Members of the Secretariat for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia (SEWACCOL) displaying the booklet of questions and answers on war crimes
By William Selmah,wselmah@gmail.com
A newly established group, the Secretariat for the Establishment of War Crimes Court in Liberia (SEWACCOL) has warned that Liberia risks being punished by the United Nations and the rest of the international community, if it refuses to set up a war crimes court to prosecute atrocities committed during 1989-2003 civil war.
The warning was given in Monrovia recently during the release of a booklet of questions and answers on war crimes and accountability.
Speaking at a news conference, Mr. Adama Dempster said refusing to set up the court would lead to far-reaching consequences, including travel bans on some key state actors, loss of seat at the UN Human Rights Committee and denial of financial assistance from development agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The Liberian Civil War was one of the 21th century’s most bloody civil wars, with an estimated 250,000 people killed.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommended in 2009 in its report that people who bear the greatest responsibilities of the human rights violations during the armed conflict face a court. But that is yet to happen more than a decade on.
The United Nations last year gave Liberia up to July next year to address its wartime atrocities, but President George Weah has not shown political will for the court.
The pro-war crimes court campaigner said the Liberian leader enjoys a power bloc with Senator Prince Johnson of Nimba County, one of the civil war’s “most notorious perpetrators”, and has appointed other ex-warlords in his government.
In President Weah’s last comment on the matter in November last year he asked Liberians to choose between war crimes court on one hand and peace and development on the other.
The Liberian economy is at its lowest ever ebb, with inflation at an all-time high of 28 percent, job-cuts within major employers such as Firestone and escalating foreign exchange rate currently at more than 180 Liberian Dollars to a United States Dollar.
Mr. Dempster said Liberia had no option and could not afford anything worse than its current economic status.
“A country that has signed international human rights is under obligation to implement on those various human rights statutes,” said Mr. Dempster, who reported on Liberia at the meeting last year where the UN urged the country to address its wartime human rights abuse.
“You want the IMF, the World Bank and other people to give you money. Those international [grants and loans] are basically plied around your good international records. If you cannot implement our responsibilities on those human rights statutes, of course, you stand the risk of being denied a lot of good [things] that can help you carry out your developmental program,” the Liberian human rights advocate said.
“There are more [consequences], so it is important that the government acts to put Liberia in a better position than where we find ourselves,” Mr. Dempster added.
Those against the court have argued that it would be too expensive for Liberia to underwrite.
But Hassan Bility, another member of SEWACCOL, said funding would come from the UN and other friendly nations once the first step was made by the government to set it up.
He referenced a recent resolution passed by the House of Representatives of the United States Congress to support wartime accountability in Liberia as a show of support.
“The fact that it is the Congress that appropriates money, we just need to take the first step—pass it into law—and make the request to the United Nations and we will get the money,” said Bility whose Global Justice and Research Project aids the prosecution of Liberians in America and Europe.
He said that was the case of the other criminal tribunals around the world such as the one for the former Yugoslavia.
Mr. Aaron Weah, another member of SEWACCOL, urged the government to include wartime accountability in the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development to attract multilateral and bilateral support. “Nations today who are developed because of accountability are going to give a hand to provide the resources for a special court,”Weah said, citing Sierra Leone, where the UN and 40 countries, including Nigeria donated money its war crimes court that convicted and imprisoned former President Charles Taylor for 50 years in a British prison.
Adding his voice to his colleagues’, Mr. Dempster said war crimes were violations against the International Humanitarian Law and would require international support to be prosecuted.