From Recruitment to Reintegration: Communities and Ex-combatants in Post-Conflict Liberia

Abstract

In disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes, return to home communities is a normative given, around which reinsertion and reintegration support is planned. Yet such an approach is oblivious of pre-war social dynamics of rebel recruitment and civilian experiences of rebel abuse and coercion. These manifest as important sources of social tension between communities and combatants in the post-war period and complicate reintegration. This research shows that the ‘recruitment–reintegration’ nexus offers a key variable for explaining tensions between civilian communities and ex-combatants in post-conflict Liberia, and could be leveraged in future efforts to improve DDR programmes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank all my respondents and research partners for their time, patience and willingness to participate in the research process. Special thanks are due to Mr Allan Quee and Shri Upjit Singh Sachdeva for invaluable support with my field research.

Notes

For a detailed analysis and critique of the Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Rehabilitation (DDRR) programme (2004–09) in Liberia, see Kathleen M. Jennings, ‘The Struggle to Satisfy: DDR through the Eyes of Ex-combatants in Liberia’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.14, No.2, pp. 204–18; Kathleen M. Jennings, ‘Unclear Ends, Unclear Means: Reintegration in Post-war Societies: The Case of Liberia’, Global Governance, Vol.14, No.3 2008, pp. 327–45.

In Liberia, ‘community’ refers to local units of governance, such as chiefdom, clan and township. The township is an associational entity with some sense of collective identity and common purpose based on residence. In the northwest (Lofa), townships comprise several (5–10) ‘descent groups’ linked by marriage alliances. In the southeast (Grand Gedeh) individual descent groups tend to establish separate settlements, but with marriage alliances linking numerous small townships. See Paul Richards et al., ‘Community Cohesion in Liberia: A Post-war Rapid Social Assessment’, World Bank Social Development Papers, 21, 2005, 13 May 2010 (at: www.humanitarianinfo.org/liberia/mediacentre/press/doc/Liberia%20Rapid%20Social%20Assessment.pdf), p.29.

While DDR is the generic terminology used in most countries, in Liberia DDRR was the official term used.

Agencies for negotiated community access included: the International Organization for Migration, Child Fund Liberia, International Rescue Committee and American Refugee Committee (Lofa); Save the Children (SC-UK), Liberian National Red Cross and Action Aid Liberia (Grand Gedeh); Young Men's Christian Association, and Equip (Nimba); Landmine Action and United Nations Mission in Liberia Civil Affairs (Sinoe) Mercy Corps (Margibi and Montserrado); and SC–UK and Justice and Peace Commission (Bong).

James Pugel, ‘What the Fighters Say: A Survey of Ex-combatants in Liberia’, UNDP Liberia, 2006, 10 May 2008 (at: www.lr.undp.org/undpwhatfighterssayliberia-2006.pdf); Morten Bøås and Ann Hatløy, ‘Getting In, Getting Out: Militia Membership and Prospects for Re-integration in Post-war Liberia’, Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol.46, No.1, 2008, pp.33–55.

See, e.g., Christopher Clapham, ‘Introduction: Analysing African Insurgencies’, in Clapham (ed.), African Guerrillas, Oxford: James Currey, 1998, pp.1–18; Mats Utas, ‘Sweet Battlefields: Youth and the Liberian Civil War’, Uppsala: Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, Uppsala University, 2003; Morten Bøås, ‘The Liberian Civil War: New War/Old War?’, Global Society, Vol.19, No.1, 2005, pp.73–88; Mary Moran, Liberia: The Violence of Democracy, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania University Press, 2006; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (TRC), Final Report Volume II, 2009, 12 May 2011 (at: http://trcofliberia.org/reports/final-report) provides important narratives of the violence.

Interview by author with Town Chief, Duogee Town, Gbarzon District, Grand Gedeh, 27 Oct. 2009.

Interview by author with Chairlady, Duogee Town, Gbarzon District, Grand Gedeh, 27 Oct. 2009.

Lawalazu has 400 houses for a homogenous Loma population of about 7,000. For an in-depth discussion about Lofa's internal ethnic cleavages, see Augustine Konneh, ‘Citizenship at the Margins: Status, Ambiguity, and the Mandingo of Liberia’, African Studies Review, Vol.39, No.2, Sept. 1996, pp.141–54; Jonathan Temin, ‘Building and Sustaining Stability in Lofa County Liberia’, Review of African Political Economy, Vol.31, No.102, 2004, pp.711–15; Morten Bøås and Ann Hatløy, ‘After the Storm: Economic Activities among Children and Youth in Return Areas in Post War Liberia: The Case of Voinjama’, Fafo Report 523, 2006, 13 Mar. 2008 (at: www.fafo.no/pub/rapp/523/523.pdf).

Interview by author with Town Chief, Lawalazu Village, Voinjama, Lofa, 19 Sept. 2009.

The TRC defines several categories of violations were used to code incidence. They range from forced displacement, to assault, torture, killing extortion, looting of goods, and rape among others, TRC (see n.6 above), pp.130–34.

Ibid., p.134.

Ibid.

Interview by author with XCSGG13, Bartejan Gold Camp, 27 Oct. 2009.

TRC (see n.6 above), pp.133–34.

William Reno, ‘Patronage Politics and the Behaviour of Armed Groups,’ Civil Wars, Vol.9, No.4, 2006, pp.324–42.

Ibid.

See Anders Themner, ‘Dangerous Liaisons, Why Ex-Combatants Return to Violence: Cases from the Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone’, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2008 for a detailed discussion on RUF and CDF involvement in the LURD.

Ibid.

Interview by author with XCSB12, Gbaota, Bong, 4 Oct. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSM5, DBH, Monrovia, 23 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSS10, Panama, Sinoe, 29 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSS, Camp 2, SRP, Sinoe, 30 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSB7, Kpakolokoyota, Bong, 15 Sept. 2009.

For analysing the dynamics of community acceptance in Liberia further, see Alpaslan Özerdem and Christopher Maclay, ‘“Use Them or Lose Them”: Engaging Liberia's Disconnected Youth through Socio-Political Integration’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.17, No.3, 2010, pp.343–60; Nikkie Wiegink and Hugo De Vries, ‘Breaking Up and Going Home? Contesting Two Assumptions in the Demobilization and Reintegration of Former Combatants’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.18, No.1, 2011, pp.38–51.

Interview by author with XCS 15, Lawalazu, Lofa, 19 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with civilian [CI 30], Pouh's Town, Gbarzon District, Grand Gedeh, 28 Oct. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSS5, Camp 2, SRP, Sinoe, 30 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with XGSGG3, Zwedru, Grand Gedeh, 27 Oct. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSM12, Randall Street, Monrovia, 4 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSB14, Gbaota, A 99 village, Bong, 15 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with Ms Kumba Komon social worker (CWC) attached to Equip in Pouh's Town, Grand Gedeh, 27 Oct. 2009.

Interview by author with Chief, Lawalazu, Lofa, 19 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with civilian [CI 30] (see n.27 above)

Interview by author with Traditional Leader of Poro Society, Voinjama, Lofa, 24 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with civilian [CI 30] (see n.27 above)

Interview by author with Mrs Kamara, Director, Women's Aid Inc., Monrovia, 8 Sep. 2009.

Interview by author with XCSL5, Mandingo Quarter, Voinjama, Lofa, 21 Sept. 2009.

Ms Kumba Komon (see n.32 above).

Interview by author with civilian [CI10] resident of Lawalazu village, Lofa, 24 Sept. 2009.

See, Caroline Bledsoe, ‘No Success Without Struggle: Social Mobility and Hardship for Foster Children in Sierra Leone’, Man, Vol.25, No.12, pp.70–88; Magnus Jörgel and Mats Utas, ‘The Mano River Basin Area: Formal and Informal Security Providers in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone’, Stockholm: Swedish Defence College, 2007.

Interview by author with XCSL4, Lawalazu, Lofa, 24 Sept. 2009.

See Krijn Peters, ‘Footpaths to Reintegration: Armed Conflict, Youth and the Rural Crisis in Sierra Leone’, Wageningen: unpublished PhD thesis Wageningen University, 2006; Paul Richards, ‘“To Fight or Farm?” Agrarian Dimensions of the Mano River Conflicts (Liberia and Sierra Leone)’, African Affairs, Vol.104, No.417, Sept. 2005, pp.571–90; Paul Richards, ‘Rebellion in Sierra Leone and Liberia: A Crisis of Youth?’, in Oliver Furley (ed.), Conflict in Africa, London: Tauris, 1995, pp.134–70.

Interview by author with Traditional Leader of Poro Society, Karza, Lofa, 24 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with Mr Washington Zeah, Save the Children UK Liberia, Zwedru Office, 29 Oct. 2009.

William P. Murphy, ‘Secret Knowledge as Property and Power in Kpelle Society: Elders Versus Youth in Africa’, Journal of the International African Institute, Vol.50, No.2, 1980, p.199.

Richards et al. (see n.2 above).

Christian K. Højbjerg, ‘Inner Iconoclasm: Forms of Reflexivity in Loma Rituals of Sacrifice,’ Social Anthropology, Vol.10, No.1, Feb. 2002, pp.57–75.

Pentecostalists are mainly the Loma Christian converts in Lofa county.

Rosalind Shaw, ‘Displacing Violence: Making Pentecostal Memory in Postwar Sierra Leone’, Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 22, No.1, 2007, pp.65–92.

Karza village conflict resolution meeting attended with UNMIL Civil Affairs, Voinjama, 24 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with Mr Sowoh, Youth Leader and Member of Child Welfare Committee, Pouh's Town, Grand Gedeh, 28 Oct. 2009.

See Alcinda Honwana, ‘Let us Light a New Fire – Local Knowledge in the Post-war Healing and Reintegration of War-affected Children in Angola’, Christian Children's Fund Angola, Luanda, 1998.