Liberian TRC records war crimes
2006-10-10 22:35
Monrovia - Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) started recording on Tuesday evidence on wartime killings committed during more than two decades of successive conflicts.
A victim and a perpetrator were the first to give evidence before the commission formally launched in June, but mandated by the 2003 Accra peace agreement.
Several hundred workers trained to document evidence from both victims and perpetrators of atrocities in civil crises spanning 24 years until 2003 to lay the groundwork for reconciliation, have been deployed across the war-battered west African country.
Victims and their former tormentors have the choice of giving evidence in public or in private.
Documenting of evidence was delayed from June when the commission came into being to allow it time to adequately prepare and train staff, said commission chairperson Jerome Verdier on Tuesday.
Verdier foresees a difficulty in providing assurances especially to perpetrators of the rights abuses during the conflicts that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
'Ex-combatants scared to come forward'
"Our challenge is how to convince the victims and perpetrators to come forward and give statements," said Verdier.
"We have this problem of ex-combatants being afraid because they think that we are here to persecute them and yet it is not the case.
"We are just facilitators in making the victims find ground of understanding and forgiveness," he said.
The recording of evidence is expected to last three months, with hearings to begin in March next year, according to Verdier.
Launching the TRC in June, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said Liberia just emerging from war would not enjoy "lasting peace, nor will there be unity and reconciliation, if the truth of the crisis remains speculation, assumption, and hearsay".
Modelled on South Africa's TRC, the commission will investigate rights violations including murders, extra-judicial killings, economic crimes and sexual abuse committed by all parties to the country's conflicts.
Conflict intensified with rebellion
Liberia's unrest started with food riots in 1979 followed by a coup in 1980 that toppled former president William Tolbert.
Ten years later the conflict intensified with a rebellion led by the warlord Charles Taylor and the subsequent ouster and assassination of then president Samuel Doe.
Taylor, later an elected president, stepped down in 2003 in the face of an insurgency and international pressure to quit.
He is now in The Hague where he faces trial for alleged war crimes in Sierra Leone, Liberia's equally war-ravaged neighbour.
The nine-member independent commission assisted by three international advisors has been given two years in which to conduct its business, but can seek an extension if necessary.
- SAPA