PHOTO: Cllr. Dempster Brown, Chairman of INCHR
By J. Peter S. Dennis, dennisrealone@gmail.com
SANOYEA, Liberia– Anyone who will cause killings in Liberia will be taken to the Hague for prosecution, says the Chairman of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR).
“We can’t continue to remain like this,” Cllr. Brown told the Palava Hut hearing here in Liberia’s central Bong County this week.
Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report years ago recommended the Palava Hut hearings are a traditional restorative justice and accountability mechanism as a complementary mechanism to recommendations to establish a war crimes court to render justice for war crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the civil war.
Apart from this, the TRC report also recommended prosecution for the war actors who bear the greatest responsibilities for the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated during the carnage, an action that is yet to be taken by Liberia.
According to United Nations estimates, 250, 000 people were killed in the 14 years fratricidal Liberian civil war with thousands of others wounded.
Liberia’s human rights commission chairman lamented that people are killing and there is no redress to the pains of the victims.
He was speaking at the official launch of the Sanoyea District Palava Hut hearing in Bong County sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Liberia.
Cllr. Browne announced that “The INCHR will lobby to ensure that those that will cause killings during the 2023 presidential and legislative elections will be taken to the Hague for prosecution.”
He further assured participants at the Sanoyea palaver hut hearing that the Human Rights Commission is determined to go ahead with its objectives- promote and protect the rights of the citizens.
According to him, where there’s no peace, there’s no reconciliation.
“Where there is no justice, there is no reconciliation. Victims will only reconcile their differences when those who committed crimes are punished. We will lobby for this to happen” Cllr. Browne warned.
Cllr. Browne recalled that during the 14 years of civil crisis in Liberia, numerous crimes were committed, taking aback on all massacres that took place in the country during the civil unrest- an international crime.
In Sanoyea, Bong County alone, Cllr. Browne said the record indicates that 75 persons including women, children and elderly people, were massacred during the war.
He begged for support to construct memorial for them.
“There are domestic crimes that can be tried under Liberian laws, but international crimes can only be taken care of by a War Crimes Court.”
The INCHR boss wondered “how can the peace in Liberia be sustained and reconciliation takes place when those who committed crimes are bluffing all around the environment without justice being served.”
“And so the human rights commission is determined to do everything possible to bring [those who committed bad crimes] to justice by lobbying,” he noted.
Cllr. Dempster Brown expressed sympathy with the victims of the civil war including [his own town he came from in River Gee] where human beings’ skulls were hanging all over the checkpoints.
Those people who committed atrocities are still bluffing around today.
He therefore urged victims to voice out what is in their stomach, assuring them that nobody can do anything to them.
“But we assure you in order to sustain the peace in this country, there must be justice,” said Cllr. Browne.
The INCHR was established by an Act of Legislature in 2005 as a National Human Rights Institution mandated to promote and protect human rights in Liberia.
The Department for Complaints, Investigation and Monitoring (DCIM) is one of five (5) departments established by the Act.