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Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) - History

The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) evolved from the Liberian Frontier Force (LFF). The Liberian Frontier Force was the agency for tax collection and the enforcer of government fiat. The idea for collecting taxes was for the Americos not get bogged down in the dirty work of extracting forced labor. Therefore, members of the Liberian Frontier Force were mainly from the tribes, initially the northern tribes. First there was a language barrier. Then gradually Krahn people joined the Frontier Force.

The organization of the Hinterland and the effort to establish effective control there through indirect rule had come as a direct response to British and French intervention in the region. Another product of Liberia's territorial disputes with the two colonial powers was the formation of the Liberian Frontier Force (LFF) in 1908. The mission of the 500-man force was to patrol the border in the Hinterland but, more important, it was organized to prevent the sort of disorders that invited intervention. The LFF was placed under the command of a British officer, who recruited most of his troops in Sierra Leone. The French initially regarded the LFF as a "British army of occupation," but their demand that French officers and colonial soldiers be assigned to it as well was disregarded.

The record of the LFF was checkered. Although the LFF was effective in putting down disturbances in the border areas, its conduct was so undisciplined and its tactics were so ruthless that they engendered unrest. Unpaid and poorly supplied, soldiers lived on their own from what they could steal and extort. Annual hut taxes were collected several times a year, depending on the requirements of troops in a given area. Corrupt district commissioners used the LFF to raid and pillage village and steal livestock. Troops under their authority were employed in rounding up men for forced labor on roads and government farms and for porterage. Reports of abduction of women by soldiers were common. In 1910 the Grebo clans rebelled and appealed to the British governor of Sierra Leone to proclaim a protectorate over them, citing specifically the depredations committed by "this execrable force." (The Liberian government took precautions at this time against the possibility of a pro-British coup by its opponents in Monrovia.)

Another outcome of the commission's report was an undertaking by the United States to sell arms to Liberia and to reorganize the LFF. In 1912 a black officer in the United States Army was assigned to train and comrnand the reequipped LFF; several other black American soldiers were attached to offer their "moral comradeship." Few Americo-Liberians served in the LFF, and units were recruited on a tribal basis for assignment to garrisons outside their own areas. The LFF showed its mettle under American command in crushing the Kru revolt of 1915 in which rebel forces were decimated and ringleaders captured and hanged. A United States naval officer assigned to investigate the incident in which American personnel had taken part reported that the revolt by the Kru had been provoked by heavy taxation and the petty tyranny of Liberian authorities and appointed clan chiefs. His report was also critical of the Liberian government's failure to carry out promised reforms in native African affairs.

Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL)

The nominal mission of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) has historically been to defend and guard the country's borders, safeguard national security, and protect tine population from threat or aggression, although in 1980 the AFL's duties were expanded by the soldiers' foray into government. In 1984 the operational elements of the AFL included the Liberian National Guard Brigade and related units, which had a combined manned strength of approximately 6,300, and the Liberian National Coast Guard's total complement of about 450 men.

The AFL (and the former LFF) had long reflected the stratification of the society: officer ranks were dominated by Americo-Liberians, while the enlisted ranks were composed of Liberians of tribal origin. This composition changed gradually in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the time of the coup, the officer corps could no longer be considered an exclusive preserve of Americo-Liberians. By 1984 it was estimated that approximately 300 of the nearly 500 officers in the AFL had been promoted from the enlisted ranks since the coup.

On paper, at least, the Liberian government retained a military character because important civilian officials have regularly been commissioned as officers in the AFL. The practice began in July 1981, when Doe traded his master sergeant's stripes for general's stars at the same time that ministers became majors and deputy ministers were given the rank of captain.

During the 1980s the LNG Brigade, usually referred to as the army or the AFL Brigade, was the heart of the ground forces. Headquartered at the Barclay Training Center (BTC) in Monrovia, the brigade was composed of six infantry battalions, an engineer battalion, a field artillery battalion, and a support battalion. Three of the infantry units -- the First Infantry Battalion, stationed at Camp Schieffelin 35 miles east of Monrovia, the Second Infantry Battalion at Camp Todee in northern Montserrado County, and the Sixth Infantry Battalion at Bomi Hills -- were tactical elements designed to operate against hostile forces. Soldiers attached to the other infantry units -- the Third Infantry Battalion based at the BTC, the Fourth Infantry Battalion at Zwedru in Grand Gedeh County, and the Fifth Infantry Battalion at Gbarnga in Bong County -- served mostly as auxiliary personnel. Soldiers in these units were used extensively as policemen, customs and immigration officials, and tax collectors. In addition, many Third Infantry Battalion soldiers were used in the Monrovia area to guard installations or to serve as cooks, drivers, or aides to officers and other officials.

The Support Battalion, also based at the BTC, was composed of the Medical Company, the LNG Brigade Band, the Brigade Special Unit (a parade formation), and the Military Police. In 1984 most of the LNG battalions were commanded by colonels. Exceptions existed in the Second Sixth Infantry Battalions, which were headed by lieutenant colonels, and in the small First Field Artillery Battalion, which was led by a captain.

The infantry battalions varied considerably in size and strength. The Sixth Infantry Battalion and the Second Infantry Battalion -- considered by most observers to be the best fighting units in the army during the 1980s -- each operated with 200 to 300 men. In contract, over 1,000 personnel were attached to the more loosely organized Third Infantry Battalion. In 1984 plans had been drawn up to standardize the tactical units. It was proposed that the First, Second, and Sixth Infantry battalions would all operate at a uniform strength of 580 men (39 officers, two warrant officers, and 539 enlisted men). These units were to be equipped with trucks to facilitate their mobility, and each was to be organically equipped with weapons and other materiel to enable it to conduct sustained operations as a mechanized infantry force.

First Infantry Battalion	Camp Schieffelin
Second Infantry Battalion	Camp Todee
Third Infantry Battalion	BTC
Fourth Infantry Battalion	Zwedru
Fifth Infantry Battalion	Gbarnga
Sixth Infantry Battalion	Bomi Hills

Made up mostly of Krahns, the Armed Forces of Liberia was essentially the personal army of President Doe during his ten years in power, and in keeping with the reputation its members set in the 1980 coup against the Tolbert government, was vicious in its dealings with the Liberian populace, particularly in its treatment of Gios and Manos. The AFL was responsible for what may have been the single most appalling act of the entire war, the July 30, 1990 massacre of over 600 Gios and Manos at St. Peter's Church in Monrovia.

Their brutality notwithstanding, the AFL was in the process of being soundly beaten by Taylor's NPFL before ECOMOG stepped in, and was a shadow of its former self. After the cease-fire was signed at Bamako, the AFL was restricted to Camp Schiefflin, which is just on the outskirts of Monrovia. The restrictions on its scope of operations and its decreased numbers did not seem to have impaired its ability to commit egregious human rights violations.

On 31 December 1996 more than 2,000 former fighters turned their weapons into peacekeeping troops in a mass disarmament, then burst into song to celebrate peace. The disarmament took place at the Camp Schiefflin military barracks outside the capital and was witnessed by peacekeeping army officials, foreign diplomats and United Nations representatives. The men were members of the Armed Forces of Liberia, comprised of mainly members of the former national army of late President Samuel Doe. Doe was toppled and executed in 1990, shortly after the civil war began, and many of his soldiers formed the AFL, which became one of several factions fighting the civil war. A cease-fire agreement signed in August 1996 cleared the way for disarmament to begin in November. Only about 7,000 of the estimated 60,000 rebel fighters have turned in their weapons.

On 10 March 2002, six armed AFL soldiers harassed and robbed civilians at an agricultural project in Clean Town, Bomi County. The soldiers also captured the project's Agricultural Manager, John Nizan, whom they forced into 3 weeks of menial labor. Nizan escaped when LURD dissidents attacked the town. Clean Town subsequently vacated and its residents became internally displaced persons (IDPs).

As of late 2002 the national army, which fought against Taylor's faction during the civil war, had yet to be downsized and restructured as required by the 1996 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)-brokered Abuja Peace Accords. Several thousand troops deployed in northern counties were fighting armed dissidents; however, there were few troops deployed to maintain security in other rural areas of the country.

War Veteran Association

The "ex-combatants" or "veterans" are former fighters of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) who had yet to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into mainstream civil society. Under Taylor they operated their own bureau with a staff and a budget and were paid more than the average civil servant. Under Taylor they became a new tool used to silence opponents and citizens critical of the government. Taylor appeared convinced that his core supporter and source of strength was the rag tag hoodlums who brought him to power.

In mid-July 2003 more than 2,000 Liberian government fighters, under the banner of the War Veteran Association of Liberia, staged a peaceful protest in Monrovia's diplomatic enclave of Mamba Point. Most of them were amputees. They presented a statement to the US embassy calling on the international community to seek their welfare after President Taylor leaves for exile. They maintained that the US government, as an integral part of the ICGL (International Contact Group on Liberia), should ensure that priority was given to their education, health, shelter and reintegration as a way of disengaging the over 65,000 members of their organisation from destructive ventures in the perceived post Taylor era.

The government fighters claimed to be former fighters of the defunct warring factions during the Liberian civil war of 1990-1997 including the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), Independent National patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), the Liberia Peace Council (LPC), United Liberation Movement for Democracy (ULIMO) and the Lofa Defense Force (LDF).

Following the signing of the CPA, a vast DDR programme (Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration) disarmed over 100,000 combatants in 2005, although reintegration programmes have had only patchy success. UNMIL are deployed over the entire territory to provide security. The CPA created the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL), made up of representatives from former rebel groups, political parties, the former Taylor government and civil society. It has been accused of extensive corruption.

Officially, some 103,018 combatants, 11 percent of them children, participated in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) process during the two-year transition. Although the process was declared to have been concluded in November 2004, the reality is that it has been far from comprehensive. First, there are serious numerical inconsistencies: for example, while over 100,000 combatants were ''disarmed,'' only about 27,000 weapons were actually collected; for another, while 103,018 combatants were ''disarmed'' and demobilized, only 13,872 were actually engaged in the reintegration program. Second, it is my considered opinion that even the number 100,000 does not encompass all combatants during Liberia's civil wars as some young fighters did not report for DDR while others had fallen out with their combat units before the 2003 fighting, but nonetheless remain marked by their earlier conflict experience.