Joseph Boakai, Liberia’s President, offered a special prayer for the nation at a national service Wednesday at the Effort Baptist Church in Paynesville, where Boakai also serves as a deacon. As Liberians with formal employment took advantage of a surprise last minute public holiday, the president offered a special prayer for the nation against corruption, untimely deaths, a drug epidemic sweeping Liberia’s youth, and for reconciliation and unity.
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
The national holiday, declared during Boakai’s July 26th Independence Day address, came three weeks after the president took the significant step of officially apologizing to victims of the country’s civil wars, which killed an estimated 250,000 people, displaced millions and devastated its infrastructure.
“Prayer got us this far,” said Boakai. “Prayers have worked their work, and they continue to work. And so today, we felt that with all that has happened, that we say thanks to God for the light that is bringing the country. We thank him for having mercy upon us, trying to open the gateway for blessings in this country.”
The president was criticized over the timing of his decision to declare the day a national holiday amid the country’s worsening economic crisis, but he defended his decision, stressing the significance of the event. There were noticeably empty pews in the in the church during the service which was attended by some members of the clergy and senior government officials and ordinary citizens.
There were many empty seats in the church during the service.
A day before the National Prayer Service, victims and survivors of the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church massacre—one of the bloodiest atrocities in Liberia’s war history— held a memorial service to mark the 35th anniversary of the brutal killings.
They gave testimonies about the murder of their families, and loved ones, including men, women and babies. Soldiers from the Liberian army and the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, the elite presidential guard loyal to Samuel Doe, Liberian president at the time, were accused of the killings. The church was used as a Red Cross shelter for thousands of civilians who fled fighting between soldiers from the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, loyal to Charles Taylor, a rebel leader at the time and the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia of Prince Johnson. Taylor became president of Liberia before being convicted of war related crimes in Sierra Leone. He is now serving a 50-year sentence in a United Kingdom prison. Johnson died last year after serving nearly two decades as the powerful senator for Nimba county. Troops from Anti-Terrorist Unit and the Liberian army were accused of committing the mass killings because they claimed the civilians, mainly of the Mano and Gio ethnic groups, supported Taylor and his troops.
In his Independence Day speech on July 26, Boakai pledged to commission a national war memorial for victims of the wars and regional peacekeepers who were killed in the conflict. No venue has yet been named, but at the victims’ memorial service, G. Victor Padmore, bishop of the Lutheran Church of Liberia, said it was important for church’s compound to be “preserved as a national memorial for victims of the massacre so that generations can learn from our history.”
In Liberia, no one has been held to account for the killings, though in 2022, a U.S. district court found Moses Thomas, a former commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, civilly liable and ordered him to pay $US84 million to victims of the massacre. Moses Wright, the alleged commander of the army that oversaw the killings, and one of the most high-ranking military figures at the time, will go on trial in October in the U.S. for perjury and criminal immigration fraud charges. U.S. prosecutors said he lied about ordering his troops to commit human rights violations.
In October, the Ecowas Community Court of Justice dashed the hopes of Lutheran Church massacre victims when it said it did not have jurisdiction to hear a case brought against the Liberian government by four of the survivors because it said the case predated its establishment. The victims and survivors insisted they were still awaiting justice.
“Let us agree, unequivocally, that reconciliation without justice is not healing,” said Marcus P. Quoigoah, executive director, Lutheran Church Massacre Survivors Association. “It is delay. And memorialization without truth is not remembrance. It is reinvention. Let the echoes of the past compel us to build a nation where the dignity of every individual is honored, and the promise of peace is secured by the unwavering pursuit of truth and justice.”
The memorial service was attended by key members of the international community, including Karl Backéus, Sweden’s Ambassador to Liberia, and Marie Paule Neuville, program officer for European Union misson. Neuville said the international community supported the victims.
“We stand with you in grief,” said Neuville. “And we stand with you and the call for a future with the truth, justice, peace, and reconciliation.”
Backéus commended the Liberian government for its transitional justice steps so far.
Sweden remains the only bilateral donor to have made a significant cash contribution to support Liberia’s transitional justice process so far – in the form of a grant to the UN Office for Human Rights – amid dwindling international support. Mark Toner, the retiring U.S. ambassador to Liberia, disclosed in an exclusive interview FrontPage Africa/New Narratives this month that there would be no immediate U.S. cash funding for Liberia’s war and economic crimes court and national anti-corruption court. Backéus said they remained committed to helping Liberia achieve justice, reconciliation and accountability.
“As chair of Liberia Configuration on the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, we are also leading the Commission’s work and international community to ensure that Liberia’s accountability process stays on top of the mind of the international community,” said Backéus.
Victims and survivors of the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church massacre posing for a photo with members of the international community and human rights advocates. Credit: Adama Dempster.
During the memorial service, Quoigoah urged government and international partners to provide reparations to victims and survivors of the massacre in the form of medical support. Reparations were one of the 207 recommendations of the country’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.
“These are not mere requests; they are fundamental human rights for those struggling to keep afloat while awaiting prosecution for alleged perpetrators,” said Quoigoah. “Our wounds cannot heal without help. Our lives cannot flourish without means. We are not asking for charity; we are asking for dignity.”
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 which had no say in the story’s content.
