Pro-Government Militias

Pro-Government Militia Website

Documentation for Vigilante Groups

Sept. 18, 2008
The Washington Times

Lewis Norman, deputy chief for press and public affairs for the Liberian National Police (LNP), said mob violence is the very reason that the LNP discourages (private) vigilante groups from forming. About two years go, the LNP began its own neighborhood watch groups to encourage residents to apprehend robbers instead of killing them. Today, there are 152 communities with the police-sponsored groups. (...)

The LNP gives the members whistles and the commanders cell phones. Members join with the expectation that they won't carry weapons or kill intruders. (…) As the commander of a meager neighborhood army, Mr. Kpeu arms himself with the sharp saws and wood clamps that he uses to make furniture. (...)

Each week, the volunteer soldiers live off donations from the community that range from $30 to $100 for the entire group. This sum pays for nightly meals and packs of cigarettes. It also pays for bottles of hard liquor. (...)

The patrol duty is taxing. Mr. Guncarnue, who is in the 10th grade, doesn't get regular sleep. Most men work during the day and patrol all night (…) Vigilantes aren't afraid to take justice into their own hands. We will find a way to kill them," said Oldpa Kpeu, a member of one militia. "We live in fear. That means we have to protect our people. (...)

Swaree Kennedy, a troubled 22-year-old, was recently beaten to death by vigilantes who accused him of robbery. The gruesome evidence of mob violence was on Mr. Kennedy's mauled face and body, which lay beside the road for days before someone came to bury him.

March 21, 2009
The Philadelphia Inquirer

They stressed that Liberia has remained unstable, with vigilante justice and other ills.

Oct. 24, 2010
The New York Times

(Y)et many Liberians are resentful that they continue to count on packs of vigilantes to protect them, because the police -- whose starting salary is just over $4.50 a day -- are ineffectual and relentlessly corrupt and the courts too slow to matter.