Liberia: Information officer beaten by police

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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ACTION ALERT - LIBERIA

6 July 2004

Information officer beaten by police

SOURCE: Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Accra

**For further information on the closure of Radio Veritas and Star Radio,
see IFEX alerts of 15 and 2 August 2001, 20 and 16 March 2000**

(MFWA/IFEX) - On 4 July 2004, a group of police officers acting on the
orders of Police Director Chris Massaquoi beat Bernard Warity, deputy
information minister for administration in the National Transitional
Government of Liberia (NTGL) headed by Charles Gyude Bryant.

Warity sustained bruises on his body and is being treated at the St. Joseph
Catholic Hospital in the capital, Monrovia.

Speaking to MFWA-Liberia from his hospital bed, Warity explained that the
incident occurred at 6:00 p.m. (local time), when he was returning from
watching a World Cup qualifying soccer match between Liberia and Togo. The
police director was also returning from the match when he allegedly ran into
Warity's car with his jeep. According to Warity, Massaquoi got out of his
vehicle and ordered his bodyguards to drag and flog him. He claimed that the
police director refused to recognise him despite his vehement appeals and
desperate attempts to identify himself as a government official.

BCKGROUND:
Warity and Massaquoi are both civil society representatives in the
power-sharing transitional government. Warity is one of two nominees from
the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) serving on the NTGL. He was previously a
reporter with the privately-owned station Star Radio, until 15 March 2000,
when the national police detachment under Charles Taylor, the Special
Operation Division (SOD), raided the station's premises, scrambled its
transmission signals and seized its equipment for allegedly "being agents of
people bent on creating security problems in Liberia." The Catholic
Church-owned Radio Veritas, which was also shut down the same day, was
subsequently allowed to resume broadcasting, but Star Radio has yet to come
back on air.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to authorities:
- condemning the police attack on Warity
- calling on President Bryant's government to institute a full-scale
investigation and punish Warity's assailants

APPEALS TO:

H. E. Charles Gyude Bryant
Chairman, National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL)
C/o Mr Spencer Browne, Information Officer
Tel: +37747 518538 / 551074
Fax: +231 226 076 / 226 789

Hon. William Allen
Interim Minister of Information
Tel: +37747 543096

Cllr. Kabineh M Ja'neh
Minister of Justice & Attorney General/R.L.
Tel: +227 06 53 33 28

Hon. George Dweh
Speaker, National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA)
Tel: +37747 533589

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.

For further information, contact Jeannette Quarcoopome, Media Foundation for
West Africa, P.O. Box LG 730, Legon, Ghana, tel.: +233 21 24 24 70, fax:
+231 21 22 10 84, e-mail: [email protected], Internet:
http://www.mfwaonline.org

The information contained in this action alert is the sole responsibility of
MFWA. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
MFWA.
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