Abstract:
- Regardless of long-standing fears {that a} battle crimes court docket might spark instability, specialists say profitable worldwide prosecutions and altering public sentiment make battle unlikely.
- With Prince Johnson lifeless and no historical past of violence tied to previous battle crimes trials, specialists say court docket designers ought to prioritize defending amenities, employees, and witnesses—however worry of ex-warlords is overblown.
- Specialists say the court docket have to be primarily based in Liberia, however funding gaps, coaching wants, and regional dangers imply worldwide companions should assist equip safety forces with out deploying overseas troops.
One of the vital points for designers of Liberia’s battle and financial crimes court docket can be safety. Opponents of the court docket, together with Thomas Nimely Yaya, an ex-rebel chief, now a senator of Grand Gedeh County, have lengthy threatened a court docket would “dismantle” peace, fire up previous wounds and restart battle. At the very least a kind of most probably to have been referred to as earlier than the court docket – the late warlord-turned-senator Prince Johnson – had threatened a navy response if he had been indicted.
By Anthony Stephens, Senior Justice Correspondent with New Narratives
There will even be the massive situation of methods to shield the various witnesses who can be referred to as upon to testify. In additional than a dozen instances introduced towards perpetrators from Liberia’s conflicts in Europe and the USA, some witnesses have reported being threatened.
“You’ve received to be ready for each eventuality,” stated Ambassador Stephen Rapp, a former chief prosecutor for the Particular Courtroom for Sierra Leone, in a video interview final yr. “And nothing would damage the court docket greater than a safety incident that may mainly undermine all the remainder of its of its trials.”
Liberia has had trial runs for the safety challenges it’d face. The primary got here within the trial of former president, Charles Taylor, on the Particular Courtroom for Sierra Leone, in 2006. Some court docket officers and nervous politicians argued that attempting Taylor in Sierra Leone posed safety dangers to the nation and the area, the place Taylor nonetheless had management over fighters who might retaliate for his prosecution doubtlessly destabilizing the area. Rapp disagreed however finally Taylor’s trial was moved to The Hague, within the Netherlands at an exorbitant value.
The selection of shifting a trial to a European nation wouldn’t be accessible to Liberia’s cash-strapped court docket. The Particular Courtroom value greater than $US300 million ($430 million in at present’s {dollars}), 80 percent of what was spent on Taylor’s trial. Anyway, court docket advocates say it’s important for Liberians to see justice carried out on house soil.
A second trial run got here within the type of the trial of Gibril Massaquoi, the Sierra Leonean former warlord tried on costs of committing atrocities on behalf of Charles Taylor in Liberia between 1991 and 2003. The trial court docket, and an appeals court docket, held months of hearings in Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2021 and 2022. The hearings had been held in a Paynesville lodge and whereas not open to the general public, they had been coated extensively by Liberian newsmedia. Greater than 80 witnesses appeared with no obvious incidents of violence. (Massaquoi was acquitted in 2024 when the appeals court docket agreed with a decrease court docket ruling that the prosecutors didn’t show “past an inexpensive doubt” Massaquoi that dedicated the crimes of homicide, rape, torture, and recruitment of kid troopers with which he was charged.)
There have additionally been 7 trials of accused Liberian warlords in courts in the USA and Europe. All have been extensively reported inside Liberia throughout radio stations within the nation.
Whereas witnesses who testified at these trials have reported being threatened by the accused and their allies, there has but to be a bodily assault or any trace of an organized navy operation. John Stewart, a commissioner of Liberia’s Reality and Reconciliation Fee, who himself testified in two trials in France of Kunti Kamara – convicted of committing atrocities as a part of the Ulimo insurgent faction in 1993 – says the dearth of violence from these trials has proven Liberians that the courts opponents are incorrect.
“I believe the Liberian individuals wouldn’t have any urge for food to return to battle,” says John Stewart, Reality and Reconciliation commissioner. “They’ve a distaste for battle and violence. If the court docket is ready up, they should take all the mandatory safety precautions primarily based on their risk evaluation.”
However the prices of safety will possible be a significant constraint. Specialists say Liberia’s court docket will face huge challenges simply discovering the funds to get off the bottom. Even earlier than huge cuts to U.S. support by incoming President Donald Trump donors had been making it clear to the federal government that the funds accessible might not add as much as far more than $US10m. (Beth Van Schaack, Ambassador-at-Massive for World Legal Justice throughout the Biden administration, had offered technical help to the Workplace of Struggle and Financial Courtroom of Liberia and lobbied Congress for monetary help. She additionally suggested court docket officers look to smaller courts just like the $US14m trial of Chadian dictator Hissene Habre, held in Senegal, as “right-sized” for Liberia.)
Although the perpetrator thought most probably to trigger bother, Prince Johnson, is now dead, safety specialists say it will likely be a mistake to underfund safety.
“How do you shield the courts?” requested Cecil Griffiths, head of the Liberia Nationwide Regulation Enforcement Affiliation and a key adviser on nationwide safety points. “How do you shield the jail facility for the pretrial detainees and after they, if they’re finally sentenced? How do you shield that facility the place they are going to be housed? These are points that we have to begin the dialog on proper now, at the same time as we put together work on the court docket. Safety is crucial to this courts, and the difficulty of safety shouldn’t be an afterthought.”
The worldwide group led by the United Nations, offered specialised trainings for state police in Sierra Leone and different nations that arrange battle crimes tribunals. Final June, President Joseph Boakai requested monetary and technical help from the UN. A technical workforce from the UN has labored with the Workplace of Struggle and Financial Crimes Courtroom. Led by Jallah Barbu, a lawyer and its govt director, the Workplace is main Liberia’s court docket designing course of. The Workplace has presented a roadmap to the president.
The doc says coaching will start this October with plans to prepare a minimum of 50 investigators for witness safety. They are going to be skilled to contemplate trauma of themselves and their witnesses in addition to the completely different challenges confronted by girls. The doc says coaching can be facilitated by specialists from ECOWAS, Interpol, the UN Peacebuilding Fund in The Gambia, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Analysis Institute, and the EU Company for Legal Justice Cooperation.
It’s been greater than 8 years since United Nations peacekeepers, who had offered safety for Liberia, left the nation. Liberian safety forces have overseen the nation’s safety since then, together with guaranteeing the profitable conduct of two democratic presidential and legislative elections, in addition to by-elections. Though there have been incidents that seemed to threaten the peace – together with violent clashes on the headquarters of the Coalition for Democratic Change, Liberia’s principal opposition political social gathering, in 2024 – the nation has not skilled something near the violence of its two civil wars. The wars ended greater than 21 years in the past, killing about 250,000 individuals.
Threats from accused perpetrators have prompted panic in some quarters. There are considerations that their supporters might additionally resist their arrests and prosecutions. However Tiawan Gongloe, a veteran Liberian human rights lawyer, disagrees, saying the various profitable prosecutions of perpetrators in overseas courts have meant “the worry has shifted from the survivors and victims to the perpetrators.”
“Anyone who fought this battle will lose his power instantly as soon as he’s handcuffed and no different individual wish to come close to that individual,” stated Gongloe, who was the solicitor common underneath the Sirleaf administration when Taylor was handed over the Particular Courtroom by way of the UN. “Not one of the perpetrators has the flexibility to trigger havoc right here for a lot of causes: the kid troopers are at present ministers, deputy ministers, police chiefs. They’re within the military. They’re working the diplomatic service. They’re working in banks. They’re married. They’ve kids, grandchildren. They don’t seem to be going to even the smallest diploma help any of the perpetrators.”
However safety threats within the area make many nervous. Navy regimes have taken over elected governments in a number of regional neighbors. The regime of Guinea, was accused of supporting rebels in its civil wars and a Guinean nationwide allegedly seeking to recruit Liberian insurgent troops for a coup try prompted a global incident in 2024. Regional leaders performed energetic roles in fueling Liberia’s battle. Liberia’s leaders did the identical of their nations. However regional leaders have since labored exhausting to solidify peace. All 4 Mano River Union nations – Liberia, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone – have joined in committees on peace and safety to guard the area.
“Not one of the three nations surrounding Liberia can open their doorways to any potential battle maker or troublemaker into Liberia,” stated Hassan Bility a Liberian transitional justice skilled. “And no person ought to be in possession of arms right here, illegally.”
All specialists spoken to for this story say there’s no want for overseas troops to offer safety for a battle crimes court docket, judges, employees, protection and prosecution attorneys and the accused amongst others. However Griffiths says the military ought to be referred to as upon to again up the police when the police are unable to deal with sure conditions. He says the police want specialised coaching from the US and Europe to guard the courts and officers.
“Proper now, they should begin taking a look at their manpower; wanting on the guys who’re actually good, making ready them, giving them some crash programs, after which attempting to ship them,” says Griffiths. “There are establishments overseas focusing on coaching officers on methods to conduct investigations on battle crimes. You want safety for the power that can detain the alleged perpetrators even whereas they’re on trial. You want additionally safety for the power that can lastly home people who can be convicted.”
The subsequent tales on this sequence will take a look at points together with reparations, staffing, the courts’ location and witness safety and investigations. This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as a part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Challenge. Funding was offered by the Swedish embassy in Liberia. The donor had no say within the story’s content material.
