What else could any true Liberian say to the TRC of Liberia? As for me, I say thank you and bravo. By being honest and given a report though, may never be implemented, the commission did serve well for the purpose for which it was set up. There is no wich hunting but once the names of the financials and the executors of the war are published and relevent recommendations given there is some high level of fairness. Please forgive some of us who put the cart before the horse by critizing and relegating your work as fruitless. You have fought a good fight and those who think that Liberians will return to war again, are making the sadest mistake in their lives.

You write here "the commission did serve well for the purpose for which it was set up"...Do you think that you really know THE P U R P O S E>? If Hon. President in Office image`s is expired, another Americo Liberian will follow soon, a new and fresh one with the links to the "prosperous past"..Could it be Clrs Tubman? The stuff is that the Americo Political ELITE GROUP must take full controll of a secure country (sooner or later). The TRSs list will clear the country of the dangerous people to this Americo Liberian Political Elite. The rest ..ex. >>>The TRIBAL CHIEFS >>> can be corrupted, intimidated, etc.. and made to cooperate , even in doing the dirty jobs against their own aborigines people...in the name of peace! The real fear of the Americo Liberian Elite and chalenge are the names on the TRSs list.They have to get to get rid of them as soon a s possible in a "legal way"...I was looking at Mr. Verdier`s CV.Nothing can be found . I am wondering if Mr. Verdier and Co are aware that they are used in a game bigger than life itself ...with the result of...(@To-I -let paper@)

Please observe that the TRIBAL CHIEFS are making trips to Monrovia in an active and optimistic mood and that the Taylors Downfall is timed with the TRS s Final Report! IAll it is going acc to the "Above" Scheduling!

It is suspected that the TRIBAL CHIEFS are in the process to be persuaded to cooperate with the TRSs actions and with the election of the future president (It appears that they know the name of the Future president, already).. They will do so, as traditionally they are able to do all kind of bad things " against their own people for the sake of safe community".( or some petty gain...).So they believe!..for exchange of... glass beads, etc...as in the past when they sold the land to the Americo Liberians... for ...(To-i-Let paper)

Why are Liberians not sincere when they are given a task to perform? Why choose a path of more division over reconciliation when task given you was about bringing people together? The commissioners of the TRC have just misused the huge sum given to them and instead, have plunched the country into more division because of their one sided decision and partial implications of others. Yes, the commissioners misused the amount given to them because they were not working together as a unit and instead, they were divided over making concrete decision and other misused the confused situation to make revenge-made decision against other Liberians which they are against. The decision made was not the will of every member of the TRC and so the Liberian people are now faced with whether the decision was fair, made appropiately or jumped onto by few people who feel that what they say will stand.

Right now, the pronouncement of this one-sided decision by the TRC commissioners who left the path of reconciliation to honor more divisive direction; is already giving headlines to more confusion in Liberia and paving the way for the following to take place. The decision which was made based on group personal agenda has paved the way for more corruption by government officials who will now focus their attention on stealing because of their feeling that Ellen Sirleaf will be leaving office, government official will fail to obey rules because of lack of competent leader for the government, political players will capitalize on this pronouncement to insert more confusion thus forcing the Liberian people to rebel against the government and of course building more tension in this peaceful-fragile nation.

Was this what we expect from the Truth Reconciliation Committee for all the amount we paid to keep them on the job? What were the reasons for all the confession? Were people coming out to confess and apologize openly because they wanted to be prosecuted? How were the commissioners picked to do this job? Did they really know how we came to this whole civil war issue in Liberia? Did they know the reasons why Tolbert killed and many of his TWP officials were shot to death broad day in Liberia? Do members of the committee know that other Liberians were being hunted day-by-day in Liberia because of their tribal affiliation, party association and what have you?

I personally feel that the few commissioners decision is a joke in that it does not represent the truth meaning of reconciliation. The commissioners made a big mistake by implicating the president who sincerely stated her reasons for joining the rebellion and apologized to the Liberian people for what she thinks she did wrong. We were all in Liberia when the seated government at a time was looking for this president for other charges. She was out of her own country for years for her own fear.

Again Liberians, we are faced with another decision that is one-sided oriented. It happen before when Tolbert was killed and the hard working TWP officials were placed on the poles and shot to death. We were on the street dancing and rejoicing bout just to turn back few weeks later to regret their death. Ellen and others are faced with the same condition of poor decision by few people and we are left out there to bring about judgement on them. These folks did what they were faced with because of the condition surrounding them.

They need a chance to serve the Liberian people. Ellen herself has been doing a fine job and have move the image of Liberia far then any other seated Liberian leaders in history. She needs a chance to lead the nation for couple more years so that healing in the nation can take place with regular pay checks to families. We should not stopped her fine job because of jealousy or political motive to prosecute her and slide the nation back into working without pay again. Liberian is an old nation with young hearts because of the lot of wasted opportunities. We need to put our acts together to move the country forward and in doing so we need to forgo conditions that are not too damaging to the population and fight for the good image of our nation.

Remember, " The love of LIBERTY BROUGHT US HERE" and it is this freedom, togetherness and liberty that will keep us here.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES!

Dear TonyKona:

I wrote my commentary before reading yours, but we are on the same wavelength. Your commentary was very eloquent and necessary. I liked your saying that "Liberia is an old nation with many young hearts..." and may I still add that Liberia still has many intelligent people capable of resurrecting AFRICA'S FIRST REPUBLIC. What I do not understand however is why no commission (be it the Good Governess under Bryant nor the TRC under Sirleaf), have yet to come up with what I believe will be the only way for Liberia to truly move forward, and that is by bringing to a close the SECOND REPUBLIC. It took nearly 30 years after it's inception for The Commonwealth of Liberia (1820-1847) to finally realize that it DECLARE INDEPENDENCE from ACS and establish a Republic inorder to truly be free. And that FIRST REPUBLIC survived for nearly 150 years (1847-1980). Critics will say that the nation did not evolve fast enough with the will of the people and so the foundations for the SECOND REPUBLIC were laid by DOE in his popular coup d'etat. I personally believe that Liberia needed to change during the post independence movement in Africa but lacked the apparatus to do so. But if the FIRST REPUBLIC was too slow to make the necessary changes that reflected the will of the people, the SECOND REPUBLIC went overboard in catering to the will of the people and lacks the apparatus to resurrect a dying nation. The Liberian people must come to the conclusion that it can only find closure with the slowness of the FIRST REPUBLIC and the excesses of the SECOND REPUBLIC when it finally decides to draft a new constitution and bring about a THIRD REPUBLIC. African Americans came to Liberia in search of Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, which they were denied in America. It took them only 30 years to realize that they could never be free unless they established an independent nation. By 1980 indigenious Liberians celebrated the overthrow of the Americo lead FIRST REPUBLIC because they felt that they had long been denied Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, as well. 30 years is long enough for all Liberians to realize that true progress will only come when the SECOND REPUBLIC is buried and a new constitutional convention should begin drafting a new constiution by the time of the national elections in 2011. The excesses of developing 15 COUNTIES from the original 9 has done nothing to develop the nation, just an attempt to placate tribalism. The racist code of only allowing Blacks to become citizens may have been necessary when the entire continent of Africa was colonialized by Europeans, but it is now a backward concept akin to aparthied. THE BLACK ONLY clause no longer serves a purpose other than to allow blacks to continue to exploit each other as well as others that could benefit the nation by becoming citizens. And certainly this archaic clause didn't stop Blacks from murdering each other and destroying their nation for nearly two decades. Liberia is still a small nation and although I don't agree that counties should be treated like autonomous states who have their own constituion and elect their own governors, I do believe that the nation does need to decentralize somewhat and allow DISTRICT COMMISSIONERS to be elected locally while still allowing central control by Presidential selection of SUPERINTENDENTS. Decentralization is dangerous because African society is still tribalistic and elected Governors or Superindents could lead to more destabilization. A good balance of checks and balances are necessary and that is why I believe only 11 counties would be perfect with a Commonwealth of Monrovia serving as the national capital and not affliated with any county. 30 years after the fall of the FIRST REPUBLIC, PRESIDENT SIRLEAF should call for a constitutional convention asap to bring about the closing of the SECOND REPUBLIC (1980-2012) and the birth of a THIRD REPUBLIC, in the same way that GOVERNOR ROBERTS called for a constitional convention to bring about the end of the COMMONWEALTH OF LIBERIA (1820-1847) and the birth of the FIRST REPUBLIC (1847-1980) which lead to him being elected THE FATHER OF A NEW NATION and could lead to Sirleaf being elected THE MOTHER OF A NEW NATION, the last President of the second republic and the first president of a new third republic. She promised to serve only one term (2006-2012) within the confines of the second republic, but if the nation is to truly continue to progress Sirleaf must serve another term and the only way to justify that is to create a new constitution. LIBERIA ALWAYS CONSIDERED THE LITTLE NATION THAT COULD, and they still can but only if they finally realize that the excesses of the SECOND REPUBLIC must come to an end and a new THIRD REPUBLIC must be created that will enable Liberians to finally bring closure and reconsile with one another and create a Republic that will survive another 150 years.

What some of you on here are talking is nonsense. In post conflict societies peace and reconciliatation can only be achieve justice is achieve. Look at Rwanda, BurundioAngola, and even south Africa. As a master student studying politics and international studies with emphasis and peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University in Sweden, the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s public release on July 2nd of its final report is an important, necessary step in Liberia’s efforts to confront the legacies of its 14-year civil conflict and highlights the need for additional measures to deal with Liberia’s difficult past must be commended cause it is the right step in the right Direction.

Ellen Johnson play a pivotal role in the civil war that killed so many of her country men and women. During her testimony at the TRC's public hearings, President Sirleaf admitted to allegations that she supported Taylor and his rebel movement during the civil crisis. She planted the seed of instability in the country for supporting the NPFL of War Crime Criminal Charles Taylor. Are you telling telling me Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Pro tempore of the Liberian Senate, Isaac Nyenebo , Former Transport Minister Jackson E. Doe, Liberia Produce Marketing (LPMC) Managing Director, Nyan Mentan, Former Police Director, Paul Mulbah and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Kabineh Ja'neh, Prince Johnson, Alahaji. Kroman among others are indispenable when it come to punishing those pepetratorss that destroyed our country?

Post conflict societies are prone to conflict and the peace Liberia presently enjoyed is a fragile peace because we depend on the UN peacekeeping force to provide security for the entire country. What happen if they leave?

Liberia is one of the few post conflict countries that allow people that committed horrible war crimes, crimes against humanity, economic crime etc to ply the street with impunity and until we can be honest with ourselves and confront the issues of justice we are planting the seed of injustices, impunities, etc in the country. I strongly beleive TRC recommendation if implemented will serve as deterent factors for would be pepetrators.