By Alpha Abu
The decision by Liberia’s Lower House of Parliament to endorse a bill propagating the setting up of a War Crimes Court to try alleged perpetrators of extreme violence during the country’s Civil War has sparked intense debate in the West African country.
Former Warlord and Nimba County Senator, Prince Johnson has reacted furiously to the establishment of the court, warning of a backlash from various quarters. He spoke of being singled out all the time by the media whilst there are other Generals and Commanders out there and was critical of President Joseph Boakai
In a radio interview this March, Sen. Johnson said: “You want to tamper with the peace of the nation by removing the amnesty law’’. He said those guys that are still alive in the interior will not sit by for people to go after them.
He said the court should also think of going after people like former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and those countries that he said provided the training ground- citing Macenta in Guinea as an example.
Directing his anger at President Boakai, Sen. Johnson said: “Our understanding of what is happening is that they want to do something clandestine against us and we are not going to accept that. Our people in Nimba Country were slaughtered in cold blood and we fought in defence and we gave you votes and now wanna go after us”?
He alleged people are being bribed underground to support a resolution by the legislature calling for a court. “We are watching’’, Sen. Johnson said.
He said they voted Boakai into office whom he accused of bringing in people and having secret meetings “to try to impose something on Liberia’’.
Meanwhile, Liberia’s Front Page Africa Newspaper in its 19 March 2024 publication cites what it says is the early fallout between Sen. Johnson and President Boakai who the former teamed up with in the last General Elections.
“Boakai dealt Sen. Johnson a big blow on the very first day of his presidency when he announced the establishment of a war and economic crimes court. Sen. Johnson known to be a former notorious rebel who committed heinous atrocities and human rights abuses during the civil war is always infuriated at the mention of the war crimes court’’, the paper states.
It could be recalled that at the end of Liberia’s civil war, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established that eventually granted amnesty for a certain group of people “though found to be responsible, not be prosecuted because they cooperated with the TRC process, admitted to the crimes committed and spoke truthfully before the Commission and expressed remorse for their prior actions during the war’’.
However, it’s been stated Sen. Johnson’s name was not among a list of 36 persons granted amnesty on the recommendations of the TRC. During the civil war, Johnson was the Leader of the rebel faction- the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL).
Liberia was embroiled in a brutal civil war from 1989 to 2005 in which an estimated 250,000 people were reportedly killed.
A former Liberian President, Charles Taylor is also serving a 50-year jail term in the UK after he was found guilty of murder, rape, and terror by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, following his conviction in 2012.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (20/03/24)
