Liberia's experiment with transitional justice

African Affairs

Volumn 109, Issue 434, 2009, Pages 135-144

  Steinberg, Jonny ^a  

^a OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION; HUMAN RIGHTS; POST-WAR; SECURITY THREAT;

LIBERIA;

EID: 77749336397     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adp085     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. Republic of Liberia, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Consolidated Final Report, Volume II (unedited, released 30 June 2009), p. 268, (27 September 2009).
2. By the time this briefing is published, the TRC will have released an "edited" version of its Final Report. In this latest version, several names are likely to be added to the lists of those the Commission recommends be prosecuted or censured.
3. Interview, Commissioner Massa Washington, Atlanta, Georgia, 29 August 2009
4. Lansana Gberie, 'Memory and politics: Liberia's TRC Report,' in The Liberian Journal, 13 July 2009, p. 11, .
5. Stephen Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy: The destruction of Liberia and the religious dimension of an African civil war (New York University Press, New York, NY, revised edition, 2006), pp. 75-109.
6. James Youboty, A Nation in Terror: The true story of the Liberian civil war (Parkside Impressions, Philadelphia, PA, 2004), pp. 302-22.
7. Dane F. Smith, 'US-Guinea relations during the rise and fall of Charles Taylor', Journal of Modern African Studies 44, 3 (2006), pp. 415-39. See, especially, pp. 434-6.
8. See, especially, pp. 434-6
9. Priscilla Hayner, 'Negotiating peace in Liberia: preserving the possibility of justice' (report, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Geneva, November 2007), p. 14.
10. Aaron C. Sleh, Samuel G. Toe, and Aaron B. Weah, Impunity Under Attack: The evolution and imperatives of the Liberian Truth Commission (Civic Initiative, Monrovia, 2008), p. 96.
11. Hayner, 'Negotiating peace in Liberia,' p. 16.
12. 'We've amnesty,'New Democrat Monrovia, 26 August 2009. The newspaper quoted Johnson thus: 'The war would never have ended had the revolutionary and the political parties and the OAU representatives and UN, and ECOWAS not agreed to enshrine in that peace accord general amnesty. These men would never drop their arms.'
13. 'An Act to Establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Liberia' (TRC Act), 12 May 2005, Article IV, Section 4
14. Sleh, Toe, and Weah, Impunity Under Attack, pp. 114-5.
15. Amnesty International, 'Liberia: towards the final phase of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission' (report, London, July 2008), p. 29.
16. The TRC never formerly acknowledged that this was the reason it did not use its powers of subpoena, but Commissioner Massa Washington intimated as much in a reply to a question on a public platform at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on 31 August 2009
17. TRC, 'Policy paper on general immunity for all the TR Cwitnesses' (Public Bulletin No. 2, 31 March 2008).
18. Aaron Weah, 'The TRC struggles for control: unpacking the conduct of the institutional and thematic hearings', The Perspective, 7 October 2008, p. 3, .
19. Lansana Gberie, 'Truth and justice on trial in Liberia,' African Affairs 107, 428 (2008), pp. 459-60.
20. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great (HarperCollins, New York, NY, 2009)
21. Interview, Commissioner Massa Washington, Atlanta, Georgia, 29 August 2009
22. I visited all three of these cities in July 2009
23. Interview, Togba Nah Tipoteh, veteran leader of the Movement for Justice in Africa, Monrovia, 9 October 2008.
24. interview, Alaric Topka, University of Liberia political scientist and one-time vice-presidential candidate, Monrovia, 4 October 2008.
25. Author's interview, 17 October 2008, Monrovia.
26. Interview, Aaron Weah, Program Associate, International Center for Transitional Justice, Monrovia, 13 July 2009.
27. Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy, pp. 110-49.