Criminal Tribunal for Liberia imminent?

–After U.S. House Passes Resolution

By William Selmah, wselmah@gmail.com

Liberian President George Manneh Weah has said his administration will do what the Liberian people want about restorative justice or retributive justice, following the U.S. Congress’ passage of a resolution reaffirming its firm support for the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations in Liberia.

The US House Resolution 1055 passed on November 13, 2018, reiterates the strong ties between Liberia and the U.S., and called for the full implementation of the TRC recommendations.

Speaking upon his return home from the peace summit in France marking the 100^th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, President Weah was not definite whether his CDC government will support a war crimes court in Liberia.

President George Manneh Weah

But the Liberian leader told journalists at the Roberts International Airport on Thursday that peace is crucial to national development.

The TRC recommendations, among others, stipulate categories of punishments for those who bear greatest responsibilities for war crimes, crimes against humanity and economic crimes committed mainly during the civil war fought from December 1989-August 2003.

Some of the punishments for perpetrators include prosecution and ban from holding public offices.

The Congressman man who initiated the campaign, Rep. Daniel Donovan of New York’s 11^th Congressional District, was defeated during the just ended U.S. midterm elections, thus dampening the hopes of the many Liberians and advocates in favor of the setting up of a special criminal tribunal for Liberia.

Rep. Donovan submitted a bill to Congress on September 7, 2017, calling for the passage of a resolution supporting the full implementation of the TRC recommendations including the setting up of an Extraordinary Criminal Tribunal for Liberia to punish those responsible for the heinous crimes committed during the country’s years of instability.

Moments before the resolution was passed on Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said “I rise in support of H. Res. 1055, which affirms the strong ties between the United States and Liberia and calls for full implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations”.

Chairman Royce then paid tribute to ex-Congressman Donovan and Rep. Johnson “for their work on the resolution”. 

Chairman Royce: “During my time as Chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, we held hearings and passed legislation to bring attention to the brutal civil war in Liberia and Sierra Leone that killed 200,000 people and displaced more than 1 million – one of whom, who was also orphaned by this conflict, worked in my own office in Congress. We heard a young girl – no more than 10 years old – recount the atrocities she herself endured during the war, a gruesome illustration of the horrific and lasting impact this conflict had on the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone”.

He recalled that the Africa Subcommittee worked across party lines and alongside the international community and the people of Liberia to apprehend “the notorious warlord Charles Taylor. Today, he remains behind bars”.

The Congressman said though the TRC was created out of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement rebel groups and political parties signed in 2003, its recommendation for the establishment of a war crimes tribunal to ensure justice for the people of Liberia is yet to be implemented despite calls by Liberian government figures and activists alike for the establishment of one.

“This resolution repeats this important call”, Royce stressed, adding, “We have turned the page on this horrific chapter in Liberia’s history. In March, the U.N. peacekeeping mission there officially ended. It is not often we get to celebrate the successful end of a mission, and we remember the 202 peacekeepers that lost their lives to bring peace and stability in the region”.

The resolution, he pointed out, expresses the United States’ commitment to work with the people of Liberia to support civil society, rule of law and good governance.

Hundreds of Liberians on Monday November 12, 2018, staged a peaceful protest in Monrovia to demand the setting up of a War and Economic Crimes Court in Liberia.

They marched through the principal streets of the capital and presented a statement to the U.S. Embassy calling on the United States and the EU to support their campaign to seek justice for victims of the civil war.

The UN in July of this year, released a Concluding Observation on Liberia, calling on the Government to “ensure that all alleged perpetrators of gross human rights violations and war crimes are impartially prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished in accordance with the gravity of the acts committed, regardless of their status or any domestic legislation on immunities”.

Liberia has up to two years to put in place the necessary mechanism to try and punish such perpetrators.