–Eyebrows raised over reported rough treatment
Many residents at various Artisanal or illicit diamond mines are expressing serious concerns over reported acts of torture.
One of such mines is within the vicinity of Fuamah District, lower Bong County in central Liberia and one victim of the rough treatment says it’s like a state within a state, where some “diamond diggers” are subjected to jungle justice by diamond barons.
“FOCAL”, a form of torture in which an accused person is tied to an abandoned light pole with a very rusty motor bike chain, is very common on the mines. During the process of focal, the accused is most times publicly humiliated, beaten, bullied and made to lie down in the hot sun for a long time.
Residents and business persons fear that the lack of a legal judicial system within the proximity of these diamond mines is giving rise to this and other form of abuses that take place there. Some miners and camp masters are said to constantly use jungle justice methods to investigate issues arising in the mining area.
According to one of the mines security guard at “Claim 15” in the Degai Mining Zone known as Camp Monrovia, Tommy said the ‘Focal’ is one the most common and fastest means of instilling discipline and curtailing diamond thefts in mines, as there is no police or detention site for alleged diamond smugglers and other minor crimes including domestic violence.
Tommy said that miners feared that their licenses could be withdrawn from them by Ministry of Lands Mines and Energy, if it is established that there are many complains of diamonds smuggling from their mines which indicates that they cannot protect government’s minerals.
Since there is no standard rule for securing diamond mines, miners set up their own security system and create tactics to deter allege diamond smuggling and for me that’s one of the fastest means to reveal the truth, Tommy said.
One of the alleged “Focal” victims, Pastor G. Arteemon claimed that miners and local authorities were taking disadvantages of many innocent people at many of the mines due to th sheer distance and the lack of police officers there.
Arteemon described the practice as “”jungle justice,” blaming miners, camp masters and by extension local Land Mines and Energy inspectors “for the fact that there is no legal system at these diamond mines to account for the proper rule of law.”
He further said that the torturous practice of “Focal” is very degrading, humiliating and most persons who are unable to withstand the tension and embarrassment will prefer lying on themselves just to be remove from the focal.
“I was wrongly focal, humiliated, publicly photograph by the orders of one Ministry of Lands Mines and Energy agent called ‘Anaconda’. I was asked by one of my church members JK Jones who has diamond ‘Claims’ to supervise one of his diamond site ‘Claim 15’ until he return from Monrovia. While serving as supervisor during his absence, some security guards of the site requested me to join them and sell few pieces of diamonds that they arrested from workers who tried escaping with them from the mine. I refused to participate and told them to reserve the diamonds for the site owner. Surprisingly, they told me that since I want to act like Jesus, they will eat the money and I will be place on focal,” Arteemon explained.
The Christian cleric further said: “They conspired with the local Land Mines and Energy authorities who immediately ordered those same security guards to put me on focal. I was immediately placed on focal without investigation and remained on focal right behind his house at Camp Monrovia from early morning to the evening denied food and water, and I was only released when all of the background investigations that were conducted behind my back proved that I was innocent of the allegation. Focal is very painful and degrading, looking at myself nailed with rusty motor bike chain as if I am a mad person right in front of my wife and children was totally unbearable but God knowing that I am His innocent servant, set me free.”
Meanwhile, several other business persons and residents in the diamond mining zone in lower Bong County.
According to a business woman and resident Justina Blay, on many occasions they feel very sorrowful for allege focal victims.
But she said they have no means of intervention because if they (business people/residents) comment during the focal, they are abused, threatened and even seen as master minders and facilitators of allege crimes.
At the same time, a Junior Presidential Aid- De Camp Brigadier General Abraham M-Dongbo confirmed in an interview that the focal was actually taking place on many diamond mines around Gbarpolu and Bong Counties but he claimed it was not being done with the consent of appropriate legal authority.
He named some of the diamond mines where the torturous act of focal and other abuses are common practice: Camp Libya in Fuamah District Bong County, Camp Gbakor Fuamah District, Camp Monrovia Fuamah District, and Gbelekpalamu Mining Zone Bokomu District Gbarpolu County.
When contacted, the Ministry of Lands Mines and Energy over allegation of torture at diamond mines, the Acting Deputy Inspector General for Mines Prince M. Mambu said in reaction that the information reaching the ministry at this time is very strange and that the ministry was not informed on any act of torture and moreover no member of the ministry will ever engage into such practices.
Mambu said the Lands Mines and Energy Ministry respects human dignity, labor and the rule of law at all time and as such no one from the ministry can ever carry on such inhumane act.
The New Mineral and Mining Law of 2000 Chapter 6 Section 6.1 and 2, “gives an individual or miner the right to protect all government minerals lawfully given to him as a certified and authorized miner by the Ministry of Lands Mines and Energy, and it is his responsibility to protect government minerals and avoid diamond smuggling or theft. Let me make one thing very clear, at no time ever did the Ministry tell any miner to perform acts of torture to people.”
The mining law further says: “Any persons found of such acts is doing it without the consent of the ministry and if caught such person should be brought to book and prosecuted. In fact, at this ministry we conduct series of human rights workshops for the ministry workers and to some extend miners on the need to protect and respect human rights at all times,” according to Mambu.
Also, Article 21 (e) of the Liberian constitution states: “No person, charged, arrested, restricted, detained or otherwise held in confinement shall be subject to torture or inhumane treatment; nor shall any person except military personnel, be kept or confined in any military facility; nor shall any person be seized and kept among convicted prisoners or treated as a convict, unless such person first shall have been convicted of a crime in a court of competent jurisdiction.
The Legislature shall make it a criminal offence and provide for appropriate penalties against any police or security officer, prosecutor, administrator or any other public official acting in contravention of this provision; and any person so damaged by the conduct of such public official shall have a civil remedy thereof, exclusive of any criminal penalties imposed”. Report by Lawrence Bah