Youths petition for war crimes court

With one-time rebel leader and former Liberian president Charles Taylor before a war crimes court in neighbouring Sierra Leone some Liberian youths have begun petitioning their government to set up their own tribunal. Rebel fighters, many of them children and youths high on drugs and clad in women’s wigs and underwear, killed, raped and maimed during 14 years of on-off civil war that ended when Taylor quit power and took exile in August 2003. But Taylor’s days in a seafront mansion courtesy of the Nigerian government abruptly came to an end last month after a rapid succession of developments that culminated with UN peacekeepers handing a cuffed Taylor over to the UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone where Taylor is accused of war crimes. Back in Liberia there is an elected government, security is guaranteed by a 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force and donors are stumping up millions of dollars to rebuild the war-battered country. And part of that rebuilding must include a war crimes court, say youth groups who want to see the perpetrators of crimes including summary executions, massacres, amputations and rape brought to justice. “Justice for the people of Liberia can no longer be delayed or denied. The time has come to establish an international criminal tribunal for Liberia,” said the Forum for the Establishment of a War Crimes court in Liberia (FEWCCIL) on its petition which they say has received 10,000 signatures of support. The FEWCCIL last week took the matter to the 94-members of Liberia’s newly installed elected government. “In the interests of genuine lasting peace and reconciliation we call upon this august body to pass an act that establishes the legal framework for the creation of a Special War Crimes Tribunal for Liberia,” the FEWCCIL told parliament. A second group, the Confederation of Monrovia Youth (CMY) told legislatures such a court would end Liberia’s culture of impunity. “Bringing the perpetrators of gruesome atrocities to court would serve as a deterrent to others and end the culture of impunity that exists in this country,” the CMY said. A peace deal thrashed out in the run up to Taylor’s 2003 departure called for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission but Taylor’s henchmen and rebel leaders who signed the deal fell short of agreeing to the establishment of a war crimes court. Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was officially launched in late February and is mandated to “investigate gross human rights violations and war crimes, including massacres, sexual violence, murder, extra-judicial killings and economic crimes (such as the exploitation of national or public resources to perpetuate the armed conflict),” reads the June 2005 law ratifying the Commission. The Commission, headed by Liberian human rights activist Jerome Verdier, will begin hearings in July to make a public record of atrocities committed as far back as 1979 – ten years prior to the start of the civil war. Based on their investigations, the Commission cannot try alleged offenders but has the power to recommend cases for prosecution. Verdier dismissed the calls for a Liberian war crimes court, saying that the calls were being made by people “not well informed of the trend in the peace process.” Talk of a war crimes court has rung alarm bells for others. Sekou Conneh, leader of the largest rebel group – the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) – in the final years of the civil war, denounced the move telling IRIN that “digging up old wounds” would do more harm than good. “Nearly everyone in this country is guilty of war crimes and we strongly believe that a [war crimes] court would not be in line with restoring peace in Liberia. Frankly, it is not necessary here,” said Conneh who also ran unsuccessfully as a presidential candidate in the first round of presidential elections last year. Pro-Taylor fighters agree with their former enemies that a war crimes court is not a good idea, said one former pro-government militia commander who still goes by his war name of “General Zig-Zag”. Most of the regular fighters that IRIN spoke with said that they had already asked for forgiveness from their fellow Liberians making a war crimes court redundant. “After the war some of us went to our towns and villages and begged for pardon. Our people welcomed us and we are all living together in harmony – but a court would divide us and the people,” said Andrew Sway, a former child soldier who has returned to school since handing in his gun. Some of these fighters’ former generals, such as General Peanut Butter and General Kai Farley, are legislators in the elected government. On the streets of Monrovia residents were divided on the issue of a war crimes court, some strongly in favour of seeing war criminals prosecuted, and others eager to put the past behind them and get on with the enormous task of rebuilding the country. “Liberia suffered too much at the hands of warring parties; they killed us, burned down our towns, looted our food and homes. If the court will cause them not to repeat their past deeds, then it is a good idea,” said Asatu Fahnbulleh, who lost three members of her family in the war. While Joe Blay, a local physician told IRIN, “This country’s concern is not a war crimes court, but development that will bring light, water, good roads and hospitals and rebuild the damaged infrastructure.”