Communicating Justice

Monrovia, Liberia, 7 Oct. 2007 - Sally ( real name concealed) is a thirty five year old female who lived in Monrovia prior to the civil war, which began in December 1989. She like many suffered greatly as a result of the killing of thirteen of her family members somewhere in Monrovia.

She has been living with grief and has over the years since the killings been asking who murdered her family and where are they buried?

Her mother, father, aunts, sisters and brothers were taken from their Sinkor residence in a Monrovia suburb, to an area yet to be known and killed.

As she narrated her story, she paused and looked at me for a minute. I sat looking at her, figuring out just what she was going to say next. She continued again: “all these years, I have only heard stories about the killing but I want to know the truth,” she said. She explained that some neighbors told her that some armed men had gone to the house of her family earlier in the day, harassing and extorting money from them.

“Some neighbors told me how they had persuaded my dad to leave because one of the armed men had murmured while leaving that they were going to return that night,” Sally said. “True to their word they did return, taking away and killing 13 of my family members.”

Promoting the TRC in 
Monrovia. May 2007. Photo:
© Ahmed Jallanzo

She said that prior to the Accra Peace Accord for Liberia, she thought the truth about her family was never going to be known. But now that  the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission is operational and will shortly begin hearings, Sally says she is satisfied and eighty percent sure that she will know the perpetrators.

The Liberia TRC was established in June 2005 by an Act of the Transitional Legislature in Liberia, and commenced operations on June 20, 2006. Warring parties to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on Liberia in 2003 in Accra, Ghana, pressed for the establishment of a truth commission as a way forward, but rejected the setting up of a war crime court.

The commission is charged with the responsibilities of investigating gross human rights violations and the violations of international humanitarian laws, massacres, murder, sexual violations, extra judicial killings and economic crimes.

The Liberia TRC has the power of subpoena; and a limited power to recommend amnesty (which is not applicable to international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity). It also has the mandate to receive information in confidence and protect it from disclosure, as well as the power to  recommend prosecutions.

Sally seems to know much about the TRC and its work. She says she has already given her statement to the commission and is eagerly awaiting the hearings, which are to commence shortly.

Justice for her, she says, is when she gets to know who murdered her family, and a full disclosure of where their remains are. “The TRC for now is my only hope, as justice now is to know where they are buried.”

She also wants those who have suffered abuses during the civil conflicts in Liberia to come forward and give their statements to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “This way,” Sally says, “will bring relief.”

“There were many things that occurred in this country, including killings and forced disappearances,” she said, “and until Liberians can come forward and tell their stories, there is no way we will know what happened.”

The TRC now is the only means by which many Liberians will know what occurred and who were the driving forces behind some of the atrocities. As the date draws closer for its hearings, Sally says she can’t stop thinking about her family.

 
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