After Failing To Implement The TRC Report During Her Regime
PHOTO: Former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf not happy about war crimes court
Former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who failed to implement the TRC recommendation to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes during her 12 years in office, has categorically opposed the establishment of a war and economic crimes court for Liberia.
Last week, current President Joseph Nyuma Boakai signed Executive Order #131 for the establishment of a war and economic crimes court office.
Before signing the Executive Order #131, President Boakai said: ” The move will consummate the process that will bring justice and closure to the scars and memories of the war.” https://newspublictrust.com/finally-done-pres-boakai-signs-law-establishing-liberia-war-economic-crimes-court-office
But former President Sirleaf, who was listed in the 2010 TRC report as one of the funders of the 1988 NPFL rebel invasion that triggered Liberia’s 14 years brutal civil war that claimed the lives of some 250,00 people, prefers the Gacaca approach of Rwanda.
Speaking on the “Liberian Renaissance: Changing Minds and Changing Attitude” program on state radio, ELBC with former Information Minister Lawrence Bropleh on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, ex-President Sirleaf said, after the genocide Rwandans found a way to seek unification of their nation through forgiveness and confession.
Liberia and Africa’s first elected woman President recalled that, during the process people had the right to speak out, the right to challenge and the right to even sue, but the nation, as a nation, found a way to resolve it, and Rwanda today, as much as she can see, is unified.
Her reaction was in response to a question on her position on the issue of war and economic crimes court, whether if established in Liberia would it help Liberia in terms of its economy, security and job.
In her response, ex-President Sirleaf said: “I took my position on that when I was President; and that position still holds. I have not change it, and I will not change it. They know my position on that. My position on that was to use the Gacaca system of Rwanda.”
The Rwandan government in 2005 re-established the traditional community court system called “Gacaca” (pronounced GA-CHA-CHA) to address the thousands of cases that awaited trial in the national court system and brought about justice and reconciliation at the grassroots level.
In the Gacaca system, communities at the local level elected judges to hear the trials of genocide suspects accused of all crimes except planning of genocide. The courts gave lower sentences if the person was repentant and sought reconciliation with the community. Often, confessing prisoners returned home without further penalty or received community service orders. More than 12,000 community-based courts tried more than 1.2 million cases throughout the country.