LIBERIA: Journalist, three others arrested

U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

LIBERIA: Journalist, three others arrested

ABIDJAN, 27 June (IRIN) - Four people, including a journalist, were arrested
on Monday and were being held incommunicado by security authorities in
Liberia on suspicion of associating with the rebel Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), Amnesty International (AI) reported.

They were harassed and arrested by two plainclothes men, reportedly from the
Criminal Investigation Division of the Liberia National Police, AI said in
an urgent action appeal on Tuesday. "They ... may be at risk of torture or
ill-treatment," Amnesty added.

The journalist, Hassan Bility, is the editor of the Analyst newspaper in the
Liberian capital, Monrovia. Amnesty said that, according to a news report on
a local radio station, he was picked up on suspicion of "...operating a LURD
terrorist cell in Monrovia".

It said that Bility had been arrested, questioned and detained twice in the
past. The Analyst, it added, had been closed down twice for publishing
articles deemed critical of the government.

The human rights watchdog expressed concern for the safety of the four men
and urged the authorities to release them immediately or charge them with a
recognisable criminal offence, and to ensure that they were not ill-treated.

A diplomatic source contacted by IRIN in Monrovia said he feared Bility's
life could be in "jeopardy" since security authorities had been saying that
he had given names of some of his alleged "associates". The source said:
"This shows the authorities could be using some brutal means to get the
information. They have said he was the ringleader of the LURD cell in
Monrovia and that he had been in communication via e-mail with the LURD
rebels on plans to assassinate Liberian President Charles Taylor.

"Bility and the others arrested are members of the Mandingo ethnic
community. The authorities have denied targeting the community. He is being
held as an unlawful combatant so he can be held indefinitely."

Mandingos are one of the main ethnic groups in Lofa, the county in
northwestern Liberia that has seen the bulk of the fighting between forces
loyal to Taylor and LURD rebels over the past three years. Mandingos
reportedly made up a significant portion of the United Liberation Movement
of Liberia, a former rebel group that fought against Taylor's forces during
Liberia's faction war (1989-1996) and which is said to be part of LURD.

The diplomatic source said the public had been "warned against making
statements or commenting about the arrests because 'it is a matter of state
security'."

The source also reported security authorities as saying that 22 other people
"who had been planted into President Taylor's security system with the aim
of assassinating him" were also being held and were under investigation in
an undisclosed location.

According to AI, journalists, human rights defenders, and people deemed
critical of the government were under constant threat of being arrested,
detained without charge and tortured. It said since Taylor declared a state
of emergency in early February, there had been increased repression of
government critics, suspected dissidents and alleged LURD collaborators.
[ENDS]