Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding on the Ground: Victims and Ex-Combatants (Law, Conflict and International Relations) (46 page)

17
 Specht,
Red Shoes
, op. cit., p. 106.

18
 Specht,
Red Shoes
, op. cit., p. 107.

19
 Thomas Jaye,
Transitional Justice and DDR: The Case of Liberia
(Research Brief, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), 2009), p. 4; interview with Aaron Weah, Program Associate, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), 23 February 2011, Monrovia.

20
 Jaye,
Transitional Justice and DDR
, op. cit.

21
 David C. Gompert
et al
., Oversight of the Liberian National Police (Santa Monica, CA: RAND National Defense Research Institute, 2009), available at: <
www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2009/RAND_OP230.sum.pdf
> (accessed 29 June 2011).

22
 Thomas Jaye, “Parliamentary Oversight and Lessons Learned from Internationalized Security Sector Reform” (NYU Center on International Cooperation, 2009), available at: <
www.cic.nyu.edu/peacebuilding/docs/Liberia_SSR.pdf
> (accessed 29 June 2011).

23
 Some 75 percent of AFL’s new candidates were rejected, compared to the 10 percent that were turned down by the LNP.

24
 
Number of UNMIL personnel in Liberia as of February 2011. See <
www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unmil/facts.shtml
> (accessed 20 April 2011).

25
 J. M. Guéhenno, Statement to the UN Security Council, Debate on Women, Peace and Security. UN document S/PV.5766, 23 October 2007, p. 5.

26
 See “United Nations Police in Liberia,” available at: <
http://unmil.org/2content.asp?sub=7&main=20&pgt=2
> (accessed 6 July 2011).

27
 Jean Krasno,
Public Opinion Survey of UNMIL
’
s Work in Liberia
(Monrovia: UNDPKO, 2006).

28
 See <
http://unmil.org/1content.asp?ccat=ljss&zdoc=1
> (accessed 21 April 2011).

29
 See Republic of Liberia,
Poverty Reduction Strategy
, April 2008, available at: <
www.supportliberia.com/assets/95/chapter8.pdf
> (accessed 6 July 2011).

30
 Interview with Reverend Benjamin Lartey, Secretary General, Liberia Council of Churches, 23 February 2011, Monrovia.

31
 Olga Martin-Ortega and Johanna Herman, “Narrowing Gaps in Justice: Rule of Law Programming in Liberia,” in Chandra Lekha Sriram, Olga Martin-Ortega, and Johanna Herman (eds),
Peacebuilding and Rule of Law in Africa: Just Peace?
(London: Routledge, 2010).

32
 Where the Liberian Penal Code has been violated, the customary system does not have legitimate jurisdiction, but that does not prevent chiefs, particularly in rural areas, from taking on such cases and meting out punishment in the form of “trial by ordeal.” Some of the customary ways of resolving conflict, including punitive processes, are addressed later.

33
 In case of abuse, the customary system is accountable to the Ministry of Justice as well as the Supreme Court.

34
 American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative—Liberia, “ABA ROLI Helping to Launch the First Training Center for Judges in Liberia”(April 2008), see <
www.abanet.org/rol/news/news_liberia_new_judicial_training_institute.shtml
> (last accessed 3 August 2011). International Crisis Group, “Liberia: Resurrecting the Justice System,” Africa Report No. 107, April 2006, see <
www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/africa/west-africa/liberia/Liberia%20Resurrecting%20the%20Justice%20System.pdf
> (last accessed 3 August 2011).

35
 Jaye,
Transitional Justice and DDR
, op. cit.

36
 Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza, “Can Truth Commissions in Africa Deliver Justice?” in Anton Bösl and Joseph Diescho (eds),
Human Rights in Africa: Legal Perspectives on Their Protection and Promotion
(Namibia: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 2009), p. 387.

37
 Interview with a senior transitional justice advisor to UNMIL, 18 February 2011, Monrovia.

38
 Priscilla Hayner,
Negotiating Peace in Liberia: Preserving the Possibility for Justice
(Geneva: Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, 2007).

39
 Jonny Steinberg, “A Truth Commission Goes Abroad: Liberian Transitional Justice in New York,”
African Affairs
, Vol. 110, No. 438 (2010), p. 138.

40
 Hayner,
Negotiating Peace in Liberia
, op. cit., p. 16.

41
 Government of Liberia, “An Act to Establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Liberia” (hereafter, TRC Act), 12 May 2005, Monrovia, available at: <
www.ictj.org/static/Africa/Liberia/liberiatrcact.eng.pdf
> (accessed 17 April 2011), Article IV, Section 4.

42
 Jonny Steinberg, “Liberia’s Experiment with Transitional Justice,”
African Affairs
, Vol. 109, No. 434 (2009), pp. 135–44.

43
 Article IV of the TRC Act notes that the TRC could look at “any period preceding 1979.” Liberia was colonized in 1847 by a small number of former American slaves who ruled the country to the detriment of most of the nation’s aboriginal population until 1979.

44
 Lansana Gberie, “Truth and Justice on Trial in Liberia,”
African Affairs
, Vol. 107, No. 428 (2008), p. 457.

45
 
Amnesty International, Liberia: Toward the Final Phase of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (London, July 2008), p. 29.

46
 Steinberg, “A Truth Commission Goes Abroad,” op. cit., p. 39.

47
 Interview with a senior transitional justice advisor to UNMIL, 18 February 2011, in Monrovia.

48
 Kristen Cibelli, Jule Krüger, and Amelia Hoover,
Descriptive Statistics from Statements to the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A Report by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group at Benetech and Annex to the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia
, (2009), available at: <
http://trcofliberia.org/resources/reports/final/descriptive-statistics-from-statements-to-the-liberian-trc-benetech.pdf
> (accessed 5 April 2011).

49
 Commissioners created the LTRC Diaspora Project, which partnered with The Advocates for Human Rights (The Advocates), an American human rights organization based in Minneapolis, MN. Laura Young and Rosalyn Park, “Engaging Diasporas in Truth Commissions: Lessons from the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Diaspora Project,”
International Journal of Transitional Justice
, Vol. 3 (2009), pp. 341–61.

50
 Young and Park, “Engaging Diasporas in Truth Commissions,” op. cit. Other truth commissions, such as those in Haiti, Timor-Leste, and Sierra Leone, have sought the input of diaspora communities, less comprehensively.

51
 Ibid., p. 353.

52
 Ibid., p. 353.

53
 Interview with Aaron Weah, Program Associate, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), 23 February 2011, Monrovia.

54
 Interview with Reverend Benjamin Lartey, Secretary General, Liberia Council of Churches, 23 February 2011, Monrovia.

55
 Interview with a senior transitional justice advisor to UNMIL.

56
 Steinberg, “Liberia’s Experiment with Transitional Justice,” op. cit., p. 141.

57
 There is no consensus on the total numbers of casualties and displaced persons from the Liberian civil wars. Record keeping during the war was virtually impossible, and various belligerents inflated or diminished numbers for political gain.

58
 Amnesty International, “Liberia: Truth, Justice, Reparation for Liberia’s Victims,” 15 February 2007, available at: <
www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR34/001/2007
> (accessed 17 April 2010).

59
 Patrick Vink
et al
.,
Talking Peace: A Population-based Survey on Attitudes about Security, Dispute Resolution and Post-conflict Reconstruction in Liberia
(Berkeley: Human Rights Center, University of California Berkeley, June 2011), available at: <
www.law.berkeley.edu/HRCweb/pdfs/Talking-Peace-Liberia-2011.pdf
> (accessed 5 July 2011).

60
 LTRC,
Final Report
, Sec. 12.3, p. 349.

61
 LTRC,
Final Report
, Sec. 14.3, p. 361.

62
 Interview with Aaron Weah, Program Associate, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), 23 February 2011, Monrovia.

63
 Interview with Sheikh Kafumba Konneh, Muslim clergyman, peace activist, and dissenting TRC commissioner, 17 February 2011, Monrovia.

64
 Interview with Councillor Pearl Brown Bull, lawyer, peace activist, and former dissenting TRC commissioner, 16 February 2011, Monrovia.

65
 Archie Williams
vs
Christiana Tah (Minister of Justice and Attorney General), the Independent Human Rights Commission, and the Government of Liberia, 21 January 2011. Article 48 of the TRC Act mandates the TRC to recommend to the President the implementation of recommendations coming from the TRC, while Section 14.3 of the TRC report lists and recommends that a number of Liberians be banned from holding public office for 30 years.

66
 Ibid., p. 2.

67
 Interview with Lindora Howard Diawara, Coordinator, Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), 20 February 2011, Monrovia.

68
 
Karen Campbell-Nelson,
Liberia is Not Just a Man Thing: Transitional Justice Lessons for Women, Peace and Security
(Brussels: Initiative for Peacebuilding, 2008).

69
 Hayner,
Negotiating Peace in Liberia
, op. cit.

70
 Kristen Cibelli, Amelia Hoover, and Jule Kruger,
Descriptive Statistics from Statements to the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
, 2009, available at: <
http://trcofliberia.org/
resources/reports/final
>, p. 43.

71
 Interview with Reverend Benjamin Lartey, Secretary General, Liberia Council of Churches, 23 February 2011, Monrovia.

72
 Patrick Vink
et al
.,
Talking Peace
, op. cit., p. 67. The report states, “Holding trials to punish perpetrators of violence was proposed by less than 10% of the respondents as an acceptable measure to address the needs of victims” (p. 69).

73
 Jerome Verdier, “Post Conflict Justice, Local Ownership and Interventions of the ICC,” speech presented to the Public Forum of the Center for Multi Party Democracy, Nairobi, Kenya, 1 April 2011, available at: <
http://alciso-diaspora.org/verdier%20speech.pdf
(accessed 29 June 2011).

74
 Ibid.

75
 By this I mean crimes committed by rank and file combatants during the course of the civil war. While most of the Liberians I spoke to hoped to see the uncontested key perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity formally prosecuted and tried, they were more optimistic about their chances of seeing lesser perpetrators experience informal justice, such as Palava Hut. Most supported this approach and saw it as a potential vehicle of reconciliation.

76
 Interview with Sheikh Kafumba Konneh, Muslim clergyman, peace activist, and dissenting TRC commissioner, 17 February 2011, Monrovia.

77
 Ezekiel Pajibo, “Civil Society and Transitional Justice in Liberia: A Practitioner’sReflection from the Field,”
International Journal of Transitional Justice
, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2007), pp. 287–96.

78
 Ezikiel Pajibo,
Traditional Justice Mechanisms: The Liberian Case
(Sweden: International IDEA, 2008), p. 18.

79
 Ibid., p. 21.

80
 Interview with Joe Hindovei Pemagbi, Liberia Country Coordinator, Open Society Institute, 18 February 2011, Monrovia.

81
 Cibelli
et al
.,
Descriptive Statistics from Statements to the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
, op. cit., p. 40.

82
 Interview with Reverend Benjamin Lartey, Secretary General, Liberia Council of Churches, 23 February 2011, Monrovia.

83
 Interview with Joe Hindovei Pemagbi, Liberia Country Coordinator, Open Society Institute, 18 February 2011, Monrovia.

84
 TRC,
Final Report
, Sec. 12.3, p. 349.

85
 Interview with Lindora Howard Diawara, Coordinator, Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), 20 February 2011, Monrovia.

86
 TRC,
Final Report
, Sec. 15.0, p. 365.

87
 Paul James-Allen, Aaron Weah, and Lizzie Goodfriend,
Beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Transitional Justice Options in Liberia
(New York and Monrovia: International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), 2010), p. 22.

88
 Interview with Pindarous Allison, Program Coordinator, Transitional Justice Working Group, 16 February 2011, Monrovia.

89
 James-Allen
et al
.,
Beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
, p. 22.

90
 Interview with Pearl Brown Bull, lawyer, peacebuilding activist, and former dissenting TRC commissioner, 16 February 2011, Monrovia.

91
 Interview with Edward (Eddy) Mulbah, Sr. Technical Advisor, Liberia Peacebuilding Office, 22 February 2011, Monrovia.

92
 LTRC,
Final Report
, Sec. 17.2, pp. 378–79.

93
 Interview with Thomas Bureh, commissioner, Independent Human Rights Commission, 21 February 2011, Monrovia.

94
 
Interview with Boakai Dukuly, commissioner, Independent Human Rights Commission, 21 February 2011, Monrovia.

95
 LTRC,
Final Report
, Sec. 17.2, pp. 378–79.

96
 James-Allen
et al
.,
Beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
, p. 23. See also the TRC
Consolidated Final Report
, sections 17 and 18.5 on reparations, as well as the recommendations in Vol. 3, Titles I and II of the
Final Report
.