After an in-depth investigation of the ECOWAS the way it operates and a taste of its history I wanted to research about a specific problem in which one of the members has been involved, the Liberian Civil War.
The following essay will introduce what is Liberia and its relationship with the ECOWAS, and after a description of the conflict and how it has raised I will try to state the role of the Economic Community Of Western African States within this issue.
Liberia, officially known as the Republic of Liberia, is a country located on the West African coast. It is limited by Sierra Leone to its west, Guinea to its north and Ivory Coast to its east, the Atlantic Ocean to its south. It covers an area of 111,369 and has a population of approximately 4,700,000 people. English is the official language but there are also over 20 indigenous languages which are spoken, representing the numerous ethnic groups who make up more than 95% of the population. The capital of the country and largest – and best-known – city is Monrovia.
The Republic of Liberia was created as a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), who thought that black people would have better opportunities for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. The country declared its independence on July 26, 1847. The U.S. did not recognize Liberia's independence until during the American Civil War on February 5, 1862.
The colored people who went to stablish to Liberia carried their culture and tradition with them. The Liberian constitution and flag were modeled after those of the U.S. Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a wealthy, free-born African American from Virginia who settled in Liberia, was elected as Liberia's first president, on the January of the 1848. Liberia is the oldest modern republic in Africa.
In the last decades Liberia has suffered an internal conflict, The First Liberian Civil War in its territory, went from 1989 until 1997. The conflict meant the death of about 250,000 people approximately and eventually led to the involvement of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and of the United Nations. The peace did not last long, and in 1999 the Second Liberian Civil War broke out.
The First Liberian Civil War started because of Samuel Doe, who was a military leader, had led a coup d'état that overthrew the elected government in 1980, and in 1985 held elections that were considered internationally as fraudulent and unfair, because the result was known before the elections, obviously Samuel Doe was going to be the next president of the Republic of Liberia. During the first years of Doe’s mandate a different coup d’état was done by Thomas Quiwonkpa, the former Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia whom Doe had demoted and forced to leave the country. He tried to overthrow Doe’s power, but he was unsuccessful.
After some years, in December 1989, former government minister Charles Taylor moved into the country from Côte d'Ivoire, the neighbor state, to start an uprising with the aim of toppling the Doe government.
Taylor's forces, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) battled against Prince Johnson's rebel group, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) – a faction of NPFL – for control in Monrovia. In 1990, Johnson seized the capital of Monrovia and executed Doe.
Peace negotiations and foreign involvement, UN and ECOWAS took part in the conflict, led to a ceasefire in 1995 that was broken the next year before a final peace agreement and new national elections were held in 1997. Taylor was elected President of Liberia in July 1997. But the peace did not last too much since, in 1999, the Second Liberian Civil War started.
In the following part I will focus on the role of the foreign institutions in the war. The ECOWAS decided to took part in it, nevertheless ECOWAS is an economic region, because of the following reasons:
- Member states of ECOWAS were frightened of the regional instability that was inevitable due to the overflow and displacement of refugees in neighboring countries. General Erskine of ECOMOG (Military Observer Group sent by the ECOWAS) stated that, “with the crisis in Liberia creating unbearable refugee problems for Sierra Leone, Ghana, the Gambia, Guinea, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, it is obvious that the situation in Liberia has gone beyond the boundaries of the country and ceases to be an exclusive Liberian question.”
- The election of some West African leaders to take part in the Liberian crisis as single states, the said that involvement aimed to be humanitarian. In its Final Communiqué, the Standing Committee gave humanitarian reasons for its decisions, adding that, “presently, there is a government in Liberia which cannot govern and contending factions which are holding the entire population as hostage, depriving them of food, health facilities and other basic necessities of life.”
- The third reason stated for the intervention was based on the 1981 ECOWAS Protocol concerning to Mutual Assistance in Defense. Regarding to Article 16 of the beforementioned Protocol, the Head of State of a member state under attack may request a response through actions or assistance from the community.
Aside the mentioned motives there were specific motives for each country, there were some countries (members of the ECOWAS) who wanted to take part in the issue because they had specific motivations for doing so.
Finally, the ECOWAS decided to use the ECOMOG as a way of intervening, but this raised a controversial issue, ECOMOG’s deployment in Liberia created significant questions about its legitimacy and authority, neutrality, and if it was useful. Even though the intervention signified a peacekeeping force, the consistent denial by NPFL of ECOMOG’s compromised neutrality undermined its authority in Liberia. As early as October 1990, the neutrality and peacekeeping nature of ECOMOG was in doubt especially when it was seen as taking an “active” role in alliance with the INPFL and AFL.
On 9 September 1990, who was known as the origin of all this conflict, Samuel Doe was captured, tortured and then killed by INPFL.
Concerning the diplomatic sector, ECOWAS was forced to begin a long and slow research for the efficient formula that would unify the country under free, fair and democratic elections. The institution tried several times, the first attempt came with peace talks in Bamako, Mali on 27 November 1990 and the promise of the Interim Government of National Unity under Amos Sawyer, with ECOMOG providing a security zone for it around Monrovia. Two other peace talks were held at Lome, Togo on the 12 February 1991, and Monrovia, Liberia on the 15 March 1991.
However, all three talks were not successful because of, in part, Charles Taylor’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the interim government and his claim that he should be president since he controlled over 90% of Liberia and he was the real president and he had to be, there was no option. These refusals coming from Taylor, created a higher tension within the situation since it seemed that it was stuck.
These tensions were translated into massacres and thousands of deaths and aiming to reduce the tensions and solving the problem the UN Security Council established an Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) which was to remain unarmed, while ECOMOG troops were to provide their security. This was the first joint UN/regional peacekeeping mission. It was the first time where the United Nations enrolled in a co-operation with a peace-keeping mission already set up by another organization, in this ECOWAS.
Years later, in August 1995, the main parties signed an agreement, at a conference sponsored by ECOWAS, the United Nations and the United States, the European Union, and the Organization of African Unity (in this moment the issue became international as we can see in the foreign institutions which took part). Surprisingly, Charles Taylor agreed to a cease-fire and a schedule to demobilize and disarm his army.
In 1997, the citizens from Liberian elected Charles Taylor as their President after he entered by force the capital city, Monrovia. Liberians had voted for Taylor hoping that he would end the bloodshed. The bloodshed did slow considerably, but it did not end, nevertheless the First Liberian Civil War did arrive at its end.
Concluding, after all the research and reading I have done I summarized more or less the narrative of the war and also the participation of the foreign institutions, focusing on the institution I have worked about in the other part of the project, ECOWAS, comes to my mind one question, the ECOWAS intervention was a success or a failure?
REFERENCES
- Cyril I. Obi (2009) Economic Community of West African States on the Ground: Comparing Peacekeeping in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Côte D'Ivoire, African Security, 2:2-3, 119-135
- E-International Relations. (2018). Violent Peacekeeping: An Evaluation of the Performance of ECOWAS in the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1996). [online] Available at: http://www.e-ir.info/2013/09/05/violent-peacekeeping-an-evaluation-of-the-performance-of-ecowas-in-the-first-liberian-civil-war-1989-1996
- Sites.tufts.edu. (2018). ECOWAS and the Subregional Peacekeeping in Liberia | The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance. [online] Available at: https://sites.tufts.edu/jha/archives/66
- Wippman, D. (1993). Enforcing The Peace: ECOWAS and the Liberian Civil War: Collective Intervention in Internal Conflicts. In L. F. Damrosch (Ed.), Enforcing Restraint: Collective Intervention in Internal Conflicts Council on Foreign Relations Press.
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