Cyberspace: New frontlines for Liberian “war criminals”
A decade and half old brutal war that left nearly 300,000 dead and ruined whatever infrastructures left of the economic-deprived West African nation of Liberia, no doubt created deep mistrust and hatred between key war-actors and their victims now living abroad, mainly, the United States. Even though the bloodbath ended more than a decade ago, however, the war of words continues, this time not in Liberia itself, but in cyberspace.
“This battle was won militarily and will be won intellectually,” wrote Mr. Varfley Dolleh on the OLM Listserv social media (Jan. 25/14). Dolleh, a current Trenton, New Jersey resident who at the height of the conflicts served as ULIMO liaison officer and a special Aide to ex-warlord Alhaji G.V. Kromah, rallied his fellow Mandingoes in a “jihadist militant style” to join him fight their “enemies” which in this case, consisted of Liberians of other ethnic groups who criticized Dolleh’s disbanded rebel movement for carrying out extra-judicial killings of civilians trapped in the faction’s controlled territories during the civil war of the 90s.
Social media critics who spoke to this writer about “social ills” resulting from the war seemed to agree on one thing; that it can be very agonizing for people victimized by the conflicts to hold normal discussions with those they suspect somehow played key roles in the torture and murder of their relatives. “Even more tormenting is when such suspected ‘war criminals’ refuse flat-out to exhibit any sense of remorse for egregious acts they may have done to their victims but choose instead to abusively use social media to denigrate bully their victims’ relatives,” said one critic on condition of anonymity.
This is exactly the scenario that has played out in the Liberian diaspora community in the U.S. since last January after a Liberian owned internet radio programing known as Liberia Diaspora Forum (LDF) invited former ULIMO-K warlord Kromah, also a professor at the University of Liberia, to speak on contemporary “issues of national concern.” |
United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy
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| Alhaji Kromah: Warlord/Rebel Leader: ULIMO |
The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy
(ULIMO) was a rebel group that participated in the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1996).
ULIMO was formed in May 1991 by Krahn and Mandingo refugees and soldiers who had fought in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) fighters.[1] It was led by Alhadji Kromah and Raleigh Seekie, a deputy Minister of Finance in the Doe government. After fighting alongside the Sierra Leonean army against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), ULIMO forces entered western Liberia in September 1991. The group scored significant gains in areas held by another rebel group – the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), notably around the diamond mining areas of Lofa and Bomi counties.
From its outset, ULIMO was beset with internal divisions and the group effectively broke into two separate militias in 1994: ULIMO-J, an ethnic Krahn faction led by General Roosevelt Johnson, and ULIMO-K, a Mandingo-based faction led by Alhaji G.V. Kromah. ULIMO-J was poorly ruled, which led to leadership struggles and general discontent among its fighters. It had approximately 8,000 combatants. ULIMO-K was relatively united under Kromah, in contrast to the fractious nature of the ULIMO-J. It had approximately 12,000 combatants.
The group, both before and after its breakup, committed serious violations of human rights.
ECOMOG Mobilized ULIMO Fighters To Fight Against Charles Taylor in Liberia And To Attack AFRC/RUF In Sierra Leone, Former ULIMO Fighter Testifies
Charles Taylor’s 15th defense witness commenced his testimony today, telling the Special Court for Sierra Leone judges that Nigerian led West African peacekeepers mobilized several fighters to attack Mr. Taylor’s forces in Liberia as well as rebel forces in Sierra Leone during the conflicts in the West African region.
The witness, who is a Liberian by birth with Sierra Leonean parents, is testifying with partial protective measures and therefore identified only by Pseudonym Number DCT-190. He told the court that he was a member of one of the rebel factions in Liberia – the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia, loyal to Roosevelt Johnson (ULIMO-J).
According to the witness, sometime in 1998 when skirmishes broke out between ULIMO-J leader Mr. Johnson and Mr. Taylor, Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) peacekeepers provided ULIMO-J leaders with arms, ammunition, and trucks to attack and overthrow Mr. Taylor’s government in Liberia. read more |
The present standoff is between two groups: one comprised of mostly Liberians with Mandingoe origin, who uncompromisingly proved to be die-hard supporters of Mr. Kromah, while the other consists of social activists and even journalists but belong to diverse ethnic groups of the country. The row particularly centered on the dubious roles one Varfley Dolleh and Alhaji Kromah played during the war.
Kromah’s supporters are not at all feigning their patronage for the ex-warlord whose Mandingoe-dominated ULIMO-K forces according to the country’s TRC reports based on eyewitnesses, carried out some of the most gruesome massacres of civilians.
Warlord Kromah’s “fanatics” are unique in many ways.They have even endorsed titles like “Kromah’s fanatics,” and “self-appointed defenders” of Mandingoe people given them by fellow social media critics. Most of all, scores appeared to be newcomers to social media and thus, barely care to observe simple social etiquettes, let alone States and US Federal regulations prohibiting the abuse of “internet usages.” Indeed, in several instances, Kromah’s “fanatics” have used foul languages against opponents, including females whose views differed from theirs. And that’s not all.
The ULIMO-K “fanatics” have also turned to the use of downright malicious falsehood and character defamation against opponents as way to disrupt these “debates” or dissuade the other parties. Their opponents know them to be short-tempered and quick to turn combative when the circumstances do not dictate aggression. They often veer from topics under discussion and also threaten rivals with “death” and physical “harm” if the argument doesn’t go their way.
Social workers spoken to said, behaviors such as “short-temper,” frequent use of “foul languages” against women, “threats of bodily harm” as well as taking on “combative posture” amid normal exchanges as shown by “Kromah’s fanatics,” all point to the likelihood that some may have participated in active combat.
Psychologists linked such traits to “militias” who may not have gone through proper counseling and demobilization process after the Liberia’s brutal ethnic war. They see a compelling correlation (between “fanatics and active combat), reasoning that some of Kromah’s “fanatics” may have possibly served as “child soldiers” in Kromah’s ULIMO-K rebel army some 21 years ago.
It is obvious that many of those who now flock to social media claiming to be “intellectuals” were in fact “rebels” who may have committed heinous crimes during the war, observed, Massa Washington, former Liberia’s TRC commissioner, now a clinical therapist in Philadelphia. She categorized such group as “social misfits.”http://www.nanews.net/uncategorized/cyberspace-new-frontlines-for-liberian-war-criminals/ |
