LIBERIA: Despite the optimism of next week's elections the horror of what has happened is still apparent, reports Bill Corcoran in Monrovia
Miatta Pasaweh prays that God will show her who to vote for in Liberia's presidential election next Tuesday. All she can think about is how to survive in the aftermath of the country's recent civil war.
The 31-year-old Liberian has been living at Jatondo displacement camp 20km outside Monrovia since a rebel group entered her village three years ago and started to kill everyone in sight.
"They [ the rebel group] killed my three brothers and my father. I see them do this; they cut their throats in front of me," she says emotionally, as the memory of that horrific day causes stress lines to appear on a previously calm face.
At the start of the United Nations Mission to Liberia (Unmil) in 2003, 450,000 Liberians had been internally displaced by the fighting between Charles Taylor's so-called government forces and two rebel factions called the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model).
Many fled with nothing more than the clothes on their backs in an effort to escape the horrors often perpetrated by soldiers high on drugs and infatuated by the black magic rituals prevalent in the west African country's society.
Indeed, when Miatta describes what they did to her, it is hard to understand how anyone could possibly remain sane.
"The politicians who say that there must be reconciliation between us and the people who fought in the war, that makes me angry. After they killed my brothers they chopped off their pee pees [ genitals] and put them in my mouth.
"I suffered," she says angrily, "because when they gave me their blood I drank it. I was sick for nine months. So I just think about how to survive: how to eat and live. I am praying to God to show me who to vote for because I do not know."
Although many of the internally displaced people living in refugee camps have returned to their home counties - Unmil estimates that as of September 25th last it had helped repatriate nearly 222,000 people - a significant number are still too afraid to return where peacekeepers are thin on the ground.
The 15,000-peacekeeping force includes around 430 Irish troops who make up the mission's rapid reaction force.
Andrew Johnson says he wants to go home to Buma County, but is afraid to go back because many of the soldiers who attacked his village still live nearby.
Unmil has managed to disarm 101,495 ex-combatants to date through the use of financial incentives (each soldier was given $150 to disarm) but a further 26,000 have not been able to take part because of a funding shortfall of $18.5 million.
"One Saturday morning Lurd forces came to our village and started to kill and loot. They shot my cousin so we ran. I know some of the people who came and started killing. I want to go home but it is difficult because I have to wait for the government to say that it is okay," Andrew Johnson says.
He hopes that presidential candidate Winston Tubman will win the election, as he believes contender George Weah, a former world footballer of the year, does not have the leadership abilities to rule effectively.
"Weah is very popular, but I think if he wins Liberia will return to war. The politicians he has surrounded himself with used to be in Charles Taylor's government.
"The youth support him because of his football days. Although many of the youth are too young to vote, they are ex-soldiers and they could cause a problem if he does not win," he warns.
Tetee Brown has remained in the refugee camp because she has nowhere else to go. One day in 2002 the 16-year-old returned home from school to find her brother and sister had been taken away by a rebel group which came to her village while she was at class.
"I lost my brother and sister during the war. Jennie and Jacob were put on a truck, taken away and then shot. My parents ran away so I came here [ to Jatonda] all by myself. I think I would like Tubman to win the election because he looks good," she concludes innocently.