Truth and justice on trial in Liberia

African Affairs

Volumn 107, Issue 428, 2008, Pages 455-465

  Gberie, Lansana ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

POLITICAL HISTORY; WAR;

AFRICA; LIBERIA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; WEST AFRICA;

EID: 46149116338     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adn038     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. An Act to Establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Liberia (TRC Act), 12 May 2005, accessed at .
2. Article IV Section 4(a) of TRC Act.
3. See, for example, the very affecting recollections of Helene Cooper, 'In search of a lost Africa'. New York Times Magazine, 6 April 2008.
4. Amnesty International, 'Truth, justice and reparation: Memorandum on Truth and Reconciliation Act', 22 June 2006, accessed at .
5. Interview, Monrovia, 10 March 2008.
6. The presidential criticism looked suspiciously like a cop-out, and it was widely condemned by the vocal Liberian press. Johnson-Sirleaf was Finance Minister in the Tolbert administration that was overthrown in 1980, and was one of the most prominent supporters of Taylor in the early stages of the war. This support continued even after thousands had been slaughtered in ethnic pogroms and Taylor was besieging Monrovia. As for Dearboy, he at first denied the charges, and then admitted that he had been recruited by Taylor as a child soldier. He has, however, denied committing atrocities, and has launched a noisy campaign against the TRC, refusing to appear before it. The musician was influential in the Johnson-Sirleaf election campaign, helping to rally thousands of young people to her side.
7. Stephen Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy: The destruction of Liberia and the religious dimensions of an African civil war (Christopher Hurst, London, revised edition, 2006), p. 267.
8. Joshua Blahyi, Trading Priesthood for Priesthood: A testimonial account of a Liberian brutal war general and traditional priest that dramatically met Christ and is now a Christian ambassador (BeeGee Productions, Monrovia, 2006).
9. I am not alone in finding this remarkable. Many foreign observers, including UN human rights officials, have complained about this attitude. One of them, the Deputy Head of UNMIL, told me that Liberians are simply 'too traumatized', and that, in any case, with the total absence of the rule of law for so long, they simply have no conception of their civic responsibility, not to mention crime and punishment (Interview, Monrovia, 18 February 2008.) Liberians, in other words, lived in a kind of Hobbesian universe where the strongest survived, and there was no moral distinction of right and wrong.
10. Interview, Monrovia, 4 March 2008.
11. See Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press, New York, NY, 1963).
12. Ellis, Mask of Anarchy, p. 101.
13. Extracts are taken from www.charlestaylortrial.org (accessed April 2008.).
14. The News (Monrovia) 28 January 2008.
15. 'Kromah: I'm preparing to appear,' The Analyst (Monrovia) 16 January 2008.
16. Article VII, Section 26 of the TRC Act.
17. 'Policy paper on application for amnesty', TRC Bulletin No. 6, March 2008.
18. Article VIII, Section 30 of the TRC Act; quoted in 'Policy paper on general immunity for all witnesses', TRC Bulletin No. 2, March 2008.
19. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 'Forward to Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2006', accessed at .
20. Interview, Monrovia, 15 February 2008.
21. A Nation in Terror: The true story of the Liberian civil war (Parkside Impressions Enterprises, Philadelphia, PA. 2004), p. 123.
22. Stephen Ellis, 'Liberia 1989-1994: A study of ethnic and spiritual violence', African Affairs 94, 375(1995), p. 197.