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Liberia: Deputy Unmil Boss Warns Against Mob Violence
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Benjamin B. Sworh
Monrovia
Deputy United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General to Liberia, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu has warned against mob violence in Liberia.
She gave the warning Wednesday when she spoke at a one-day forum on attacks on police and police stations in the country.
Ms. Mensa-Bonsu said mob violence would not be tolerated in Liberia, because it is not just.
The UNMIL Deputy boss who gave the overview of attacks throughout the country, described mob violence as a criminal conduct which turns other law-abiding citizens into criminals.
She observed that the act compromises the ability of the law to deal with offenders when a police station, which is a manifestation of the authority of the state, is vandalized.
Ms. Mensa-Bonsu explained that officers of LNP were being assaulted during the arrest of suspects and in the course of investigation, police stations were burnt down or vandalized by citizens either protesting against police action or during the attempt of citizens to forcefully release criminals.
Ms. Mensa-Bonsu said in April 2007, about 200 persons stormed the Bong Mines police station and demanded the release of a suspect and later ended up burning down the station.
In September 2007, a group of 250 persons armed with wooden sticks, cutlasses and stones broke into the Harbel police depot and demanded the release of a murder suspect to kill him.
According to her, about 400 persons broke into the Tappita police depot and attacked the station in an attempt to use extra legal means to deal with some murder suspects.
She said in the process, the police station was set ablaze and one person was burnt to death while UNPOL and several LNP officers were injured and a vehicle damaged.
She also noted that in March this year, police depot in Rivercess came under attack on account of the arrest of one person, but noted that based upon the intervention of UNMIL, the situation was put under control.
She said from January to February this year, there were nine attacks on police stations, while the statistics of attacks on police officers for the same period shows 23 in Monrovia and its environs.
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The UNMIL deputy boss noted that there were 56 attacks in just one year.
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