SUMMARY
During the conflict for government power in Liberia, the ULIMO – J became embroiled in inter-factional fighting as well as the use of one-sided violence against civilians. The group also committed widespread atrocities of other sorts, such as rape, the looting and burning of villages, and involvement in large-scale illicit commercial activities such as mining and smuggling.
The established reasons for the ULIMO – J's violence against civilians stem from a variety of factors, but can be best summarised into categories of ethnic and economic motivations.
In the sphere of one-sided violence with an ethnic motive the general explanation brought up by analysts is that the ULIMO – J's mainly Krahn cadres became embroiled in the ethnic nature of the Liberian civil conflict. The Krahn ethnic group had been systematically promoted during Liberian President Doe’s regime, and when the NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia) began its rebellion against Doe it in many instances targeted civilians of Mandingo and Krahn ethnicities. In retaliation the Krahn-dominated ULIMO – J targeted many Mandingos and Gios as they captured territory during the fighting.
This ethnic dimension can however not account for the entirety of the violence perpetrated against civilians (especially since all violence did not follow the ethnic divides), and a second powerful motivator commonly used as an explanation is the economic one. Looting was common all through the Liberian civil conflict, and served as a way to enrich not only individuals, but also the different factions involved in the fighting. In addition to the loot which could be gained from attacking villages and cities there were also substantial amounts of financial resources to be levied through controlling border areas (a necessity for smuggling) and mining and timber areas from which to extract natural resources. Thus, many of the factions of the Liberian civil conflict would use one-sided violence as a method of seizing and controlling such valuable territories.
Other motives for violence against civilians can be found on the individual level. Some analysts view violence against civilians in the Liberian civil conflict also as a way of settling personal grudges with perceived enemies or wrong-doers, or the simple pursuit of personal power, in an anarchical environment of opportunity.
Looking at how the violence was actually carried out exposes a few general patterns, such as the indiscriminate use of small arms fire, hacking and stabbing weapons such as machetes and summary executions. Villages would commonly be surrounded and attacked, with indiscriminate killing, looting, and burning following. At many stages during the Liberian civil conflict ‘warfare’ was characterized more by attacks on civilians, than by actual armed combat between contesting groups of soldiers.
ULIMO – J first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1995, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in mid-March that year when the group attacked and killed around 50 civilians in Grand Cape Mount County.
