PRESCRIPCIÓN CONTRA EL REGISTRO

The association of women with fighting forces was a constant feature of the Liberian civil war. Their roles were multifaceted and varied from civilians, supporters and advocates of armed struggled, to spies, soldiers and rebels. It is, however, difficult to say exactly how many Liberian women who in one way or another where a part of an armed group. Some estimates say that women constituted up to 30-40 per cent of the fighting forces (Amnesty 2008:5). UNIFEM, in a 2004 report, operates with a number of women and children eligible for the DDR on up to 38 per cent of the total number of eligible combatants, which at that time was between 38.000 and 53.000. Conversely, in Pugel’s (2007:31) extensive survey, where a randomized sample is drawn from the universe of ex-combatants over 18 years old, only approximately 20 per cent of the sample is female.

Determining how many of the women who actually fought and how many that “just” served in supporting roles as cooks, cleaners, sex-slaves, spies and carriers, is another challenge. Of the female ex-combatants in Pugel’s survey (2007) as many as 70 per cent reported that their primary role in the armed group they belonged to was as combat soldier, compared to 87 per cent of the men. According to Specht (2006:60), the majority of the women between 15 and 24 who were part of armed groups did not take part in the actual fighting.8 Most of them occupied other roles, often as wives of the male fighters, with “normal” duties like cooking and cleaning, raising children and doing sexual favours. As Specht (2006:24) maintains that it was the older women who usually fought, whilst the younger girls more often served in supporting roles, the findings of Pugel and Specht are not as contrasting as first perceived. Pugel´s sample is of female ex-combatants over 18 years old, and one would accordingly be expected to find a higher percentage of women reporting that their primary role was being a soldier. Nevertheless, it is evident that the numbers and estimates on this matter are uncertain and varies depending on the source of information. It is important to note that the difficulties of estimating number of soldiers and camp-followers is not special for the women, this is a problem also when it comes to the male combatants, since the civil war had been long, with a character that made the lines between civilians and soldiers blurred.

8 _{This is not to imply that the majority of women over 24 years were soldiers. The age group 15-24 years is}

simply the group under investigation in Specht´s (2006) report, and therefore the age group on which there are data.

37 It is, however, uncontested that a number of the fighting forces utilized women as soldiers or labour. A special feature of LURD for instance was that they had units wholly composed of girls and women, commonly known as the “Women’s Artillery Commandos” (WAC). The WACs were known for their fighting capacity and was integrated into military structures (Specht 2006:15, 23). Both Taylor’s NPFL, and later his Government Forces (GoL), also recruited women and girls, and had female commanders. The GoL had a WAC included in its military structure, however it appears that it played a less prominent role in the government forces than in the LURD. Some senior female commanders nonetheless took posts in Liberia's armed forces when Taylor won the presidency in 1997 (Specht 2006:23-26). Although all- female units existed it seems they never went on assignments and raids on their own, but always had male units accompanying them. According to Specht (2006:23-26) this was considered necessary, as women were still perceived as the weaker sex unable to go on assignments themselves. On the other hand, women and girls also seems to have been taken seriously when it came to fighting capacities, and they were moreover seen as an asset in terms of their ability to encourage the fighting men.

The reasons for women, as for men, to join armed groups were diverse. Some joined more or less voluntarily whilst others were forced (UNIFEM 2004:10). The practical boundary between voluntary and involuntary causes is, however, somewhat unclear. Specht (2006:10) underlines that the distinction is difficult to uphold in practice because recruitment that was at first depicted as voluntary at closer scrutiny can better be described as reasonable adaptive strategy or practical protection mechanism in situations of extreme danger or deprivation (West 2004:185 in Specht 2006:10). Bøås and Hatløy (2008) contend however, that although many of the combatants in Liberia were poor and had limited options prior to their joining fighting forces, they were not poorer or more marginalised than many of the individuals who did not join. The underlying premise is that even under some level of coercion individuals can have strategic or tactical agency, and the ability to make rational considerations when taking the choice of joining a fighting force.9 In their survey, Bøås and Hatløy (2008:38) find that

9_{´Strategic agency`, is narrow and opportunistic, ´exercised to cope with concrete, immediate conditions of their}

lives in order to maximise the circumstances created by their violent military environment` (Honwana 2006:71 in Bøås and Hatløy 2008:37), while tactical agency is more long-term agency based on some degree of the self

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many ex-combatants seem to have made tactical decisions, based on security considerations, when joining armed groups. Even though the overall majority of the ex-combatants in their survey were male, there is no reason to believe that the premise of tactical and strategic agency is not also present for women who joined the armed forces, even though their security considerations might have been somewhat different from those of their male colleagues.

Once again, the estimated number of women forcibly recruited to armed forces differs in the different sources. The estimate ranges from approximately a third of the female ex- combatants (Specht 2006:28), to more then half of them (Amnesty International 2008:5), somewhat depending on the age group in question, as younger women were more often victims of forced recruitment.

The fighting forces killed the mother, brother, and pregnant sister of “Victoria” (2010 [interview]), 27 years old and mother of four, in a church were they were taking refuge. She fled from the fighting into the bush, where she stumbled into a group of LURD combatants. Their commander forced her to come with them and she was given ammunition. She stayed with the LURD in the bush, serving as a soldier, until ceasefire came.

Among the women who were not forced to fight the reasons given for joining the forces were diverse. Some took up arms to protect themselves and other women from especially sexual violence, or to revenge violence or killing of their family. The wish for equality with men was also in some instances a contributing factor (Brett & Specht 2004, Specht 2006:11, 30-32).

When “Pandora” (2010 [interview]) was only 10 years old, she was raped by soldiers from one of the armed rebel groups. They also killed her brother in front of her, and “tied her mother down”. To revenge this, she joined the Government Forces and fought on the frontline for a couple of months until the ceasefire came. For many women, joining armed groups was a means of survival. Economic motives, deriving from severe poverty or the wish for material goods drove women and girls into supporting and decisions taken, where choices are not ´determined by random factors they could neither predict or control` (ibid). 


39 roles in male units. A majority of the young women who fought in the civil war became involved through combatant “boyfriends” (Utas 2003:208 in Coulter, Persson & Utas 2008:16). Some women formed relationships with male combatants with power to protect them, because the situation for young women in the war zone was very unsecure. Without such protection these women were at immediate risk of being violated and raped. Thus, many chose to attach themselves to a fighter, and sometimes women even stayed with men that had raped them (Specht 2006:11, 30-32, Utas 2003:176 in Coulter, Persson & Utas 2008:16). Through bush marriages, where women and girls (forced or voluntary) married male fighters, they became dependent on the fighting forces, relying on them for protection and material welfare, acting as wives, delivering babies and supporting the fighting forces in various capacities (Specht 2006:12).

“Princess” (2010 [interview]) was during the war captured by a soldier from an armed group because he wanted a wife. She did not carry arms, but stayed with the armed group for over a year, cooking and working for them. She is still with the soldier that captured her, and he is the father of her two youngest children.