Anthony Stephens<\/b><\/p>\n
Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>Liberian Nobel Peace prize laureate Leymah Gbowee urged Liberian voters not to elect alleged warlords in October\u2019s elections at one of two events held Friday to commemorate 20 years since the signing of the Accra Peace Agreement that brought an end to 14 years of conflict in 2003.Gbowee spoke at an event hosted by Liberian advocates for a war crimes court, along with international organizations Human Rights Watch and U.S.-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA). Also among the attendees were victims of Liberia\u2019s wars and members of the diplomatic community including Urban Sjo\u0308stro\u0308m, Sweden\u2019s Ambassador to Liberia, and Juan Martinez, political officer at the U.S. embassy in Liberia.<\/p>\n Organizers said President George Weah did not respond to their invitation to attend the event, which pointedly called Liberia\u2019s last 20 years \u201cstability\u201d rather than \u201cpeace\u201d and condemned politicians like President Weah who have refused to back a war crimes court. Instead, President Weah attended another event held in Monrovia by a group called Crusaders for Peace, which was also attended by diplomatic representatives and victims.<\/p>\n Gbowee, who led women\u2019s groups who pressured warring parties in Liberia\u2019s wars to end the carnage that claimed estimated 250,000 lives, said Liberia had a bleak future with ongoing impunity. That impunity has extended to scores of government officials in the administrations of Weah and his predecessor, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who have been fired for alleged corruption, but never prosecuted. Gbowee challenged voters to elect candidates who would implement the 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission\u2019s recommendation to implement a war crimes court. Several of the TRC\u2019s \u201cmost notorious perpetrators\u201d are serving as elected lawmakers in the Legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cStop rewarding them with votes,\u201d said Gbowee. \u201cUntil we begin to start dealing with those first, who gave us war on a silver platter, until we make justice a key issue for our daily life, we will not see peace. Everything that we see happening in this country is because of our attitude of impunity. What we have is a country, where we do not hear the sound of gun word. It doesn\u2019t mean that we are at peace. The next 20 years is calling on all of us, regardless of which side of the divide we stand on, to raise our voices for justice, because without justice, there can be no peace.\u201d<\/p>\n The governments of Sirleaf, also a Nobel Laureate, and incumbent President Weah, blocked the establishment of a court. International human rights advocates condemned President Weah\u2019s inaction.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Weah has disappointed Liberians and the international community,\u201d said Elise Keppler, Associate International Justice Director and Associate General Counsel at Human Rights Watch, during a panel at the conference. \u201cThe president took the floor of the UN General Assembly in 2019 and said, \u2018We will move ahead with a court. We are exploring modalities.\u2019 And that was pretty much the last we\u2019ve heard from him on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n President Weah made no mention of the court when he spoke at the government sponsored event at the ministerial complex in Congo Town.<\/p>\n \u201cThose that brought the war, it\u2019s the same people that threatening there will be war. It doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d said President Weah. \u201cI lost my young brother. We all lost families. And that\u2019s why we say let us forget about all the.. I will say yo, yo. We are Liberians. Whether you like it or not, George Weah has done something for Liberia. Our people don\u2019t want to read that record. But the international community know what I have achieved here. People brought war and we disarmed. We are fighting for peace. Those that have their credit, even if they don\u2019t want to give us credit, we don\u2019t care. But we did it from our heart.\u201d<\/p>\n At the advocates\u2019 event, attendees said they were frustrated and disappointed over how some alleged perpetrators had been unremorseful and had boasted about their roles during the wars. They pointed to the call last week by former National Patriotic Front of Liberia commander Roland Duo that he should be rewarded with a senate seat for his role in the civil war. Duo, who is named in the TRC list of most notorious perpetrators, is running against Johnson in Nimba. Former vice president and Unity Party\u2019s standard bearer, Joseph Boakai has secured Johnson\u2019s backing in the presidential race. Boakai has not responded to FPA\/NN requests for comment on whether he would back a court.<\/p>\n Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe, standard bearer of the Liberia People\u2019s Party, who also hails from Nimba, warned the conference that impunity was hanging over Liberia.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us need to make accountability the number one issue in this election,\u201d said Gongloe. \u201cIf we consider justice an important issue, why vote for a political party that is aligning with warlords? Because, then you are promoting impunity yourself. Impunity is a threat to our peace and stability. It\u2019s a threat to reconciliation and unity.\u201d<\/p>\n Organizers of the activists\u2019 event said they had invited all the political parties, but Gongloe was the only presidential candidate present. He was also the first presidential candidate to sign a \u201ccommitment\u201d for the court. Alexander Cummings, standard bearer for the Coalition of Collaborating Parties, is the only other leading candidate who has committed to holding a court. He was not at either event. Neither was Boakai.<\/p>\n Organizers of the conference also brought leading human rights advocates from The Gambia and Nigeria to speak on justice lessons learned abroad. Those activists had stern messages for the Liberian activists.<\/p>\n Oludayo Fabemi of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, filed a suit with the ECOWAS Community of Justice against the Liberian government on behalf of for four victims of the infamous St. Peters\u2019 Lutheran Church Massacre in July 1990 who are represented by GJRP and CJA. He was astounded Liberian activists had not done that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve heard things, you\u2019ve witnessed things, you\u2019ve lost people,\u201d said Fabemi. \u201cSo, imagine my surprise that the ECOWAS court started hearing human rights cases in 2005 and the first case about these atrocities in Liberia only comes in 2022? 17 years later, what are we doing? Shouldn\u2019t we make it imperative for the government to have no choice but to carry out investigative and prosecutorial activities about these crimes? I think we should.\u201d<\/p>\n Sirra Ndow of The Gambian based justice advocates, the African Network Against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances, shared her experience of how they had succeeded in compelling the government to investigate and prosecute alleged human rights violators from the regime of dictator Yahya Jammeh through a \u201chybrid-internationalized court.\u201d<\/p>\n Ndow urged advocates to push Liberia\u2019s international donors \u2013 the biggest are the U.S., Sweden and the E.U. \u2013 to make donor support contingent on a court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really align ourselves very closely with our international partners and tell them what we want,\u201d said Ndow. \u201cAnd in some cases, really ask them to make this [court] a precondition of your support. And that is a very way too powerful way of supporting of pressuring the government.\u201d<\/p>\n Sirra Ndow is a Gambian human rights advocate.<\/p>\n Keppler also shared how collective efforts by CSOs in the Central African Republic and Guinea had pressured their leaders approve transitional justice mechanisms. In Guinea, thirteen years after a stadium massacre led by members of the military, it began prosecuting alleged perpetrators of the mass murder that claimed 150 lives and saw rape and torture of victims.<\/p>\n \u201cGuinea is the most recent example of a breakthrough, historic effort at criminal accountability for the most serious crimes happening very close to Liberia,\u201d said Keppler. \u201cThe question is, what is the blockage and how can it be overcome? I think we know many of the reasons and that goes straight to the question of Liberia\u2019s leaders willingness to take the step of committing to justice and requesting that partnership with the UN with the U.S. to help create a court. What we need to see for that to move ahead is all activists, victims and other members of the population to make this an issue that cannot be ignored. The leaders will not do it on their own. They need to hear from you about the importance of this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n