against the Burkinabés, they don’t know what they’re doing; it’s the people
who sent them [into our forest] that we have a fight with….
We live off of the land. We have never sold our land in this village, it’s not for
us to sell. To sell our land would be to sell our tradition…. Even if you’ve done
nothing [with your forest], your child can tomorrow. That’s how future
generations will eat…. Selling forests didn’t exist here before the crisis, we
don’t understand how and why this happened while [we were displaced until
late June 2011]. It’s a syndrome…. Even if we get our land back now, hectare
after hectare has been cleared away. They sold our land by the kilometer….
Psychologically, we are already dead because we’ve been stripped of our
land. We are on the verge of another clash. We’ve truly been patient waiting
for the government [to resolve this], but we won’t wait forever.164
Cause of Continued Displacement
Illegal land occupation in western Côte d’Ivoire is also a key reason why some Ivorian
refugees remain in Liberia. Principle 10 of the Pinheiro Principles calls on states to respect
refugees’ right “to return voluntarily to their former homes, lands or places of habitual
residence … [in] dignity.”165 Concerted action by Ivorian authorities to ensure that refugees
and displaced persons have access to their land would go a long way toward building
confidence in additional refugee returns.
According to UNHCR, there were more than 58,000 registered Ivorian refugees in Liberia as
of August 2, 2013.166 This includes more than 27,000 in Grand Gedeh County167—where the
overwhelming majority of refugees are Guérés from the region of western Côte d’Ivoire
where land conflict predominates. Based on Human Rights Watch’s observations and
interviews with village leaders about remaining refugee populations, villages along the
axis from Bloléquin to Tinhou and down to the Liberian border have particularly low rates
of return. These villages have some of the most severe problems of land dispossession.
164 Human Rights Watch interview, Zomplou, February 11, 2013.
165 Pinheiro Principles, principle 10.
166 UNHCR, “Refugees in Liberia: Information Sharing Portal,” http://data.unhcr.org/liberia/regional.php (accessed August 29, 2013).
167 Ibid.
“THAT LAND IS MY FAMILY’S WEALTH”
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