The Inquirer (Monrovia)
Rose Marmonee Saulwas
8 October 2008
Cllr. Winston A. Tubman says President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the mother of the Liberian conflicts; therefore, she is better suited to bring closures to it.
During his testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the former Justice Minister in the People Redemption Council (PRC) government commenting on the handling over of former President Taylor to the Sierra Leone Court by President Sirleaf said it was no coincidence that she was called upon to perform such a task.
"Is it a mere coincidence that this one person should be called upon to play such a pivotal role in bringing closure to our conflict? "I think not he noted; this role has devolved on her, because, and I mean no disrespect, more than anyone else, she was the mother of our brutal conflicts", he emphatically stated.
He said besides handling the former President Taylor over to the court in Sierra Leone though she was reluctant to do so but she did it under foreign pressure, President Sirleaf will likewise also determine the fate of other perpetrators of our conflict when she makes decision on recommendations which will come from the TRC as another form of bringing closure to the Liberian conflicts.
He also mentioned further that, as the first mother to be elected as President of an African country, she is better suited than anyone else to discharge the duty of bringing closure to the Liberian conflict in a motherly and unbiased way.
The former standard bearer of the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) also told the commissioners at the TRC Thematic and Institutional hearings on Monday, that though the President whom he describes as the "mother of our conflict" should be the one to bring closure to the conflict, she can not do so if she remains partisan, seeking, by her actions, something for herself or her many friends that were deeply involved in the conflict and her political party in the future.
Also speaking of his encounter with the PRC government, his joining of the NDPL Party and his ten member government delegation to the United States during the heat of the war to ask for assistance from the American government, he said upon their arrival in that country he told his brother Robert to go and tell Mrs. Sirleaf now President Sirleaf, that they were in America to ask that government for help.
He said his brother later told him that, Mrs. Sirleaf had told him in no uncertain terms "that the Liberian people would deal with me drastically for going to the late President Doe's aid just when she and her people were making huge sacrifice and when blood had already been shed to rid the country of a vile dictator", and that how dare him to, at such a juncture, jump into the fray to save Doe stressing that she would have nothing to do with him and his delegation.
He also narrated that he met with this same kind of treatment from his cousin W.A Tubman that he would have nothing to do with him and his delegation because he was not told at the initial stage about his plans.
He said after all these encounters, he and the delegation went to the National Democratic Institute who agreed to enable them have a meeting but it was not possible because of their differences.
After meeting with lot of resistance from Capitol Hill, they were able to meet the Americans who told them that they could not help the Liberian people end their fighting because it would be a mistake and high controversy to intervene in the Liberia's conflicts and that they didn't want to be blame and to appear ugly. And according to him, the US government did not wish to be on the wrong side.
He said they were then told to come to Liberia and tell the late President Doe that if he wanted intervention, he should call for elections as promptly as possible. During this period Mr. Tubman stated that the President only communicated with William Glay in Krahn or with other members from his tribal background.
Explaining further he noted that on their return home they went to the President and gave him their report.
He said that the President ask him if there were any clause in the constitution that told him to call for early elections and he answered no. But that the President had called for the resignation of the supreme bench, he said, when he heard that they were involved in corrupt acts without violating the constitution.
He then pointed out that he concluded at that time, that he could do the same thing by resigning without violating the constitution and that after this incident he left the country and went into exile.
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