his story.

"I have lost every piece of land I had before the war," he said.

Fofana was among thousands who fled to Guinea to escape bloodshed during the 1989 to 2003 conflicts, which claimed some 250 000 lives nationwide.

Like many others, he returned home two years ago.

Sensitive matter

"When I came there was somebody else on my land. He is a Mano. When I went to ask him, he took (up) the machete against me," Fofana said.

The current occupant has a different story to tell.

"This land belonged to my grandparents," said Wilfred Saye.

"My grandparents gave this land to Mamadee's parents when we were all kids."

According to local Mano and Gio tribal chief John Gbartu, the Mandingos started arriving in Nimba from Guinea in the 1940s looking for cola nuts and were welcomed and made to feel at home.

"As our tradition wants it, we gave them the centre of the town and we went at the back. But at that time there was no document business," Gbartu said.

He has urged the national government in Monrovia to get involved in the property spats. "The war is over. We are talking to our children but it is a very sensitive matter that only government can resolve," he insisted.

A very serious issue

The mainly Muslim Mandingos, who make up 20% of the population of Nimba, lived in harmony with the mixed animist and Christian Manos and the Gios for many years. But the mood changed in the 1980s after then president Samuel Doe labelled the Gios and the Manos as enemies of his regime.

"Mandingos supported the regime of Doe, consequently they became enemies of Gios and Manos," Gbartu explained.

The ethnic rivalries worsened during the devastating wars that ravaged Africa's oldest republic, which was founded by freed slaves from America in 1847.

Manos and Gios backed the rebel National Patriotic Front (NPFL) of Charles Taylor who ousted Doe from power. After Doe was executed, many Mandingos joined another anti-Taylor group, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels.

"This is how Mandingos' houses were burnt down by the NPFL and Manos and Gios homes were burnt down by the LURD," tribal chief Gbartu said.

"My grandparents gave the land out of hospitality when Mamadee's parents migrated from Guinea in the 1960s. But during the war the same Mandingos came and burnt down our houses," he said.

Many who fled into Guinea were Mandingos. But when their repatriation under peace provisions started in 2005, many returnees found their homes occupied by Manos and Gios.

"This land problem is a serious issue here in Nimba county," warned county superintendent Robert Kamei, "a very sensitive issue that could lead to serious security problems if not handled properly."

Special fund

In 2008 the Liberian government set up a special county-level commission with political leaders from the three ethnic groups to find a solution.

The tension has sparked riots in Nimba in recent years, and commission head Musa Bility fears that if the rows drag on, they could draw in allies of both sides and spread trouble elsewhere in the country.

"This is a serious, very serious challenge to reconciliation. If we do not resolve this issue, obviously there will be new war," he said.

The commission presented its report to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf last month, recommending the government set up a special fund to relocate people within Nimba County after they strike a deal with the mediators.

It also asked the government to make land available where these people could be re-housed. While Sirleaf endorsed their suggestions and promised to find funds, it is unclear how or when the money will come to Nimba, in an impoverished nation trying to rebuild its infrastructure.

The commission meanwhile continues to try to arbitrate in the land quarrels, but observers said as long as funds and new property are not available tensions will remain high in the region.

"Ethnicity and land disputes are issues the authorities need to look in carefully and meticulously if they want to achieve everlasting peace in this country," Liberian sociologist James Nimely said.

- AFP