Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was on Tuesday to start recording evidence on war-time atrocities committed over more than two decades of successive conflicts, its chairperson said.
”We will open our offices today [Tuesday] all over Liberia, and our workers will receive statements from the public,” Jerome Verdier, TRC head, said.
Several hundred people have been trained to document evidence from both victims and perpetrators of atrocities in civil crises spanning 24 years until 2003 to lay the groundwork for reconciliation.
Launching the TRC in June, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said the West African country just emerging from war would not enjoy ”lasting peace, nor will there be unity and reconciliation, if the truth of the crisis remains speculation, assumption, and hearsay”.
The recording of evidence is expected to last three months, with hearings to begin in March next year, according to Verdier.
Modelled after South Africa’s TRC, the commission will investigate rights violations including murders, extra-judicial killings, economic crimes and sexual abuse committed by all parties to the country’s conflicts.
Liberia’s unrest started with food riots in 1979 followed by a coup in 1980 that toppled former president William Tolbert.
Ten years later the conflict intensified with a rebellion led by warlord Charles Taylor and the subsequent ousting and assassination of then-president Samuel Doe.
Taylor, later an elected president, stepped down in 2003 in the face of an insurgency and international pressure to quit.
He is in The Hague where he faces trial for alleged war crimes in Sierra Leone, Liberia’s equally war-ravaged neighbour.
The nine-member independent commission, assisted by three international advisers, has been given two years in which to conduct its business, but can seek an extension if necessary. — AFP
