CARTER CAMP —
Dr. Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office of War and Economic Crimes Courts of Liberia, says a bill for the courts will be ready "very soon."
Dr. Barbu said that a technical committee comprising Liberian transitional justice experts, was "reenforcing the bill" drafted by a committee of the Liberian National Bar Association he chaired. That bill was submitted to the Legislature in 2021, but has yet to be approved by the Legislature, the only body with the constitutional power to do so. Dr. Barbu said the committee was now relooking at the Bar's bill "because of all that has happened over the period."
"Very soon, we will have a draft in hand, while working with our international partners to ensure that this is really, really good and feasible," said Dr. Barbu in a FrontPage Africa/New Narratives on Tuesday on the margins of a memorial event for victims and survivors of massacres across Liberia. With funding from the Office of war and economic crimes courts, the event organized by the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, was held at the Carter Camp Memorial in Harbel, Margibi county. There was a noticeable absence of the international community and the Independent National Commission on Human Rights from the event, although the organizers claimed they had invited them. "I don't want to say by May 1st we will have that statute, but we are working very, very hard to get something done at least in strong very framework by that time."
As with the overall roadmap for the courts and Liberia's transitional justice process, the bill is key to the courts. It will comprise details about a model and location of the courts, staffing, security and chambers among others. Although Prince Johnson, who topped the of "most notorious perpetrators" list of Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC),
who died in December 2024 has since been buried, a visible opposition to the courts in the Legislature remains, including from Thomas Nimely Yaya, another ex-warlord and senator of Grand Gedeh County. Dr. Barbu urged citizens to pressure their lawmakers to legislate the courts when the modified bill is submitted to them-- renewing his recent pledge that "the first indictments will be issued in 2027." He said the people had the constitutional power to challenge their lawmakers on the issue.
"Don't allow anybody to make you afraid that when a war crimes court comes, there will be war," said Dr. Barbu during his speech at the program. "There will not be war. There will be greater peace, development and there will be unity in this country."
Dr. Barbu also "assured the perpetrators that the law is not against you. The law is a fair law. Accountability is the name of the game. You must account for what you did."
That call for accountability for past crimes resonated with every speaker at the event.
"We owe it to the lost to strengthen our institutions and ensure no crime goes unpunished," said Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe, a veteran Liberian human rights lawyer, who served as the keynote speaker for the program. "Let us champion the rule of law so that no Liberian stands above accountability and no petty difference descends into bloodshed. In Our homes, schools and communities, we must cultivate empathy and reject all forms of corruption and impunity."
Cllr. Gongloe also repeated his long-held view for President Joseph Boakai to recall Mr. Lewis Brown as Liberia's UN Ambassador, saying Mr. Brown "is the wrong messenger" to solicit support from international donor countries for the courts, as he may be a suspect for the courts. He said it "defies common sense" that Mr. Brown still occupied the role, while Mr. Boakai pledged his commitment for the courts.
Mr. Brown, who has always claimed his innocence of committing economic crimes alleged by the TRC, was a key member of the government Charles Taylor, the ex-Liberian leader currently serving a 50-year sentence in the UK for crimes he committed in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), rebels committed two in every five violations reported to the TRC, including murder, rape, torture, and massacres. The Carter Camp massacre was one of such mass killings attributed to the NPFL.
About 600 people, including men, women and children were killed here in 1993 while seeking refuge from the war. Some were allegedly hacked to death. Although a UN panel blamed the Armed Forces of Liberia(AFL), of the interim government of the now deceased Dr. Amos Sawyer, for the deaths, findings the government disputed, a witness told the TRC that the NPFL committed the crimes. The style of killings here is reminiscent of the ones that happened at the St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Monrovia 35 years ago. Those killings too were blamed on the AFL. But the army at the time was loyal to Samuel Doe, the then Liberian president. Here at the Carter Camp memorial, survivors of both massacres and other mass killings across Liberia united in grief and mourning to restate their call for accountability for the deaths.
"We came in solidarity to the victims lying down here" said Mr. Peterson Sonyah, executive director, Liberia Massacre Survivors Association. "We need justice for them."
"We join everyone here today to remember victims of not only the Cater Camp Massacre, but also victims of the more than 200 massacred across Liberia," said Mr. Calluchi Beiah, program officer, Liberia Peacebuilding Office. "For genuine reconciliation to take place, we must 'account for the past."'
The Liberian government has yet to hold anyone directly accountable for any of the massacres. Although a US district court in 2022 found Moses Thomas, who was believed to be the commander of the army on the night of the Lutheran Church massacre, civilly liable and ordered him to pay $US84 million to four victims of the brutal killings, no one has yet been directly made to answer for the atrocities. When victims thought they had found relief and solution to their decades of calls for accountability, they were shocked and disappointed when the Ecowas Court in October 2024 threw out their case, citing its lack of jurisdiction over alleged crimes that predated the court's existence.
Speaker after speaker at the memorial event insisted accountability for past crimes was the only way forward for Liberia.
"There can be no development without peace and there can be no peace without justice," said Mr. Beiah. "We at the Liberia Peace Building Office are saying that to remember the victims truthfully, we MUST advocate for and implement the TRC report #191, which indicates that 'a specific date be declared for the proper reburial of all victims of massacres."'
Mr. Adama Dempster, a prominent Liberian human rights advocate, also echoed Mr. Beiah's sentiment for memorialization and reparations for victims and survivors of the wars.
"Beyond justice and accountability, there are many women who need reparations," said Mr. Dempster, who is also the Secretary General of the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, the largest makeup of human rights organizations in Liberia. "If there will not be money for victims and survivors, there should be some sort of support for them. There are people who are still carrying injuries. We want justice; we want accountability. At the same time, we want all aspects of the TRC report to be implemented. And we want reparations for women, youth.... for communities that were destroyed, so that it will help us to bring perpetual closure."
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At a UN meeting in August, Cllr. Oswald Tweh, Liberia's justice minister, pledged the government's commitmment to establishing a reparation trust fund to support conflict victims" to "help victims rebuild their lives and communities, ensuring that they are not forgotten as we move forward." But no of those promises have been fulfilled. As well as reparations, the TRC did also recommend "memorial sites be built in the capital cities of each county to include every site of massacres where the remains of our people en masse have been buried from 1979 to 2003." Neither Minister Tweh, nor a spokesman at the ministry responded to requests for comment on the latest concern by human rights advocates about the issue.
In an apparent compliance with the TRC recommendation for remoralization, in February, president Boakai set up a special committee to exhume the bodies of Samuel Doe and William Tolbert, two ex-Liberian presidents killed in office, and rebury them, but Dr. Barbu cautioned the government over the move, given that the court has yet been established.
"I am not brining the point for reburying," said Dr. Barbu. "When we establish the court by the grace of God, we need evidence."
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story's content.
