There has been a sharp decline in the number of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse against the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) staff in the last half of last year, a report revealed. The latest UNMIL sexual exploitation and abuse report was a complete variance of what happened during the same period in 2006.

After a delay of more than four months, the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor resumed today at the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). Mr. Taylor is facing 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law – including mass murder, mutilations, rape, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers – for his role in the decade-long civil war that engulfed Sierra Leone, which borders Liberia. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

The Boards of Executive Directors of the African Development Bank (ADB) and African Development Fund (ADF) have approved a proposal to clear Liberia's arrears, paving the way for normalization of relations with the West African country for the first time in nearly two decades.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has backed the call of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) for journalists in the country to stand in solidarity with six colleagues and a newspaper accused of libel by Ambrose Nmah, the general manager of a media group. Nmah, who also presents a news program on the radio, is suing the journalists after they published a statement calling on the PUL to investigate him for allegedly making comments on his radio program justifying physical attacks on journalists by police officers.

Liberia has cleared all overdue debt service payments to the World Bank, marking the beginning of a new era for the country as it normalizes its relations with the international community. Clearance of arrears to the Bank and other multilateral agencies will make Liberia eligible for full debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) programs, thereby contributing to the country’s ability to achieve growth and recovery in the coming years.

The United Nations has teamed up with the Government of Liberia to launch a nationwide campaign to prevent and punish the crime of rape, one of the most serious challenges the West African nation is grappling with as it emerges from years of conflict. “Rape is the most frequently committed serious crime in Liberia so we must find more effective ways to stop these crimes before more women and girls are hurt and abused,” said Alan Doss, outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

The United Nations Mission in Liberia is supporting efforts by the Government to create more than 1 million days of work for labourers from small communities in the country, where employment has been linked to stability since the end of the civil war returned thousands of former fighters to the civilian workforce.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that it will write off Liberia's debt by securing $842 million from its own institutional reserves and donor country pledges. The move comes after the Fund endured heavy criticism in the international media last month for not following through on its commitment to Liberia, eighteen months after the country had met the IMF's stringent policy conditions.

A new survey released by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that more than half of all women in Lofa County, northern Liberia, reported at least one incident of sexual violence during the most recent conflict (1999-2003), while nearly 90 per cent reported at least one incident of physical violence.

On 22 October 2007, Chief Justice Johnnie Lewis threatened to imprison journalists for committing such "infractions" as "misspelling his name", "giving him wrong and inappropriate titles" and "attaching his photos to stories that have nothing to do with him in their papers." Lewis made the threats in open court, with the heads of several newspapers in attendance by invitation. The session was also attended by other members of the Supreme Court.

The brutal regime of Samuel Doe ran up much of Liberia's illegitimate debt, with no benefit to the people of Liberia. Today, Liberia has a $4.5 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other creditors. During the years of civil war, Liberia failed to make its scheduled payments, resulting in huge arrears, which the IMF insists must be cleared before Liberia can enter the debt cancellation process.

Under a new education policy, parents or guardians of children will soon face fines or even be arrested for allowing their children to sell in the streets during school hours. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the measure in early September, which is said to be aimed at increasing school enrolment and curbing child labour.

Thousands of illegal Liberians in the United States will be forced to leave on 1 October after the Department of Home Security has ended their Temporary Protected Status (TPS). But a joint research report published by the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney and Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights said time is not ripe for US authorities to end TPS for Liberians.

Liberia is appearing to have turned a real corner. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has shown impressive progress on reforms since she was elected in 2005. In the fight against endemic corruption, she has forced her ministers to follow her lead in disclosing their assets, and she is renegotiating sweetheart contracts in rubber, timber, and mining. To keep her government on the level, she has agreed to have international experts cosign with ministers before major expenditures are approved.

A report released by Partnership Africa Canada in Ottawa, and Green Advocates in Liberia outlines out the huge post-war challenges facing the new government of Liberia. Liberia had gone through a 14-year brutal civil war, which was fuelled mainly by looted natural resources. The West African country is blessed with natural resources, but the country remains one of the poorest and least developed places on earth, with an average per capita income of US $152 per annum and 40% adult illiteracy. Most Liberians die before they attain 40 years.

The United Nations envoy to Liberia has called for an end to violence against women, while stressing that security is paramount for everyone throughout the West African nation as it works to rebuild after a brutal 14-year civil war. Special Representative of the Secretary-General Alan Doss made his remarks as he handed over a new UN-built police station to the people of Kronowroken, Webbo District, in River Gee County, along Liberia’s border with Côte d’Ivoire.

Just two months after U.S. aerial bombardments began in Somalia, the Bush administration solidified its militaristic engagement with Africa. In February 2007, the Department of Defense announced the creation of a new U.S. Africa Command infrastructure, code name AFRICOM, to “coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the continent.”

Sengbe K. Khasu discusses what may only be considered the 'Liberian Condition'.

Sermon Title: “Occupy Until I Come” (text and verse forgotten). Circa 1980.

We are at Sophie’s Ice-Cream Shop playing truant from church again when she preached this sermon. The pastor’s eldest son and grandchildren. Scandalous.

The blood clot bubbles up an artery and lodges itself someplace in her brain, seizing her tongue. Saints take her into the upper-room. They lay hands on her. They exalt.

Rebuke. Speak in tongues. Some face the wall. She dies.

They say it was a miracle. An act of God.

My grandmother was one of many units that make up the place called Liberia. She died of a stroke. It was the “how,” the symptom, not the cause, as some would like to believe. The Liberian Condition was the “why,” the cause.

I am fruit of her fruit. My human constitution, which governs my health and well-being, I get partly from her. My full-time occupation these days is making sure I cure this condition at least in me.

This grandmother, the one I was closest to, not the quiet Muslim woman we giggled at when she spoke Vai to us or the grandfathers, men bearing surnames that could never be their own even if passed down several hundred years from the time of the Providence landing.

This grandmother, she was a Bassa (her father or grandfather may have been from Jamaica, West Indies). A nurse. Administrator of a school for the poor. She loved us dearly and took mess from no one. But “Pentecostal minister,” “Christian,” “Prayer warrior,” would be her primary identity. Her life story is what I must use to focus my personal discourse in this post-conflict period (although I have come to learn we have had many post-conflict periods before). She is my chart.

I count back my grandmother’s age from my father’s. She is a 20th Century born woman. To Bassa people. And perhaps, a West Indian ghost.

I imagine her as a child the same age as I was when she died. Ten going on eleven.

Whuh you parents pray to? Whuh dey worship?
De people beat you to come to de pray to de strange man?
You was scare?
Da who name you Rebecca so? You pa?
I wonder how long it took before she learned to discard herself in order to survive in ““Sweet Liberia”? She cannot tell me. She has been dead nearly a quarter century. But I imagine the instant her native soul was “won.” I imagine that moment multiplied a million and more ways and times everyday for nearly two hundred years.

Liberia. “Sweat land of Liberty.” “Africa’s oldest republic.” “Founding Member of the League of Nation.” Liberia. The only African country without at least one nationally spoken African language.

We hide our ancestral gods and goddesses under soggy mattresses. But our delusions of grandeur and inferiority has burst once again for all to see. With the exception of one group us. I hear this time is different.

I look forward to getting on the ground and being a part of repairing what was broken when the souls were “won.” My grandmother would be so upset at me were she here. She would be hurt. Angry. But most of all, she would fear for my salvation. Others will do it for her. Cousins, aunts, uncles. The ol' man will understand even if he is initially stunned. Someone close has already given up on my salvation. They will not bother to read the rest.

But the truth of the matter is all that matters: we have deluded ourselves into a quandary. And the net creation of our delusions of grandeur/inferiority is plain for the world to see. Every Liberian life contains a small perfect atom within it. And I am aware that ever so often that atom bubbles over and bursts like a vessel set to some remote timer, visible to all others except us.

I do not believe our Liberian Problem stems only from our traumatic conception. And I refuse to believe in our position in the 500 year plus old “New World Order” (must remain static in order to maintain harmony in some minds. And in the main time, we should all be good global citizens and go through the motions).

It is the role we’ve played to date. And risk playing unless we change character(s). And I do not just mean individuals. That step comes only after we reclaim our sense of self. Some would say we are doing that. We have got trained Liberian minds on the ground, the first woman President (again one of our glorious firsts), we have foreign investors. We have a new resolve.

Then why do we continue to avoid the business of dealing with our real truths? That our history is rife with all that we have seen the last twenty years. And more. You want so-called ethnic cleansing? Gaze into our past. Cannibalism? Presidential coups real and make-believe? Start with E.J. Roye, the fifth President. He was killed shot while swimming to a ship or dragged through the streets of Monrovia, depending on who is telling long before “native people” were even recognized under the Liberian brand.

And what about our habit of calling Papa America to help? Goes back to the very first attack of the deadly “fever” and marauding “heathens” years before the start of official Dependence in 1847. Would we have “acted up” as usual if we sobered to the fact that America’s lack of response has been their consistent response every single time since 1821?

Okay, so they usually respond when our mouth is dragging, as the saying goes.
Would we tear shit down if we realised “de Poppay” was not coming. Or maybe he did. Ol’ man Jimmy did. And those young surfer dudes who declared our graveyard beaches home to the best waves in the world. And they would know. They claim to have hit all the top resorts around the world when on breaks from the Ivy League schools of the West.

We are where we are because of our Constitution as a people. Because of our actions (or inactions). I’m not apologising for the bad behavior of outsiders. I just want to acknowledge our role in the whole play.

We keep looking for reasons to be “saved.” I have lived amongst tribesman from the dominant Tribes of Europe and Asia for most of my life now. I know them well. They are not better nor less diverse as a people. They have many languages. They have beheaded cousins and clansman for centuries. Their brains are not sharper. They do not work harder. Their “kpahn-kpahn” not more potent. They are more honest with themselves. And their agendas around the world. They spend no time devising ways to fool us. We do that quite well ourselves.

I look at my grandmother. I see the girl who probably went to live with some “Congo” or Americo-folks. I pass no judgment. It is the past. It cannot be changed. But nature is not kind to animals who forget or refuse to be themselves. I am reminded of what a close friend recently said to me: you torture a tree you corrupt the fruits. Corrupted fruits over a period of time will be accepted as what has always been. A body out of touch with its cognitive memory functions is connected to nothing. It is incapable of self-preservation. At best, it depends on others for everything. Here is the Liberian Condition. The African in general. Stuck chasing stimuli from outside in order to feel “alive” - even if it kills. More “book,” “big-big house dem,” “prayer vigils,” “fancy embroidered paper engraved Harvard degrees,” and cell-phones. We do this over and over again blindly--we pray to God or Allah when we need brain surgery and then blame certain death on “sumu” or “juju.”” A nation of pathologically delusional people would.

Battles fought for your soul don’t hurt when fought by people who not just look like you but to whom you belong. And in the ‘80s the crusade raged on. We enjoyed it tremendously. Saturdays spent with the world’s greatest grandmother involved matinées at Relda Cinema, sometimes two. And for me, a large bowl of fufu and soup. Then came the spider stories told on the porch by older cousins. Now what kid in his right mind would mind a long Sunday afternoon in church after that? An aunt calls to tell me she has heard my father is a fixture in the old church on Sundays. “The Lord gets you when it’s your time, Sengbe.” I take that as a warning and call the guy up. He admits his backslide. I tell him he is such a disappointment. We laugh about the changing of familiar roles. He tells me he has changed his mind about church. That I must begin to go; his mother would rage hell if he showed up on Judgment Day without any of her grandbabies. We laugh again. But there will be no more talk about it. The Liberian Condition is the “why.”

* Senghbe K. Khasu is a screenwriter, film director and musician living in New York City.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Elma Shaw discusses how refugees are being reintegrated into Liberias societal fabric.

What makes refugees decide to return to a home they left in shambles? What are the challenges to becoming adjusted and reintegrated into a society after years of absence? How are refugees being reintegrated in post-war Liberia?

What makes refugees decide to return to a home they left in shambles? What are the challenges to becoming adjusted and reintegrated into a society after years of absence? How are refugees being reintegrated in post-war Liberia?

It is early July, 2007, and at Roberts International Airport a team from LRRRC, UNHCR, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and GTZ (German Technical Assistance) is waiting to receive a group of Liberian refugees returning from Ghana. The lady from NRC is wearing a T-shirt with the map of Liberia on the front, and the words Theres No Place Like Home. I am there with Nancy Garley, herself a returnee (Yomou Refugee Camp, Guinea, 1990-1999) who now works as a Repatriation Monitor at LRRRC, the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission.

This airport mission is significant because June 30th was the deadline for refugees in the West African sub-region to sign up for Voluntary Repatriation to their home countries. The returnees we came to meet are among the last that will be transported back home with assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. All of them will be given enough bulgur wheat and split peas for four months, non-food items such as blankets, buckets and cooking pots, and a small amount of money to help them get to their final destination.
Voluntary Repatriation began in October 2004, and UNHCR statistics show that as of June 30, 2007, a total of 108,198 refugees have been repatriated with assistance. 51,237 came from Guinea; 28,701 from Sierra Leone; 19,907 from the Cte dIvoire; 5,906 from Ghana; 2,136 from Nigeria; and 311 from other countries. These asylum countries have recorded, during the same period, 50,032 spontaneous, unassisted departures.

The returnees soon file out of the Kenya Airways plane clutching the clear plastic folders that hold their Voluntary Repatriation Forms. This formthe VRFserved as a passport, and will continue to be used as official identification for several more months if they wish to apply for further assistance from UNHCR and its partners.

The 55 returnees at Roberts International Airport today consist of 16 women, 20 children, and 19 young men in their teens and 20s. They are separated from the other passengers, whisked through Customs, and led outside where they will board a large truck for the drive to the Transit Center. I ask Eunice Lloyd, a returnee who spent six years between Nigeria and Ghana, about her first impression. I dont see any armed civilians walking among us, she says with a smile. Im very happy about that. So far, so good!

At the Transit Center, a 30-minute drive from the airport, the returnees gather in a large room where they are officially welcomed by Saah Fayiah of UNHCR. Hanging from the ceiling behind him are encouraging signs. Among them:

LIBERIA CAN ONLY BE BUILT BY LIBERIANS THEMSELVES
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. ITS TIME TO COME BACK HOME TO REBUILD OUR MOTHERLAND LIBERIA
RECONCILIATION IS THE BEST WAY TO NATION-BUILDING

While Saah tells them about the procedure to be followed at the Center, someone passes around large bottles of Blue Lake mineral water bottled right here in Tubmanburg, Bomi County. I can see the surprise in some of the faces as they read the label that displays the Liberian flag, and I am so proudof Blue Lake and of the brave returnees and of the welcome team for giving out our own waterthat my eyes suddenly fill with tears. The returnees get their first Liberian meal, and then go through the routine: screening by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalisation, medical screening, cash payment of transportation, pick-up of non-food items, and pick-up of food rations.

For urban-based returnees (i.e. returnees who will live in Monrovia, Montserrado County) there are a number of opportunities available through Education and Economic Recovery programs. The Monrovia Vocational Training Center, for example, offers masonry, carpentry, electronics, tailoring and other courses. LOIC, the Liberia Opportunities Industrialisation Center, provides computer training, as does many other vocational schools. UNHCR, in the Economc Recovery and Reintegration Sector, awards small business grants ranging from $100 to $500 to applicants who have skills and good business plans. Returnees who qualify for this extra assistance are able to adjust and reintegrate quite quickly, while those who come with no skills, or who resettle in other counties, sometimes find it more difficult.

Richard Johnson is a success story. He stayed in Liberia throughout the battles of the1990s, but when renewed fighting reached Monrovia in 2003 and he lost his car to the rebels, he decided he did not want to experience any more trauma. He gave away the simple metal file he used to cut keys in his small key duplicating shop, and was one of the few lucky Liberians allowed to leave on a plane that had come to evacuate Ghanaian citizens.

While Richard was at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, he got a job with a metalcraft company in Accra. There he learned how to use a machine to cut keys, and how to melt brass to make new keys. Richard decided to return home after he saw President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Ghanaian television saying the war was over and Liberians should come home to help rebuild the country. He signed up for voluntary repatriation and came home on a ship, along with returnees from Nigeria, in April 2006.

When Richard got home he applied to UNHCR for a small business grant. He had bought a key-cutting machine in Ghana, but had no shop to work from, and no generator to run the machine. He received a $500 grant from UNHCR to help him start over. With it he got a small generator and was able to rent shop space at $40/month. Two Keys are Better than One is located on Newport Street, opposite the Duncan Alley gas station. Richard says he needs to make more people aware of his little shop, and will eventually melt brass and produce his own keys.

On 18th Street and Cheesman Avenue in Sinkor, Margaretta Guanue-Donkeh is another example of successful reintegration. Margarettas situation was a little different from most refugees. She and a younger sister started off living in Accra with their older brother, who was doing well with an import-export business. It was not until the business suffered at the hands of a dishonest partner that things became a little difficult.

During her 10 years as a refugee in Accra, Margaretta studied computer software and engineering, while her sister learned sewing. When her sister died, Margaretta took up sewing as a way to keep the girls dream alive. She signed up for lessons at Ghanas well-known KALBS school of fashion, and after a while, because of her talent and her business acumen, she was asked to work there as a manager as well. But what Margaretta wanted to do most was finish school. She had left Liberia during her junior year studying Economics at the University of Liberia. Although Ghana assisted Liberian refugees in many ways, Margaretta was not allowed to transfer credits to a Ghanaian university. Her desire to complete her degree was one factor in her decision to return home. Another was the death of her father. Her mother needed her at home. What finally prompted her to come back though, was the new government. Enthusiasm was in the air and we had a lot of hope for a better future, Margaretta says. She was confident that with her sewing skills she could work to support herself and not have to rely on anyone. Friends said it would be tough, she adds, but I told them people can make any situation better.

Upon arrival in Monrovia, Margaretta began working out of her mothers home, but business wasnt going too well and she knew she needed more visibility. With a grant from UNHCR, she built a small tailoring shop in her mothers front yard and called it Workmans Fashion from a Bible verse in II Timothy. Business improved immediately, and she now wants to buy another machine and hire an experienced tailor to help with the increased workload. In the meantime, Margaretta is giving back and contributing to national development by training two women in the skills of tailoring.

The assistance given to both Richard and Margaretta has helped them become fully reintegrated, and, through their work, is helping to revitalise the national economy. Computer trainees like Vivian Franklin, who spent nine years in Ghana, and Augustine Pardea, who was in Sierra Leone and Guinea from 1990 to 2007, also feel like they are accomplishing something and will be able to contribute to nation-building activities upon graduation. But what is being done about the non-skilled returnees who dont qualify for training or for grants, and those who choose to return to rural areas?

According to LRRRCs Reintegration Officer, Nehemiah Gbaba, NRC helps build shelters for vulnerable returnees (the elderly and handicapped) to Bomi County, while other humanitarian partners provide community-based assistance in both urban and rural areas of return. This assistance includes school renovations, construction of hand pumps (covered wells) and latrines, and, in Lofa County, rehabilitation of roads by UNHCR. The projects help the entire community, rather than only the individual returnees. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also plays a major role in community-based assistance by establishing and empowering District Development Councils (DDCs) to identify the development needs of the community and oversee implementation of development projects.

Registration for Voluntary Repatriation has ended, and those who signed up will all return very soon. With the exception of protection, assistance to refugees who choose to remain in countries of asylum will gradually be reduced, beginning with food rations, then medication, then education. After all, the war is over and Liberia, though not fully at peace until security and justice systems are working well, is in its reconstruction era.

* Elma Shaw writes about living in post-war Liberia, and strives to balance the scale between despair and hope. Writing with a sense of history, a bit of humour, and a sprinkle of irreverence, Shaw presents profiles & photos of people, places and current events that make Liberia truly the Lone Star of Africa.

* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Thomas Jaye lays out the contexts of and challenges to Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Accra, Ghana on 18 August 2003 and the subsequent holding of elections in 2005 have ushered in an atmosphere for durable changes in Liberia. Like other post-conflict societies, the country faces enormous but surmountable challenges that must be addressed in order to make the relapse into armed conflict difficult, if not impossible. Certainly, one of the challenges facing the country is how to reconcile the people and heal the wounds of the past. The enactment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Act, 2005, and the subsequent launching of the Commission in February 2006 constitute positive steps in the right direction. The TRC provides a window of opportunity for the pursuit of transitional justice through truth telling. Nevertheless, the TRC cannot heal nor reconcile the Liberian society on its own; other things must be done in order for Liberian people to reconcile with each other.

Contexts

Like other post-conflict societies, the establishment of a TRC was based on recognition of the fact that there was a need to address impunity in the country. There was a need to deal with the deep sense of injustice generated by the war and even before. In this light, the setting up of the TRC reinforces the basic assumption that one of the unique characteristics of Liberian politics is that almost all the major political changes in the history of the Liberian state have been brought about largely because of a deep sense of injustice. Fifteen years of armed violent conflict caused the death of more than 250,000 people; led to massive and flagrant human rights abuses; destroyed the fragile environment; and led to state and societal collapse.

At the Accra peace talks there emerged two trends of thought about what to do with those who committed crimes during the war years. On the one hand, Liberian civil society groups, including delegates of some political parties, advocated for a war crimes tribunal in order to bring the perpetrators of crime to justice. On the other hand, the realities of post-conflict politics in Liberia suggested an alternative and compromised approach to pursuing transitional justice. Thus, the idea of a TRC became more attractive than a war crimes tribunal. The nature of the outcome of the war did not favour the latter.

Hence, Article XIII of the CPA called for the establishment of the TRC in order to address the issues of impunity, investigate the root causes of the conflict, Perhaps the point should be made that Liberia has a poor history of exploiting political changes for addressing past injustices. The declaration of independence on 26 July 1947, and the military coup of 12 April 1980 failed to address the grievances that caused and triggered these changes. Given the experiences of the past with specific reference to addressing injustices, the question is whether the TRC will make any difference or will it be business as usual?

Mandates

After the Accra Talks, the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) was formed incorporating all stakeholders to the Liberian conflict including armed factions, political parties, and civil society groups. One of the legacies of the NTGL (dubbed in Liberia as ‘Nothing To Give Liberia’) is the TRC Act of 2005, which provides the legal framework for the work of the Commission.

According to the Act, the TRC is empowered to:
-investigate human rights violations and economic crimes with January 1979 and October 2003 as the cut off points (However, cases before 1979 can be considered if there is application from any person or groups of persons to this effect);
-provide a forum to address impunity and an opportunity to facilitate ‘genuine healing and reconciliation’;
-investigate the root causes of the armed conflict; critically review the past in order to address falsehoods and misconceptions of the country’s socio-economic and political development, and establish ‘historical truths’ thereof;
-adopt mechanisms and procedures to address the experiences of vulnerable groups such as women, children and others; and recommend measures for the rehabilitation of victims of human rights violations in order to ensure national reconciliation and healing;
-and write a report on the activities and findings of the Commission.

The objectives outlined in the mandate are crucial to the overall process of post-war reconstruction in Liberia. For post-conflict Liberia, it is important that the people understand why there was war. Indeed, the people should be aware that there is a direct link between cause and effect because it is only through such an understanding that the country can find durable solutions to its problems. In this light, it is crucial that the root causes of the conflict be examined in order to address the problems of the past.
It is also important to stress that the TRC should not be an end in itself; it should be a means to an end – a strategy. If this is the case, then the TRC can serve as a vehicle for generating debates in Liberia that could shape the future of the country. In this sense, any attempt to investigate the root causes of the conflict as well as human rights violations and economic crimes over the past three decades should ultimately feed into broader tasks of post-conflict reconstruction. It should feed into the building of viable and stable national polity that is democratic and inclusive in every respect.

The other broader point to make about the significance of the TRC mandate is that the victims of human rights abuses have the right to justice; they have the right to know what happened and to reparations. Truth telling is very important for societies like Liberia because it brings to light what really happened in the past. Nevertheless, as important as the above objectives are, what worries me is the broad and ambitious nature of the TRC mandate. To add fuel to fire, it is inconceivable as to how the Commission can implement such a mandate within its initial life span of 18 months. Although truth hearings have started both within and outside the country, it seems impossible to complete such an exercise on schedule. The Commission is facing many challenges that must be addressed in order to do a successful job.

Challenges

To reiterate, the TRC is facing enormous challenges but a mention of the most critical will suffice. First, the entire process raises concerns over what constitutes truth, and whose truth. From historical experiences, you can get the ‘truth’ without reconciling people. Truth telling may not necessarily resolve tensions, distrust and mistrust among the people but produce an adverse effect. Under circumstances where both victims and perpetrators of crimes are apprehensive about the outcomes of truth telling, it may be difficult to get the truth; it may never be told but remain hidden under the carpets. This is a challenge that the TRC must address.

Secondly, although the Government of Liberia contributed 1% of its budget to the work of the TRC, the work of the Commission depends largely on donor funding. Based on experiences elsewhere, donor funding can sometimes induce donor-driven agendas; they have a tendency to push certain agendas that do not necessarily reflect national realities. In some cases, they bring in ‘experts’ who have little knowledge of the local situation and such behaviour can easily undermine national ownership. However, the dilemma for Liberia’s TRC is that without donor funding, it will be extremely difficult to implement its mandate. In recent times, the relationship between the donors and the Commission have been characterised by deep suspicion, mistrust and tension over the capacity of the latter to do its work; and the way in which resources were used by and on Commissioners.

Third, although the Commission had started some work in the area of truth telling, there is very little to show for the rest of its mandate. This verifies the assumption that the broad and ambitious mandate of the Commission cannot be achieved easily. For example, investigating the root causes of the conflict requires people with interdisciplinary academic backgrounds and experiences. My gut feeling is that the Commission should concentrate mainly on truth telling and reconciliation. The rest can be pursued if the life span of the Commission is extended. The challenge therefore is to prioritise its work or risk failure and mockery.

Fourth, as indicated earlier, reconciling the people of Liberia will not be achieved solely through the work of the TRC. Its work can certainly contribute towards national healing and reconciliation but its work should be mainstreamed. The TRC should combine with other national programmes that can improve the socio-economic, cultural, and political environment for national healing and reconciliation. For example, there is the need to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people; there is the need for inclusive and not exclusive politics; and traditional methods of healing and reconciliation must be used to achieve this objective.

Finally, reports of internal squabbles among Commissioners have tainted the image of the Commission; it has undermined its credibility in some ways. The challenge is for the Commissioners to confound their critics by addressing their internal problems in a way that will facilitate the work of the Commission.

Conclusion

It is important to stress that the TRC has a historic role to play in shaping the future of post-conflict Liberia. Its work can reassure victims by addressing impunity. To achieve its objectives, the TRC should serve as a vehicle for generating debates about the future of the country through its investigation of the crimes, human rights violations and root causes of the armed violent conflict.

References:

Funmi Olonisakin, Reinventing Peacekeeping in Africa. Conceptual and Legal Issues in ECOMOG Operations (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000) p. 69

Funmi Olonisakin, Reinventing Peacekeeping in Africa. Conceptual and Legal Issues in ECOMOG Operations (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000) p. 69

Article XIII of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 18 August 2003, Accra, Ghana

Article IV, An Act to Establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia, 2005, p. 4

* Dr. Thomas Jaye is currently serving as Senior Research Fellow at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana and writing on regional security issues. He is author of the book, ‘Issues of Sovereignty, Strategy and Security in the ECOWAS Intervention in the Liberian Civil War,’ published by Edwin Mellen Press in 2003.

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