Monrovia — The US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice has condemned Mr. Alan White, an American former investigator for the Sierra Leone Special Court, and a group of activists for making unsubstantiated allegations against leading human rights activists in a Congressional committee hearing in Washington D.C. last month. Mr. White had alleged to US members of Congress that the human rights advocates had bribed witnesses who appeared in war crimes trials in Europe and the US in recent years.
In a statement to be included in the record of the Congressional committee, Amb. Beth Van Schaack said the allegations were unsubstantiated and put "civil society actors at risk."
"It is disappointing that this hearing, devoted to the long-awaited establishment of a War Crimes Court, devolved into an attack on Liberian activists and NGOs that have worked for years to get to this point," Amb. Van Schaack said. "Liberian civil society actors and victims should be commended for driving the push for accountability in Liberia and never giving up hope."
The ambassador said, "these stakeholders must remain at the center of efforts to conceptualize and stand up this new war crimes court."
Mr. White's accusations, made at the June 13 hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US House of Representatives, targeted leaders of the Liberian-based Global Justice and Research Project, Swiss-based Civitas Maxima and US-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA).
"We are all aware of several NGOs who are trying to be involved in the establishment of the court, whose affiliation will be detrimental in doing so for purely personal financial gains," Mr. White said during the hearing where he made a series of allegations of witness coaching and bribery that have been dismissed in every jurisdiction that has tried perpetrators accused of human rights violations in Liberia's civil wars.
White was joined by other panelists, who disparaged and accused Hassan Bility, director of Global Justice; Alain Werner of Civitas Maxima and Ambassador Van Schaack herself, of ethical missteps.
The panel of critics included Yahsyndi Martin-Kpeyei, Executive Director of the Movement for Justice for Liberia, Alvin Smith, Chief Investigator for the US-Liberian organization, International Justice Group, and Michael Rubin, a senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.
They alleged Mr. Bility, Mr. Werner, and leaders of CJA lied to American and European authorities about the charges against individuals they had accused of grave human rights violations during Liberia's civil wars. Mr. White and other panelists said Amb. Van Schaack was conflicted by failing to break ties with the Center for Justice and Accountability, on whose board she previously served, and urged the US and other partners not to do business with the advocates.
Mr. White did not respond to numerous requests for comment. His office phone replied with a shock emoji 😲 to a WhatsApp message seeking an interview. Ms. Martin-Kpeyei and Mr. Rubin have not also immediately responded to requests for comment on Amb. Van Schaack's statement. In response to a request for comment, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, Executive Director of International Justice Group, shared with FPA/New Narratives a letter that he had sent to Liberia's justice minister making the same allegations against the human rights activists as Mr. White had made.
Amb. Van Schaack rejected the allegations saying in her statement, "witnesses testified under oath that they were appearing on their own volition because they wanted to tell their stories in a court of law to seek justice."
"Over the many years that US law enforcement actors have collaborated with these organizations, our investigators and prosecutors have seen no credible evidence of these claims," she said. "Indeed, I understand that the Department of Justice employs protocols in its work specifically designed to avoid improper influence on witnesses or discover actual or attempted influence when it occurs."
"On my visits to Liberia, civil society actors, the Liberian Bar Association, victims, and the Liberian people have shared with me their passion and conviction that justice must be done. This sentiment is held by broad swaths of the public, even among young people who did not live through the wars."
Courts in Finland, France and Switzerland, where those accused of war-related crimes have been tried, have also dismissed the accusations.
US Representative James P. McGovern, Co-Chair of the Lantos Human Rights Commission, echoed Amb. Van Schaack's statement in an email.
"I concur with her analysis that there is no evidence to support the allegations made by Mr. White and other witnesses against Civitas Maxima and the Global Justice and Research Project," he said in response to a FrontPage Africa/New Narratives inquiry. Representative McGovern, a Democrat, represents the Second District of Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives. "On the contrary, both organizations have played an important role on behalf of victims of atrocities in Liberia who have sought justice in various venues. It is deeply unfortunate that a TLHRC [Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission] hearing was instrumentalized to attack human rights defenders and the human rights movement writ large. It should not have happened."
The office of Representative Chris Smith, the other Co-Chair of the Commission, did not respond to requests for comment on Amb. Van Schaack's statement. A Republican from New Jersey, Smith is also an advocate for global human rights. But his controversial lobbying against the passage Liberia's 2023 amended health law because it relaxed restrictions on abortion, and his open welcome of President Joseph Boakai's appointment of Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi as Executive Director of the Office of War and Economic Crimes Courts despite a wave of opposition, has sparked fury from key stakeholders in the Liberian human rights community.
The Liberian Bar Association and other stakeholders have condemned the lack of transparency over Massaquoi's selection, the process for setting up of his office and President Boakai's secretive letter requesting financial and technical assistance from the United Nations. The Bar has been instrumental in advocating for the courts, including overwhelmingly endorsing them at an assembly in 2019 and then drafting a bill for the courts and presenting it to the legislature two years later.
International donors have also expressed their unhappiness with the process so far, putting into question whether they will provide the massive financial support the courts will need. In her statement, Amb. Van Schaack, said the US has begun plans to work with the Bar, the Global Justice and Research Project, Civitas, and other organizations on the issue.
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"At the State Department, we are working to support these groups, strengthen their advocacy tools and skills, and enable them to participate meaningfully in these efforts and to inform the public as the justice process unfolds," said Amb. Van Schaack. "We are exploring how we can directly support the new Office to create the War and Economic Crimes Court through technical assistance and expertise. We are also considering various ways we can build the capacity of legal professionals who will work on these cases, including Liberian law enforcement personnel and investigators, and we are consulting with our own professionals who have expertise in the Liberian cases prosecuted here in the United States."
"We are working with local Liberian and international organizations to prioritize community-led memorialization archiving, exhumations, and the search for the missing and disappeared in the wake of atrocities like the St. Peter's Lutheran Church massacre. I hope the Lantos Commission members will also work with their colleagues in Congress to consider how we can best support--technically, diplomatically, and financially--Liberians as they embark on this journey. Sustained, consistent assistance will be required if the War and Economic Crimes Court is to become a reality. We should be a steadfast partner to Liberians, while acknowledging that this cannot be an American-driven endeavor."
The Congressional hearing was the latest of a series by the Lantos Commission on establishing the courts. In 2019, the US House of Representatives approved a resolution for the courts for Liberia.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Project.
