LAC Accused of H’Rights Violations - Citizens
Vow Mass Action
Forum
Monrovia, Liberia
Distributed by
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
Addressing journalists recently in a press conference hosted by six human rights organizations in Monrovia, three representatives from the areas – Junior Davids, Fred D. Tukou and their colleague said LAC security have arrested seven persons from their districts and are presently in detention at the Buchanan prison.
They accused the management of using its militia forces to arrest the
local people at will for their refusal to leave their ancestral land LAC
is said to be encroaching upon for its plantation extension.
According to Junior Davids, he was jailed in the container by LAC security
for five hours without charge thus rendering him to intense suffocation
before he was released.
To corroborate this information or claim made by the residents, the representatives
of Green Advocate, Foundation for International Dignity (FIND), Center for
Democratic Empowerment (CEDE), Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy
(FOHRD), Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) and Liberia Democracy
Watch (LDW) said in their assessment in the area they saw the burning down
and destruction of villages where cash crops have been destroyed without
prior informed consent and compensation.
They told journalists with the help of video clip that since 2001, LAC has
been engaged in the expansion of rubber plantation across Zloh Creek in
Zeewein Clan in District #3 as a result of this project, “The villages
of Gbaiafein, Zeowon, Flojoe, Gbor and Nahn have been burned down by order
of the management.”
They said the drinking water of these villages has also been poisoned through the application of chemicals and fertilizers by the LAC management.
Meanwhile, the citizens said if the LAC management continues to encroach on their land they will use every available means to resist it and called on the Liberian government to revisit the contract agreement, saying, “We are not squatters; this land belongs to us, adding, “war may come again if LAC continues with its forceful eviction.”
When the management of LAC was contacted via cell phone, there was no comment as its phone rang for some times before going off.
