STORY: MASSACRE LOCATION: LIBERIA
DATE: RECENT
DURATION: 2.05
Five years on, the civil war slaughter continues
December 25th, 1994 marked five years to the day that civil war
started in Liberia. The tenth and latest peace treaty was signed
last week, but the massacres continue. On the morning of Thursday
December 15th, rebel troops entered a small residential area of
the Paynesville suburb of Monrovia and, according to witnesses,
slaughtered the women and children who lived there, killing up to
60 people. It is believed that the troops were members of the
Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL). After the attack, the rebels
carried the bodies back into their homes and set them on fire.
Later that morning, the charred corpses were thrown into the backs
of trucks and driven to the city centre. For the people of
Monrovia, this brutal message of terror was too much to bear and
four days later (19/12) hundreds took to the streets in a show of
unity. They called for peace and for an end to the death and
destruction inflicted upon them and their country during five
years of civil war. In response to the massacre, ECOMOG, the
Economic Community of West African States, Ceasefire Monitoring
Group), increased security within the Liberian capital and its
suburbs and bolstered the overnight curfew.
SHOWS:
(MONROVIA, LIBERIA RECENT) WS burnt-out house. Pan exterior
burnt-out house. Remains of civilian clothes on ground. Pan rubble
and scorched debris. Interior window, pan to human ashes on bed.
Pot on floor, pan across wrecked premises. CU discarded helmet
outside on ground. Charred human remains on grass. CU charred
human bones. WS area where rebels are based. Top view marchers in
peace demo. Another view of march along street. Tracking shots
ECOMOG convoy and roadblocks. VS rear views of soldiers in jeeps.
Tracking shots Monrovia centre. Buildings destroyed in Monrovia
during 1992 civil war. Squatters in destroyed building. WS mass
grave of 600 civilians (mainly women and children) killed in
July/August 1990 by Charles Taylor's NPFL. Mass grave sign, pan
down to human skull and bones over grave.
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