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Statue of former Liberian rebel Prince Y. Johnson, who became an evangelical preacher and died on 28 November 2024. Adulated by some in his home county of Nimba, he has been cited by the Truth Commission of Liberia as a perpetrator of serious crimes committed during the civil war. Photo: © D.R.

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On 28 November 2024, Liberians woke up to the news of the death of senator Prince Y. Johnson, one of Liberia’s most feared and charismatic warlords. His passing away at the age of 72 in a hospital in a suburb of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city, may signal an end to warlord politics, but his wartime legacy looms large, even in death. Until now, the prewar generation has been traumatised by his wartime exploits, while the post-war generation has been often mesmerised by his seductive post-war politics. Altogether, Johnson has earned himself a controversial spot in the collective memory. To some, he’s viewed as a hero and an ethno-nationalist, while to others he was a sadistic perpetrator of casual violence, a war criminal and the search for civil war era accountability would have been incomplete without his culpability.…  Seguir leyendo »

With his promise of accountability for the crimes of the civil war, can President Joseph Boakai escape the power and influence struggles between Liberia's elites? Photo: © Seyllou / AFP

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On August 15, 2024, Liberian President Joseph Boakai unexpectedly rescinded his decision appointing Jonathan Massaquoi as the head of the War and Economic Crimes Court (WECC) Office and called for its reconstitution. Before the August 15 Press Statement, an earlier statement was released reaffirming the President’s confidence in Massaquoi, despite opposition by civil society leaders, the Liberia National Bar Association and National Orator for Independence Day on July 26, 2024. The Coalition for Justice in Liberia pointed out in particular that Massaquoi represented the wife of convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor, which they argue prevents him from ethically representing the WECC Office.…  Seguir leyendo »

More than twenty years after the end of the civil war in Liberia, new President Joseph Boakai paved the way on May 2 for the possible creation of a war crimes tribunal. Photo (video snapshot) : © LNTV / AFP

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On May 2nd 2024, Liberians in the diaspora and those at home took to social media to talk about one thing: the Executive Order NO.131 creating the Office to establish the War and Economic Crimes Court in Liberia. Liberians on X (Twitter), Facebook and LinkedIn praised President Joseph Nyuma Boakai for the political will to reckon with Liberia’s past. To say the action was popular would be an understatement. In Liberia’s transitional justice history, May 2nd 2024 may go down as one of the most consequential milestones, perhaps a date that deserves to be memorialised.

The date marked an end to the politics of silence, legislative manoeuvring on matters of transitional justice and weak political will to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report.…  Seguir leyendo »

Joseph Boakai, Liberia's new president, here on the campaign trail last October, had declared in 2021: “You cannot live in a society, create harmony and reconciliation when most of the people don’t believe that they’re responsible for anything." © Guy Peterson / AFP

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In Liberia, there is a conflict about what the conflict was about. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) 2009 final report, however, determined that the history of political violence and Liberia’s destructive civil wars (in 1989-1997 and 1999-2003) are attributable to the origin of the nation-state. Liberia is Africa’s first Black Republic. It was never formally colonised but conceived under problematic circumstances. Despite this pertinent finding, discussions over what led to the civil wars abound. Some maintain that it was caused by inter-ethnic conflict. Conspiracy theorists blamed it on the machination of the Americo-Liberian elites and how they upended indigenous people’s rule in the late 1980s through the plot of a civil war.…  Seguir leyendo »

Liberian President George Weah, who is running for a second term in office, has abandoned the idea of national prosecutions for war crimes committed during the civil war. © Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP

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In 2004, George Weah, then a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, called for the establishment of a war crimes court to prosecute those most responsible for the atrocities of the civil war in Liberia in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Like many Liberians, Weah – a former football superstar – had himself suffered immensely from the violence. Some of his relatives were killed, and others gangraped. His properties, including houses and vehicles, were looted, vandalised; his entire estate in Monrovia was razed to the ground.

Weah’s early support for criminal accountability for civil war-era reverberated in his move into politics and the formation of Congress for Democratic Change (CDC).…  Seguir leyendo »