NEWS ARTICLE
Liberia: Balancing Justice With Reconciliation
BY: The Analyst (Monrovia Posted to the web July 7, 2006)
Discussions that culminated into the Accra Peace Agreement
ended with the general consensus that the way back to sanity and
peace involves in that order, cessation of hostilities, transitional
government for disarmament and creation of enabling political
environment, elections, and concomitantly, reconciliation and
reconstruction. But a few vocal Liberians seem not to appreciate
the outcome of the first four steps and they are afraid that the
reconciliation and reconstruction processes may crash land.

This group is not only expecting "so much too soon in
reconstruction" but it is also seeking to reverse the Accra
consensus by calling for the establishment of a war crime tribunal to
address past impunity. Such advocates, though, seem unlikely to
succeed. The Analyst Staff Writer has been finding out, based on
her recent interview with IRIN, where President Sirleaf stands on the
issue of justice and reconciliation in an era of reconstruction and
high public expectation

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said her administration intends to
pursue the peace path set three years ago by stakeholders in the
Liberian peace process in Accra.

In stead of seeking to right the wrongs of the past by opting for the
early establishment of a war crimes tribunal for Liberia, she told the
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) recently, Liberians
needed to subscribe to a two-step process that will seek to balance
reconciliation and justice.

She said even though her administration supported the transfer of
former President Charles Taylor to The Hague because it afforded
Liberians the opportunity to rebuild their country, the establishment
of a criminal court in Liberia now would undermine the process of
reconciliation which she said is very crucial to the reconstruction
agenda of her administration.

"We are trying to find a balance between justice on the one hand,
and reconciliation on the other," she said, indicating that the
establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
was not intended to undermining justice.

She said the path being currently pursued by her administration
was overwhelmingly endorsed by Liberians at a forum provided by
the international community to craft the way forward and that
therefore it would be a betrayal of trust of the people to seek to
punish past crimes as some advocates were suggesting.

"You know, we discussed this during the peace talks in Accra
[Ghana]. Thousands and thousands of young people, many of
them children as young as 10 years old, were forced into violence.
They were drugged, they were put on alcohol, and they did bad
things. We said, what are we going to do? Take these young
people to a war crimes tribunal? What we agreed was, as a first
step, we need to put in place the process of contrition and
forgiveness. We can have these young people face their accusers,
have them say they are sorry and try to have them make a new life.
When these accusers say they want more than forgiveness, they
want justice, the TRC must recommend justice for them.

Then, we can talk about who should face a court. So it's a two-step
thing. But our first step is to find the means to rehabilitate those
who were conscripted into war," President Sirleaf said when it was
put to her that controversy seems to surround the establishment of
the TRC.

She said this did not mean that the quest of some Liberians for
justice would be dashed by her administration.

What it meant, she said, was that the government intended to go
systematically by first reforming the judicial system both structurally
and incentive wise before attempting to address past impunity, if
need be, through the legal system.

"We are getting some help but it is not enough. Our entire judicial
system has broken down because of the many years of
lawlessness, indiscipline and warfare.

We need more training to get more qualified judges. We need
infrastructural reforms We had so many interim governments, and
they passed so many laws, that some of them are duplicating each
other, while others are contradicting each other," she said.

She said notwithstanding the high public expectation for the
restoration of basic social services in the absence of firm
international financial support, her administration managed to
achieve much in a relatively short time and is making efforts to
achieve more for the Liberian people.

According to her, Liberia has to take primary responsibility for its
own reform agenda but that the resources available to the
government were limited.

"We have to attract the private sector to get jobs to our people that
will enable us to raise the government revenue, but to do that we
have to build infrastructure Anyway, we are putting together a
broad development agenda," she revealed.

Besides, she said, her administration has set its financial house in
order quite a bit, cancelled more than eighty contracts and
agreements, met the qualification for the general system of
preferences, AGOA [African Growth and Opportunity Act],
encouraged Exim Bank to reopen its facilities in Liberia, and
concluded a code of conduct which is on its way to the Legislature.
This article does not necessarily reflect the views of WIMAM