By Tarty Teh
They call themselves the “Forum for the Establishment of a War Crime[s] Court in Liberia.” But if members of this group were a tad more up-to-date on the issues of civil rights and due process, they might be a bit more circumspect, otherwise they could be sued for defamation. Chances are they are not even fit to host such a serious charge because of the intrinsic need of any society to protect the infirm.
But to get to the limelight, the Forum people didn’t do a whole lot more than issue a press release to get us to discuss an issue that was otherwise settled nearly three years ago through an internationally sanctioned peace pact. Liberian peace negotiators had put together a menu at the ECOWAS-sponsored peace conference in 2003. On that menu were presidential and parliamentary elections.
The agreement also called for allotment of positions among warring factions and members of the Liberian civil society. Then there was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It’s on that ECOWAS menu. It got on the list by beating out war crimes court, or tribunal of any sort. We agreed in Ghana that we need but one way to settle our differences. The one way is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That’s what they had in South Africa and look where they are now!
The fact that the TRC is on the menu means that it was the chosen means of redress of grievances: grievances that accrued from the country’s 14 years of civil war. In other words, if you have a case against anyone, you must go to the TRC with the complaint. You will not be allowed to go to court: not the regular courts (because they won’t take the case), and not a special court (because we don’t have one in Liberia).
Also, anyone who thinks that someone will get shot based on a ruling by the TRC will be disappointed; not least because we have seen enough shootings and killings, but because it’s not on the menu either. It’s not that the rest of us don’t care about justice of the juridical variety, but we realize that though we seek some guarantees through the enactment of laws, we take preventive measures to assure at least that we are not easily victimized. But in case we are, as we were through the 14-year war, we take what remedial measures are available currently, knowing that what is legal may not be fair.
Until we make laws that are as close to fairness as we can get and until we are willing to enforce the many laws already on the books, we will have to take the best of what’s available and move on, knowing very well that those who cheated us this trip have not kicked their cheating habits. We should therefore make plans for the next time around. The question should now be, “How easy will it be for someone to cheat us again next time?” If we make it a bit tougher, we have made some progress.
The disturbing thing is that the Forum group is not the first to ask for war crimes tribunal for Liberia. Another group even asked for a “hybrid” of prosecution and reconciliation; but it is difficult to see how a mixture of the two measures can ever be expected to yield a useful solution. We would have understood if these proposals came ahead of the selection of TRC as Liberia’s ticket to self-forgiveness. But coming after the issue was settled leads one to speculate whether the people asking for the crimes court suffer from some prejudice that’s preventing them from accepting established rules.
Regardless of what’s driving them, let us take a look at what they are asking for and what it is likely to lead to. They have named the warring faction leaders they want before a war crimes tribunal. They have recommended that these people be banned from traveling, at least, to the United States. Most of all, the advocates are dealing with issues we have already put behind us.
But if they are allowed to amend the current set of choices to include their pet enemies, we may be forced to adjust the list further to accommodate others whims borne of pure revenge. In so doing, the agreement that allowed us to be protected from one another by international peacekeepers, the agreement that led us to supervised elections and other peace-related dividends may get unstuck.
The group is on the shakiest ground when it claims that its aims include establishing “accountability and responsibility for the deaths of over 400,000 Liberians.” However, it can easily be said that, in our search for peace, the line of culpability was not exhaustively pursued before we reached a point at which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission made more sense.
So, whether we realize it or not, we may be drifting toward the debate regarding who and what really started the Liberian civil conflict even though we started on a narrow and jaundiced premise of “accountability” at a point where it generated maximum inconvenience for a targeted handful of people.
Where exactly we don’t need to go is toward rationalization of otherwise pure hatred of a handful of people. But if the question becomes “Who actually started the Liberian civil war?” then the answer for now is that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has already put us beyond that point and has made the question moot.
We may breathe easier if these cans of worms are being opened by folly rather than by smart designs. But regardless of the motivation, there will be well-equipped participants on either side of any resultant argument. If we could be certain that this would end cleanly in the realm of debate, then we might propose a lecture series on the subject of truth and reconciliation. That beats the heck out of compiling a travel-ban list to be acted on by a foreign government.
It is sad, though, that there are still some among us who are ignoring the large body of work we have already done toward peace whose dividends we should be enjoying right now. They need to know that Liberia owes its peace (or the absence of war) to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is time we let ECOWAS know that we appreciate what they did for us. But running in a circle regarding a question whose answer is in black and white is not the best way to show our gratitude for the efforts the world has expended so far on our behalf.
Copyrighted © Tarty Teh, 2006 – Monrovia, Liberia, June 12, 2006.
2006: From Siahyonkron Nyanseor’s Archive
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