Liberian president, Joseph Nyuma Boakai takes historic step as he establishes War and Economic Crimes Courts
Keeping to his campaign promise, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. has issued Executive Order 131, establishing the Office of War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia (WECC).
This is a significant shift in commitment from his two immediate predecessors, former Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and George Manneh Weah, who showed little interest in establishing the court, as the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended.
Previous governments in the past 20 years have had little success in holding perpetrators of war crimes accountable.
In 2005, the Liberian parliament established the TRC. Four years later, in 2009, the TRC released its final recommendations, including reparations to victims of the civil wars, reforms to prevent such atrocities from ever reoccurring, the establishment of a special court for war crimes, and the banning of certain implicated individuals from holding office until their names are cleared.
However, most of TRC’s ambitious recommendations, including the suggested political bans on prominent individuals and establishment of a war crimes tribunal, remain unimplemented, especially as one of those on the commission’s list of persons to be “barred from holding public offices” for “being associated with former warring factions” was Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who eventually emerged as president and did not implement the recommendations.
Like Johnson-Sirleaf, those considered “civil war actors” who attained political power after the war have had issues with implementing the recommendations as they are.
According to Executive Order 131, signed and issued on Thursday, May 2, 2024, the Office of War and Economic Crimes Court will, among other things, investigate, design, and prescribe methodology, mechanisms, and processes for the establishment of a “Special War Crimes Court for Liberia” and a “National Anti-Corruption Court” that would separately prosecute war crimes and economic crimes.
President Boakai says the decision complies with Liberia’s international obligations and the will of the Liberian people to obtain justice and bring closure to the events of the 14-year bloody civil war that left about 250,000 people killed, including women and children.
Boakai has received commendations for the decision, with many praising his action as proof of his commitment to deliver on his promises.
Political commentators say it also shows a commitment to deliver on several promises made during his campaign and thereby building confidence among Liberians in ability to deliver on his goals.
In fact, a candidate in the presidential elections, and an ally of Boakai during the runoff election, Tiawan Gongloe, emphasised that one of the main reasons for his Liberia Peoples party’s (LPP) alliance with Boakai’s Unity Party (UP) was his belief that the UP would take steps towards the establishment of a War and Economic Crimes Court.
By this move, Liberia inches closer to a long-awaited reckoning for its brutal civil wars, marking a critical first step after decades of calls for justice from victims’ groups, international observers, and Liberian civil society.
During the signing ceremony, witnessed by government officials, diplomats, and representatives of the justice advocacy community, President Boakai acknowledged the “downpours of agony” endured by Liberians, emphasising the importance of “justice and healing” as cornerstones for lasting peace.
He described the signing of the executive order as a consummation of “a process that will set in motion deliberate action steps toward bringing justice and closure to the scars and memories of our tragic and violent misadventure into more than fourteen years of senseless civil conflict.
“Through the several years following the silencing of the guns, we as a people have endured downpours of agony, an avalanche of recriminations, and clarion calls from either victims or alleged perpetrator. “
Boakai’s Executive Order has addressed longstanding agitations by members of the National Legislature for steps to establish the courts as envisioned in a Joint Resolution signed weeks ago.
Challenges ahead
The task before Boakai is neither straightforward nor easy. There are many who are still sceptical about his ability to see through the full implementation of the TRC’s recommendations.
They say his all-important political alliance with former strongman Prince Yormie Johnson, who is the senator for Liberia’s second-most populous county, Nimba, and whose support helped guarantee Boakai’s electoral victory, may stall his efforts. Johnson has always been vocal about his opposition to the establishment of a special war crimes tribunal.
Boakai’s political alliances are not the only obstacles to the success of the courts, either. Several reports have said that in the past 20 years, Liberian authorities have not been able to properly document war crimes, record eyewitness testimonies, and generally preserve evidence about the war.
As a result, proving war crimes committed during Liberia’s civil wars has become harder over the years. For this reason, trials of Liberian warlords taking place in other countries had to rely extensively on the testimonies of witnesses, making it difficult to secure convictions.
After so many years, the witnesses to civil war atrocities may find it hard to accurately recall what they have seen and experienced during the war, some war researchers have said. They say what this means is that Boakai must institute a war crimes tribunal now, and ensure that testimony from all living witnesses is securely recorded, or Liberia may never get a chance to meaningfully prosecute war crimes committed during its bloody civil wars.
It is one step to have set up the courts, but it is questionable if such a tribunal would be successful in convicting perpetrators after all these years, they say.
For some pundits, there are other, much more engaging steps the Boakai government could take to deliver justice to survivors, encourage reconciliation, and increase social harmony.
One of the key suggestions is for the government to start meaningfully and systematically documenting the many crimes committed during the wars to acknowledge the suffering of the victims and inform future generations to prevent the repeat of such atrocities.
Liberian journalists, Donald Bondo and Leshan Kroma, have suggested the establishment of a museum documenting the war and its many horrors, and regional memorial parks in recognition and honour of all those who lost their lives to the conflict could also be established.
They have also proposed the expansion of the scope and increase in funding for the few existing community justice and reconciliation mechanisms in the country, such as the Palava Hut Program, outlined in TRC’s final report in 2009, which many say could could deliver justice and foster forgiveness and reconciliation for lesser crimes of the civil wars at a community level if it is scaled up.
There are also proposals for Boakai’s government to set up a reparation programme for the victims and survivors, which could help bolster reconciliation and healing without burdening the state with hard-to-secure prosecutions.
Advocates of this mechanism say funds could also be set up to provide direct reparations to victims who are suffering physical challenges due to the abuse they endured during the war.
As the country gears up for the court’s commencement, it is believed that there will be pressure on the government to step back on some of the recommendations of the TRC because of political expediency. As some have claimed, it would be better that the courts act as arbiters and not provoke a national crisis by providing grounds for accusations of bias.
