National Patriotic Front of Liberia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
National Patriotic Front of Liberia
Leaders
ULIMO
Liberia LPC
Liberia LDF
ECOWAS
Battles and warsthe Liberian Civil War

The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was a

Charles Taylor,[1] a former Liberian politician and guerrilla leader who served as the 22nd president of Liberia
from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003.

The NPLF was responsible for a vast array of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mass murder, rape, sexual slavery, conscription of child soldiers, torture, and political assassinations. Over 60,000 human rights violations committed by the NPFL were formally recorded by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.[2][3]

Leadership

Charles Taylor
National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL)
Founded by
amputations, torture
AlliesRUF

The military aspects of NPFL were led by

Taylor and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize for supporting the non-violent struggle for the safety of women to participate in peace-building work.[4] Tom Woewiyu served as the Defense Minister and spokesman of the NPLF and worked to justify the rebel group's mission and objectives to high ranking foreign officials.[5] Martina Johnson was one of the NPFL front line commanders and allegedly directly participated in mutilation and mass killing in late 1992 during an NPFL offensive known as Operation Octopus.[6][7]

External actors

The rise of NPFL was supported by African countries and leaders that extended far beyond Liberian borders. In the early stages of the NPFL, the rebel group was backed notably by

Taylor and Compaoré, NPFL troops were actively involved in the 1987 Burkina Faso coup d'état and assassination of the then Burkinabé President Thomas Sankara. Journalist Mark Huband, who was kidnapped by the NPFL while reporting in Liberia, notes in his book The Liberian Civil War that Compaoré's involvement in the war suited his Francophone fellow leaders who were as eager as France to confront the Anglo-Saxon presence in the region by promoting a rebellion that was certain to dilute American influence in West Africa.[12]

In the early 1980s, Liberia was also considered one of America’s most important African allies. During the Reagan administration, Liberia played a pivotal role in the United States' efforts to counteract Gaddafi's Libya, which had been identified as a state sponsor of terrorism. Liberia served as a staging ground for a CIA task force against Gaddafi's socialist regime. To facilitate covert aid to the Angolan rebel movement UNITA, the United States upgraded Roberts Field airport and utilized the Kamina and Kinshasa air bases in Zaire as key transit points. In exchange for its cooperation, the Doe regime in Liberia received substantial financial assistance from the United States. From 1980 to 1985, Liberia received nearly $500 million in military and economic aid, which amounted to one-third of its operating budget.[13] At the time, this rendered Liberia the largest recipient of U.S. aid in sub-Saharan Africa on a per capita basis.

Ethnic divides

Following a series of coups d'états attempted by

Krahn soldiers loyal to Doe.[15]

Taylor gained control of a large portion of the country and became one of the most prominent warlords in Africa.[17]

Membership

According to estimates, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia boasted a membership of approximately 25,000 combatants, and its actions were associated with a range of

Charles Taylor in developing the leadership positions of the organization.[18]

Support

The NPFL rapidly expanded from a small force of a few hundred troops to a vast, irregular army that controlled almost 90% of Liberia within a year due to significant domestic support. NPFL efforts to capture the capital city of

Prince Yormie Johnson. The INPFL
troops were estimated to number less than 500, yet rapidly gained control of parts of central Monrovia.

Operation Octopus

On 15 October 1992, the NPFL launched "Operation Octopus" in a bid to overrun the capital Monrovia, Charles Taylor ordered the NPFL and the Small Boys Unit (SBU), composed of child soldiers, to attack opponents Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), and the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) forces. Although the NPFL never maintained long-term control of the capital, the group controlled the neighboring cities and countryside in addition to Liberia's rich natural resource deposits. Only one month after the fighting began, the World Health Organization estimated that up to 3,000 civilians and combatants had been killed.[19] The SBU was composed of children as young as ten and twelve years old who were drugged by Taylor's men and trained how to throw grenades and shoot AK-47s overnight.[20] Intense fighting occurred both within the city and its outskirts, with Gardnersville, Barnersville, New Georgia, and Caldwell suburban regions being particularly hard hit by the rebels. Approximately 200,000 people were displaced due to the conflict.

National Patriotic Liberation Front fighters search for ULIMO soldiers in Monrovia.

The urgency of the conflict in Monrovia compelled ECOMOG to adopt a new defense strategy by enlisting the aid of other Liberian factions in combatting the NPFL. However, the human rights record of these factions, namely the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) and the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), were questionable. The AFL had been discredited due to its heinous abuses during the 1980s and especially during the First Liberian Civil War, where it massacred civilians and wreaked havoc in Monrovia. Similarly, ULIMO, which was an offshoot of the AFL, reportedly conducted attacks on civilians, looting, and executions of suspected NPFL sympathizers in the areas it captured in 1992.

Although the formal connections between the AFL and ULIMO remain unclear, it is worth noting that most of ULIMO's key commanders were former AFL leaders, and many AFL soldiers apparently left their barracks to join ULIMO.

Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) to undertake a peacekeeping intervention. Subsequently, a peace agreement was signed in 1996, paving the way for democratic elections on 19 July 1997.

Political aspirations

National Patriotic Party
Pan African Parliament
0 / 5

Liberia's seven-year civil war was brought to an end by the democratic

election with a substantial majority, winning 49 of 64 seats in the House of Representatives and 21 of 26 in the Senate.[24] While international observers deemed the polls administratively free and transparent, they noted that it had taken place in an atmosphere of intimidation because most voters believed that Taylor would resume the war if defeated. Taylor's electoral victory was met with allegations of unjust practices, such as giving handouts to the destitute and illiterate electorate, yet he claimed victory with 75 percent of the total votes cast.[25]

References

  1. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt1t6p5wp
    .
  2. ^ "Trial Monitoring: Thomas Woewiyu". Civitas Maxima. 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  3. ^ "Liberia: The Cycle of Abuse: Human Rights Violations Since The November Cease-fire (Human Rights Watch Report, October 21, 1991)". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  4. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2011". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  5. ^ "Trial Monitoring: Thomas Woewiyu". Civitas Maxima. 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  6. ^ "Martina Johnson". Civitas Maxima. 2020-10-16. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  7. ^ "Belgium/Liberia: War Crimes Arrest Major Step for Justice". Human Rights Watch. 2014-09-19. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  8. JSTOR 20033486
    .
  9. ISSN 1468-2621
    .
  10. OCLC 230835016
    .
  11. ISSN 1057-610X
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-7146-4340-3
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-521-88238-5
    , retrieved 2023-05-01
  14. OCLC 43070924
    .
  15. OCLC 43070924
    .
  16. ISSN 0028-6583
    . Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  17. ISSN 0013-0613
    . Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  18. ^ "RUF Consolidated Indictment - Special Court for Sierra Leone". 2007-09-27. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  19. ^ "Waging War to Keep the Peace: The ECOMOG Intervention and Human Rights (Human Rights Watch Report, June 1993)". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  20. ^ Dukule, Abdoulaye W. (October 12, 2001). "Anniversary of Terror: October 12 - Operation Octopus". theperspective.org. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  21. ^ "Waging War to Keep the Peace: The ECOMOG Intervention and Human Rights (Human Rights Watch Report, June 1993)". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  22. ISBN 978-1-62196-854-2
    .
  23. OCLC 38270637
    .
  24. ^ "LIBERIA EMERGING FROM THE DESTRUCTION: Human Rights Challenges Facing the New Liberian Government" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. November 1997. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  25. ^ "Charles Taylor | President of Liberia | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-04-29.

Further reading

  • Elizabeth Schmidt, Foreign Intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror, 2013[1]
  • Sawyer Amos, The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia: tragedy and challenge, 1992[2]
  • Stephen Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy, 2001[3]
  1. ISBN 978-0-521-88238-5
    , retrieved 2023-05-01
  2. OCLC 24701327.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  3. OCLC 43070924
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Patriotic_Front_of_Liberia&oldid=1187508268"