Liberia: TRC commissioners get death threats

  1. Posted on Saturday 11 July 2009 - 14:38
    Murtala
    Image of Murtala
    Murtala Kamara Mohammed, AfricaNews reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone
    Some members of the Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was set up to hear testimonies of those who 'took active' part in that country's bloody civil war has been issued death threats following the commission recommendation to Barred Africa's only female President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from office and tried those that bear responsibilities in the more than a decade war.
    liberia map
    It is usual for Truth Commissions to bared people from office rather than recommending them to face justice according to a former official of the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).

    The official told AfricaNews in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown that “truth Commissions are set up basically for reconciliation purposes and it is rear for testimonies to be used as evidences for any future trial’’ citing Sierra Leone as an example where the TRC testimonies were never used by the UN backed court to try those that bear the greatest responsibilities.

    The Liberia’s TRC was set up some three years ago by President Johnson Sirleaf to hear testimonies and reconcile the country but at the end of the process the Commission recommended for a 30 year ban from public office for senior politicians for their role in the civil war including Sirleaf who testified that she ‘financially’ supported former Warlord,Ex-President Charles Taylor during the war in her country.

    According to the BBC some of the commissioners have gone into hiding and turned off their mobile phone for fear of their lives. Jerome Verdier Chairman for the TRC said he receive a text which reads: "Thanks for your report; but death awaits you," it continued "Your report has damaged our future."

    Liberia’s Information minister Laurence Bropleh told the AFP news agency that despite the TRC recommendation to barred Sileaf from office "She is not going to resign. The president and the rest of us are reading the report. What I can tell you, is that President Sirleaf has tried to reconcile the country for the last two years,"

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