THE HUNDREDS of Liberian families who have sought refuge in Arizona fled a civil war that piled the unthinkable upon the more routine horrors of conflict, many of which were at the hands of children.
In Phoenix these families, and much of the rest of Arizona’s capital, have grappled with what appears to be a terrible crime made worse by an almost incomprehensible response.
It was bad enough that four boys, one only nine years old, allegedly lured an eight-year-old girl into a shed with a promise of chewing gum and took turns raping and assaulting her. But when the police arrived, the girl’s mother told them to take her daughter away and not bring her back, because she brought shame on the family.
“Nothing has happened to my daughter. Nobody has touched my daughter,” said the mother, who cannot be named. The child’s older sister also said the victim only had herself to blame.
“I said to her: it’s not good for you to be following guys because you’re still little,” she said. “She always brings trouble.”
The girl has been taken into care. The police say there is evidence of rape, and allege that the boys held the girl down and took turns to assault her for about 15 minutes. The police were called when the girl was found screaming and with her clothes torn.
Four boys who were found running from the scene have been charged with kidnapping and sexual assault. Steven Tuopeh (14) is being prosecuted as an adult. The others, aged from nine to 13, will be tried in juvenile court.
Now the mother is calling for her daughter’s alleged attackers to be released, saying that it is an internal matter within the close-knit community of about 1,200 Liberians, who fled the notoriously brutal civil wars. The conflicts were marked by indiscriminate killing, mutilation, rape, and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Lasana Kamara, who helped found a support organisation for Liberian refugees, the Arizona Mandingo Association, said that a culture of violence continues to grip children from the community.
“The families have been traumatised, the children have been traumatised. The violence they have seen is a part of them. They form gangs according to where they are from in Liberia,” said Ms Kamara, who fled the west African state in 1992 and now works as a detention officer at a local sheriff’s jail.
“That war was total destruction. With all they have seen, then coming here, it’s very difficult. It’s going to take a very long time for the children to really get themselves together. Every month we have meetings and tell the kids, ‘Don’t do this’. But sometimes it’s beyond control.”
Sexual violence in Liberia may have been widespread but it was barely taken seriously. The victims were often made to feel responsible. Rape was outlawed in Liberia only in 2006.
That law was passed by the country's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has sought to remove the stigma by revealing that she was the victim of attempted rape during the war. – ( Guardianservice)