TRC Final Report is What It Is: Incomplete Of Two Soccer Legends

Sunday, July 5, 2009   

         “The authoritarian and dominant rule of the ACS and the imposition of settler’s rule have been the core of contention and conflict between the two peoples of Liberia, which to this date remains unresolved for centuries; germinating into even greater conflicts from land to skin color, to cultural differences and social, political and economic inequities” (TRC Final Report, 2009). 

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     For history buffs, Liberian history for that matter, the recently released TRC Final Report is a treasure that should get the attention of those individuals because of the historical narratives the commission chronicled and made public after its “expansive and complex” mandate finally concluded on June 29, 2009.

     For researchers, the TRC Final Report is a place where faucet of ideas are meant to sprout to take that person to the intellectual journey the individual or individuals intended to travel just to get a grasp of the timeline and the injustice perpetrated against indigenous Liberians by the Americo-Liberian ruling class, which gave birth eventually to the civil war in a place known as Liberia.

     The Liberian people on the other hand will have a lot to say about the TRC Final Report, which chronicled every form of injustice and human rights abuse perpetrated against indigenous Liberians by the ruling class from 1847, when the Liberian nation was founded to 2003, when the civil war officially ended; but only concentrated on the crisis from an abbreviated timeline - 1979 to 2003, which left many to wonder the reasons behind the formation of the TRC in the first place. 

                                                          President Sirleaf at TRC

     The Liberian people will also have a lot to say about the TRC in terms of fairness and neutrality and what the group left out of the report, what it did not recommend, and whether the closeness of the 9-member commission to President Sirleaf compromised its credibility and independence, since the president was part of the civil war for which the TRC, which was set up by former interim President Gyude Bryant, and commissioned and inaugurated by (who else?) President Sirleaf on February 20, 2006, according to TRC to “objectively and independently execute the mandates of the TRC realistically and objectively.”

     Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), was charged with the “onerous task of promoting national peace, security, unity and reconciliation by among other things, investigating, identifying the antecedents of, and determining responsibility for “egregious” domestic crimes, gross human rights violations and serious humanitarian law violations” according to the report, would have been the right thing to do had the TRC live up to its own words by delving much deeper into the root causes of the crisis and not sugar-coat some of the wordings as if the crimes were passing incidents that did not merit the recommended punishment.           

    “Liberia’s long experience with violence did not begin in 1979 as many may tend to believe or as implied by the temporal mandate of the TRC,” the report said. However, another section of the TRC final report also noted that “the authoritarian and dominant rule of the ACS (American Colonization Society), and the imposition of settler’s rule have been the core of contention and conflict between the two people of Liberia, which to this date remains unresolved for centuries; germinating into even greater conflicts.”

     If what the TRC noted were the case, then the TRC, which provided a century-old roadmap that led to where the crisis germinated, would have also listened to the uncompromising sentiments of a greater section of the population at home and in the Diaspora calling for broader investigations that possibly could have led to peace and genuine reconciliation.

     To get some relief and much-needed cover from the controversy the TRC also states: “The TRC Act mandated it investigate and document human rights violations dating from January 1979 to December 2003,” an obvious flip-flop that resembles an attempt to not seek genuine peace and reconciliation but designed to shield some political heavyweights from any embarrassment a detailed investigation would have caused them.

     In the paragraph, “Determinations on Government Perpetrators” the TRC cleverly danced around the issue of actually placing names behind certain violent acts, or placing names behind those “Governments of Liberia” officials that aided and abetted in the commission of a crime through their moral and financial support, but lumped the individuals together in this ambiguous paragraph, just to confuse those readers who are not paying attention to the details in this lengthy report.

     “The TRC determines that all Governments of the Republic of Liberia from 1847, especially from 1979 to 2003, are responsible for the commission of those human rights violations including violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, war crimes and egregious domestic laws violations of Liberia and economic crimes and for the actions of their functionaries acting in the name of said government and for the sheer neglect of the population and the failure to provide protection for the citizens” the report states.

     Even the much-talked about combustible comments made by then-private citizen and opposition politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, calling for the burning and destruction of Monrovia was watered down to reflect the so-called frustration and inability on the part of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) to dislodge President Doe from his fortress.

     “Initial expectations growing out of the NPFL rapid advances that the insurgency would end sooner rather later dissipated; the war was stalemated as many more Liberians and supporters of the insurgency became frustrated; leading Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to publicly admonish the NPFL to end the war and sufferings, raise the mansion down and it will proverbially be rebuilt in three days.”

     The TRC final report acknowledges the roles of the “external actors” in the Liberian civil war “complicated by regional politics, personal connections and insecurity,” which corroborated indirectly the allegations made by Jucontee T. Woewiyu in 2005, about the planning and financing of the civil war in foreign countries by himself, Ellen and others, however, the TRC Final Report never made mention of Woewiyu and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf together in a single sentence about the personal connections to the civil war of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who co-financed the civil war and was a known sympathizer of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), and warlord-turned president Charles Taylor.

     However, the same final report that failed to discuss Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (#12) of the report, and Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu (#32) together in a single sentence finds it convenient in section 14.3 under “List of Persons Subject to/Recommended for Public Sanctions” recommended the duo in section 14.2 to be “specifically barred from holding public offices; elected or appointed for a period of thirty (30) years” because “all those associated with former warring factions, their leaders, political decisions makers, financiers, organizers, commanders, foot soldiers shall be subject to public sanctions in one form or another.”

     With President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf already in the twilight of her life and career and already president of Liberia, barring her from politics in the future is foolish, and is like a slap on the wrist because the sanction is illogical; and barring her now from politics at 70 years old, midway through her first term don’t make any sense. So perhaps the sanction is not actually intended for President Sirleaf but for her younger co-conspirators, who are still trying to cut their political teeth amid the criminal charges hanging over their respective heads.

     Other than grouping President Sirleaf with the rest of the ‘bad people’ that destabilized Liberia, I have yet to read any mention of the president’s celebrated role in the civil war in a broader perspective the way it was chronicled by Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu in 2005, in his "An Open Letter to Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf," which suggests a clever attempt on the part of the commission to dilute President Sirleaf’s role in the civil war to save her any kind of personal and political embarrassment.

     Like others who have been accused of participating in the war, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also played a key role in the civil war that destroyed the country and its infrastructure, which took many innocent Liberians to their graves and turned Liberia into the caricature it is today.

     President Sirleaf’s role in the civil war is a fact that cannot and should never be ignored or twisted to satisfy the personal and political wishes of a president who has yet to show remorse for her distorted and selfish political ambitions.

     Certainly, forgiveness and genuine peace is needed in Liberia in order to move that nation and its worn-torn citizens from the past to the present. However, to magnify the roles of one group while minimizing the role of President Sirleaf will not console anyone but will exacerbate the crisis, which is unforgivable and cannot be accepted.

     The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) should have done a better job than what it presented to the Liberian people, because Liberians and non-Liberians will be raking through the report to understand the history of the political problems, the cause of the civil war, recommendations made, and the unpatriotic and deadly roles the actors played when they killed innocent people, razed the entire country and conspired to hold the nation and its people hostage for their own selfish reasons.

     With it is true that the TRC report is ready and out in the public for review, which political figure without any sins is now in the position to review it and implement the recommendations suggested by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Will it be the Liberian Legislature whose members some of whom are former warlords with their own vested interests, or President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is believed to have played a key role in the civil war?

     Just as the TRC was set up and commissioned to carry out its mandate, my own suggestion would be the setting up of a neutral and independent body to review the recommendations put forward by the TRC.

     For now, and in my honest opinion, the TRC Final report is incomplete and worthy of a thorough and independent review.