Hundreds Of Graves Found In Monrovia

A medical team has uncovered more than 300 bodies from shallow graves where they were dumped during factional fighting that has left the capital in ruins.

In the six days that the team has been at work, it has exhumed and reburied 321 bodies, Dr. Isaac Moses, the West African country’s chief pathologist, said Saturday. The group has been discovering up to 20 graves a day in locations throughout Monrovia, he said.

“Although the exercise is tedious and time-consuming, it is a worthy cause because we have to prevent ecological problems and other health hazards,” Moses said. “The process involves a lot of manual work. We dig with bare hands.”

He said that 95 of the bodies had been dug up around the Greystone Annex, the U.S. Embassy’s residential compound where some 16,000 displaced Liberians have sought shelter.

Moses said the team had not yet searched around the Barclay Training Center, the military barracks that has been at the center of clashes that began in early April.

Roosevelt Johnson’s forces seized the barracks and held thousands of civilians, West African peacekeepers and foreigners hostage for weeks. Johnson loyalists still hold the barracks even though all of the hostages have been released and U.S. forces flew Johnson himself to Ghana last month.

Though fighting in the capital has subsided, battles between forces loyal to Taylor and Johnson continue on the city’s outskirts.