Lurd Rebels Commit Terrible Abuses – Human Rights Watch

Liberian rebels physically, sexually and psychologically abused five nurses whom they held for three months in 2002, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Thursday. The nurses, staff members of the non-governmental organization Merci, were given a “choice” between joining the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) as fighters or becoming “wives” of rebel soldiers, HRW said. “All of them were physically, sexually and psychologically abused,” HRW said. “Refugees in Sierra Leone who fled Liberia in July-October 2002 also provided eyewitness accounts that LURD systematically imposed forced labor on threat of wounding or death. They told of abductions, “disappearances” and forced recruitment by LURD rebels in Lofa County.” “The treatment of these women is just one example of the terrible abuses being committed by LURD,” Peter Takirambudde, executive director of HRW said. “Such crimes must stop.” Full Story