LAC/UMC Condemns High Rate Of Rape, Brutality And Illegal Mining

The Department of Human Rights Monitor of the Liberia Annual Conference/United Methodist Church says it has with grave dismay and utmost disappointment, continues to receive reports of alarming increase in the insanity of appalling inhumanity perpetrated against innocent women, girls and children, and national economy across the country by some unprincipled individuals appealing to so called cultural practices.

According to a release, the Monitor said it is aware of how some wanton and harmful traditional and cultural practices can only be attributed to enemies of goodness and rivalries to sanity.

The release says such harmful cultural actions in question are by all means uninvited and objectionable as their perpetrators in the existing modern trend of society and of the global progress of civilization.

“At the level of the significant progress made forward from a senseless civil conflict in the country, it beats everyone imaginable comprehension that certain uncivilized elements would still emerge with lifted ugly heads to bend on treading a horrific path of nightmares that traumatized this nation, thereby blurring the good efforts at redeeming the image of the country; and sustaining the economic difficulty suffered by the common people.

“It is with grave concern as well that the willful display of needless, lawless and harmful infringements on the rights of innocent people in almost all parts of the country has neither been addressed nor an attempt made thereof, by national government,” the monitor said in a release.

The Monitor lamented that up to the moment, national government is yet to signal a need for proactive intervention, saying “we at the Human Rights Monitor fervently believe that these Stone Age practices have the propensities to not only impede the peaceful co-existence of citizens and violate their individual comforts, but also their continuity could represent horror and traumatize the citizenry.”

“They could as well derail the concerted investment efforts being made my national government thereby scaring and driving away potential investors. Over the most recent times we have sustained our monitoring and taken note of unhealthy acts including in targeted areas,” the Monitor added.

The LAC/UMC Human Rights Monitor also spoke of what it calls the continual unlawful mining of minerals in River Cess County along the Cestos River by aliens, specifically Ghanaians, saying “it appears to be ignored by agencies of government responsible. We have further discovered that in fact, the River Cess scenario is only a case indication of similar acts in Nimba, Grand Gedeh, Bong, Grand Cape Mount and other counties, proving the widespread undermining of our already struggling economy.”

“The brutally inhumane acts committed against two innocent women and others of Liberian nationality in Sinoe County resulting to one death is unbecoming. This must not only be condemned unequivocally but the ongoing efforts at investigation must only end with punitive measures against culprits.

“The continual widespread sexual abuse of babies as young as three years, as well as teenage girls and even older women in ways that can be considered crimes against humanity must be this time around considered with intentional will for achievable justice as opposed to most instances of rape and other forms of domestic violence and gender-based crimes in this country,” the group added.

The Monitor said its investigation has uncovered that the number of sex workers in Kpakoi and Korblee in River Cess County are on the increase to include under age kids, young and old women from diverse backgrounds, all as the result of the influx of the Ghanaians who have settled with less or no families, but using cash violence causing divisions between husbands and wives; and between children and parents.

In furtherance, The Human Rights Department of the United Methodist Church said it reported a little more than two weeks ago on the ongoing illegal mining activities by aliens in River Cess County under the Class “B” level operations on the Cestos River within the towns of Kpakoi and Korblee.

“The investigation has further proven that the miners now have a limited presence in the town of Kpakoi, but much more focused in Korblee where their numbers have continued to increase even over the permanent residents of the town. Interestingly, some influential and thought-to-be trusted citizens and residents of that part of the country are unwilling to speak to the illegal mining process in Korblee with the use of a dredge machines for the apparent reason of fear, and the alleged fact that they are beneficiaries of the activities,” the release added.

“Agents of the Human Rights Monitor have reported the humiliating incident in Sinoe County where the naked bodies of two women were exposed to the public and on social media, leading to the unfortunate death of one of these women. We believe that such acts were barbaric, indecent and unacceptable when compared even to Stone Age orientation. They contradict our thought pattern as a civilized people, because such acts do not represent semblance of the ever-improving progress civilization. We condemn these and all other acts related in the strongest term, alongside all implications for our society and our generations to come.  the brutal humiliation of those two ladies that were seen in a video that went viral on the social media is gross disrespect to human rights and human dignity and value,” the group lamented.