UN says Liberia's rubber plantations are lawless

source: IRIN

Monrovia, Liberia - Large areas of the Liberian countryside where former fighters control rubber plantations are lawless” and are putting plantation workers and their families at risk, according to a UN report.

In several plantations there is an absence of state authority and the rule of law. There is a recurring problem on the plantations concerning illegal detention and arrest by private security officers without the knowledge of the LNP,” said the report by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

The eight month assessment, which started in June last year and was published this week, uncovered that the presence of former fighters from Liberia's civil war continued to be a problem in five out of seven of the country's rubber plantations.

The five plantations are: Cavalla, Firestone, Guthrie, Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) and Sinoe with the largest, Firestone, alone covering an area of 1 million acres.

Guthrie plantation in the northwest and Cavalla and Sinoe in the southeast of the country were particularly plagued by the gangs of mostly young men, said the report, who are illegally tapping the trees of latex rubber and selling it on to merchants for profit.

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IRIN News (Liberia) story