- Adhering to a advice of the nation’s T. R.C., President Joseph Boakai has formally apologized to victims of Liberia’s civil wars, an motion none of his predecessors took
- Boakai has additionally pledged to erect a nationwide memorial and guarantee prison accountability for wartime atrocities
- Human rights advocates need him to offer monetary help to the Workplace for the Institution of the Warfare and Financial Crimes Courtroom, whose head has repeatedly complained a few lack of funds to function.
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
President Joseph Boakai has issued an official apology on behalf of the Liberian nation “to each sufferer of our civil battle”— ending greater than twenty years of ready by victims, survivors and advocates looking for accountability for wartime atrocities.
The president apologized on Saturday throughout a state-sponsored “Nationwide Therapeutic, Reconciliation and Unity Program” on the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complicated for these killed, injured and displaced throughout the wars, the Ebola epidemic and Covid pandemic. It was the climax of what the federal government mentioned was the primary section of a nationwide reconciliation train launched earlier this 12 months and together with the reburials of William Tolbert and Samuel Doe, two ex-presidents with complicated chapters in Liberia’s historical past.
By brazenly admitting to wrongdoing of the state and providing an apology, Boakai has achieved what none of his predecessors had achieved. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, whom he served as vice chairman for 12 years, and George Weah, whom he succeeded greater than eighteen months in the past refused to do regardless of it being a advice of the nation’s 2009 Reality and Reconciliation Fee report. The nation’s brutal civil wars killed about 250,000 folks, displaced thousands and thousands and destroyed nation’s infrastructure.
“The State may have achieved higher however was used as an company,” mentioned Boakai. “However we’re right here now, and we should do every part we will to make it possible for it by no means fails you once more. This apology have to be adopted by motion. We’re dedicated to implementing key suggestions of the Reality and Reconciliation Fee.”
A proper apology from the State is one in all 207 of suggestions the Fee made in its last 2009 report. The Fee additionally really useful reburials for “all victims of massacres” and for certificates of loss of life adorned within the Nationwide Colours to be issued to the surviving heirs of all those that misplaced their lives throughout the interval 1979 to 2003, and who so far stay unaccounted for, are with no grave or different authorized proof of loss of life.
Transitional justice consultants say the apology is a momentous step for reconciliation within the ocuntry. State apologies have been seen as key to nationwide therapeutic elsewhere, as they exhibit state possession of previous wrongs and create house for forgiveness.
“I feel this can be a nice begin to an extended technique of nationwide therapeutic, justice, and reconciliation,” mentioned Aaron Weah, govt director of the Ducor Institute for Social and Financial Analysis, a Liberian suppose tank. “The president wants to attract particular consideration to his motion as fulfilling the T.R.C. report.”
Adama Dempster, one other main Liberian transitional justice professional, agreed with Weah on the importance of the president’s apology.
“His motion signifies acceptance and acknowledgment of the incorrect issues that occurred in Liberia,” mentioned Dempster in WhatsApp messages. “While we all know public apologies don’t assure forgiveness, it’s a real step in the direction of therapeutic and reconciliation for victims to search out closure.”
On Thursday, the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, the place Dempster serves as secretary, criticized the federal government for reburying Doe and Tolbert with out doing the identical for “the households of victims and survivors of atrocities and communities.”
An Americo-Liberian, Tolbert was killed in workplace throughout a coup in 1980. His authorities was accused of rampant corruption, nepotism, and discriminating in opposition to indigenous Liberians. It was additionally blamed for the killing of protesters who demonstrated a 12 months earlier in opposition to a hike within the value of rice, the nation’s staple meals.
Comparable accusations engulfed Doe’s authorities, together with widespread human rights violations, most notably the St. Peters’ Lutheran Church bloodbath, which was allegedly carried out 35 years in the past by the Particular Anti-Terrorist Unit (SATU), a pressure loyal to Doe. An estimated 600 folks, together with girls, youngsters and infants, who had sought refuge within the church, a Pink Cross shelter, had been allegedly shot and hacked to loss of life by SATU forces. Satu forces claimed the civilians, primarily members of the Mano and Gio ethnic teams, had been supporters of Charles Taylor, a former Liberian president, who had launched a army incursion on Doe’s authorities from Nimba County, a area dominated by the tribes. Taylor was a insurgent chief on the time of the invasion.
Nobody has been held to account criminally for the carnage, which drew the world’s consideration to Liberia’s first civil warfare. In 2022, a U.S. courtroom district courtroom discovered Moses Thomas, accused of main the troops within the assault on that day, liable for the killings and ordered him to pay $US84 million in damages. The ruling has but to be enforced, as a result of Thomas fled the U.S. to Liberia. Moses Wright, a former brigadier normal of the Liberian military, thought-about by many as one in all Doe’s most trusted folks, is scheduled to face trial this October within the U.S. for allegedly mendacity about his warfare previous in immigration proceedings.
Though the choice of Boakai to rebury Doe and Tolbert was controversial, the president defended his motion, saying “by honoring their reminiscence, we acknowledge a whole era of loss and nationwide trauma.” Boakai then reaffirmed his dedication to accountability for atrocity crimes.
“Some will say transfer on and let bygones be bygones. However how does a baby overlook the brutal execution of his dad and mom after which forcibly conscripted to bear arms?” requested Boakai. “We had been even compelled to sing the Lord’s music in unusual lands. My fellow residents, you’ll agree with me that there’s hardly a Liberian household that has not been touched by the ache, the violence, and the injustice which have haunted our nation.”
Since coming to energy, Boakai has been taking what consultants say are daring steps for accountability towards wartime atrocities. Considered one of them is requesting monetary and technical help from the United Nations, for a warfare and financial crimes courtroom and a particular anti-corruption courtroom. Earlier this 12 months, the U.N. despatched a technical group to help the Workplace of Warfare and Financial Crimes Courtroom, which the president arrange. Christine N. Umutoni, the U. N. Resident Coordinator in Liberia, praised the nation’s resilience and for being a post-conflict success story, together with peaceable transfers of energy. However she mentioned, “plenty of work” remained for the nation to “overlook the previous traumas, foster forgiveness and construct a shared future.” However she was a key to what was “selling fact telling, selling justice and accountability.”
Not like his predecessors, advocates say, Boakai has demonstrated a political will by establishing the Workplace and committing $2 million in funding for 2025. However Jallah Barbu, govt director of the Workplace, has constantly complained in regards to the lack of funds to function. The $2 million promised in Could has but to reach on the Workplace account. Dempster mentioned it was essential for the president to exhibit his dedication with funds.
“With out funding the accountability course of, the dearth of funds to function the Workplace of Warfare and Financial Crimes courtroom of Liberia will stall and never obtain its aims and targets, thereby making room for alleged perpetrators to not be held accountable,” mentioned Dempster.
“Maybe, the necessity to appoint a transitional justice advisor, an middleman between the presidency, the cupboard and Workplace of Warfare and Financial Crimes Courtroom of Liberia is crucial,” mentioned Weah, additionally by WhatsApp messages. “That approach, you may have somebody whose process is to remind the president about these commitments. It’s attainable he’s unaware that the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of State is just not following appropriately.”
On the program, President Boakai additionally pledged to “revive the Nationwide Historical past Venture to provide a complete and inclusive account of Liberia’s historical past that displays the nation’s range.” He promised to “set up a nationwide memorial to honor the victims of the nation’s conflicts and “protect the T.R.C. archives as a testomony to our nationwide conscience and collective reminiscence.”
However Dempster cautioned him in regards to the potential influence of the initiatives.
“Rewriting historical past to honor victims will spark confusion,” Dempster warned. “Nobody sufferer is extra essential than one other. What you are able to do is help a reparations course of for all victims and their communities.”
Weah provided a special view.
“The concept of resuscitating the Nationwide Historical past Venture is commendable,” Weah mentioned. “However for all these measures to have their desired influence, the president must arrange a presidential process pressure as a regular to observe or equip the Unbiased Nationwide Fee on Human Rights with the required sources to implement the suggestions.”
Antoine Rutayisire, a famend Rwandan Anglican pastor and reconciliation advocate who delivered the keynote tackle on the occasion, praised ex-presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and George Weah for making certain peaceable transfers of energy. He additionally recommended President Boakai for “taking the injuries of Liberia critically.”
“Therapeutic and reconciliation are a really lengthy journey,” Rutayisire mentioned. “It’s a marathon, not a one-hundred-meter sprint. You can’t rush therapeutic. You can’t pressure reconciliation as a result of folks don’t embrace actuality and alter on the identical tempo.”
He continued, “you can’t speak about reconciliation and unity to individuals who stay in starvation, poverty, and illness whereas others stay in extravagant wealth. You can’t inform me to forgive and love those that have offended me once I don’t really feel safe in my neighborhood.”
President Boakai urged ministries, companies, civil society, growth companions to “align their efforts in help” of an 18-year nationwide therapeutic, peacebuilding, and reconciliation roadmap now in its last 5 years.
Saturday’s program was attended by folks from totally different backgrounds, together with victims and survivors of the wars and accused perpetrators, together with Senator Thomas Nimely Yaya. This system was a mix of stay musical and cultural performances, in addition to poetry recitations. However there have been no representatives from girls’s teams, ECOWAS, Mano River Union and the interview-relations council on the program, though they had been named in this system sheet. President Boakai lit a candle for peace, reconciliation and unity and posed for images with attendees, together with abnormal Liberians, on the occasion.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as a part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Venture. Funding was offered by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia which had no say within the story’s content material.
