- President Boakai announced plans to commission a national memorial for victims of the country’s civil wars, including ECOWAS peacekeepers killed during the wars
- The president also announced a national prayer service would be held
- The move comes three weeks after he publicly apologized to victims of the wars on behalf of the Liberian state
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
President Joseph Boakai announced his government would soon commission a national war memorial to honor the victims of Liberia’s brutal civil wars and the peacekeepers from the Economic Community of West African States who died in the conflicts. The president made the announcement during the official celebration of the country’s 178th independence celebration held on Saturday at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia.
Boakai’s pledge came exactly three weeks after he openly apologized to victims of the civil wars at a national healing, reconciliation and unity event, a move applauded by experts. The wars claimed an estimated 250,000 lives, displaced millions and destroyed the country’s infrastructure. The president said he decided to commission the memorial after “months of consultations.”
“This sacred monument will not only commemorate the fallen but will also serve as a call to conscience for generations to come, a powerful reminder that the peace we enjoy today was never free,” said Boakai. “It was earned through courage, paid for in sacrifice, and must be preserved by unity.”
The erection of memorials for victims of the wars and West African peacekeepers who died in them is one of the 207 recommendations of Liberia’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. The report said recommended that “memorial sites be built in the capital cities of each county to include every site of massacres.”
Another Truth Commission recommendation was for the creation a national “Memorial Day” for those killed during the civil conflict and to show “respect for the survivors.” Although Boakai did not explicitly mention a national Memorial Day during his Independence Day speech, he did declare a national day of prayer to be held this Wednesday.
“On this day, I call on all Liberians, our partners, and everyone within the borders of Liberia to gather in our churches, mosques, and other places of worship to seek God’s face,” said Boakai. “We should ask for His continued blessing upon our land, and to renew our covenant for peace, unity, and a reconciled Liberia.”
By these moves, and his decision establishment of an office to create war and economics crimes courts, experts said Boakai is setting himself apart from the country’s two post-war presidents—Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, whom he served for 12 years as vice president – and George Weah, whom he succeeded. Neither made any substantial steps to enact Truth Commission recommendations. Experts said their resistance was in part, because of the need to win the political support of Prince Johnson, the Nimba County senator who was also number one on the Truth Commission list of 116 “Most Notorious Perpetrators” from the wars. Johnson died in November.
Boakai has won praise from transitional justice advocates for his recent actions.
Frances Greaves, who was part of the Liberian Women Mass Action for Peace—the movement that helped force warring factions to sign a peace agreement nearly 22 years ago—also welcomed the president’s initiative, calling it “a positive step,” which she said, “will help with our reconciliation and healing process.” But she cautioned that the effort “needs to have knowledgeable people in charge. It’s necessary that this whole thing is not something that will be like a quick impact. It should be something that will be thought properly that when it’s done, it will yield the desired result.”
“Commissioning such a memorial is great,” said Hassan Bility, director of the Global Justice and Research Project, which together with Civitas Maxima, its Swiss partner, has helped American and European jurisdictional authorities document war-related crimes in Liberia. But he warned that with recent cuts to U.S. and European support for Liberia’s transitional justice process and government failing to provide promise funds for the Office for the courts, the memorial must not sidetrack the justice process.
“Let’s NOT plan and promise what we can’t deliver,” he said by WhatsApp messages. “Setting up a new body is a waste and will require funding, which is in short supply. The most urgent right now is the funding to the War and Economic Crimes Court. That should be the President’s priority. The donors aren’t going to give a dime if they do not see a genuine commitment from the Government of Liberia.”
With support from the United Nations Development Program, the Human Rights Commission has constructed nine memorials across Liberia. But Greaves questioned whether the communities hosting the projects have ownership of them.
“Are they really participating?” asked Greaves in a WhatsApp voice message. “Because if people were massacred in these areas, then people in the communities need to be aware of what happened. There must be some kind of historicity—not to just erect a monument, a white elephant that people highly know the meaning for which it is erected. We have to take ownership of our processes, especially the reconciliation process. It will give the donor countries the opportunity to match that. Over the years, we have only depended on donors’ support, and we have not used the money rightly.”
The inclusion of mention of Ecowas soldiers was the first time the regional body has been honored for its role. During Liberia’s civil wars, Ecowas sent thousands of troops to help bring peace. During his Independence Day speech, Boakai paid tribute to Ecowas “for the decisive, courageous role during our country’s most turbulent years” saying Liberia “owe a historic debt of gratitude” to the countries that contributed peacekeepers.
Liberia will need Ecowas to agree to a formal partnership with Liberia’s War Crimes Court in order for the country try the international crimes – including crimes against humanity and war crimes – of which many perpetrators are accused. In its roadmap prepared for Boakai, the court’s office is also seeking support from Ecowas on a range of issues, including training investigators in witness protection, trauma-informed and gender-sensitive strategies, evidence sources from the Liberian conflicts.
At the ceremony, heads of state or their representatives from the troop-contributing nations, including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Nigeria, were honored with special plaques. Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, who once served as a peacekeeper in Liberia, praised the country’s progress since the wars.
Sierra Leone held its own court, ending in 2013, trying 13 perpetrators including Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, convicted and sentenced to 50 years by the UN-backed Special Court for crimes committed in Sierra Leone. Bio, now chairman of the Ecowas heads of authority and government, warned Liberia that it was treading a long road.
“Healing the past and building the future is not instant,” said Bio. “It is not achieved with slogans or treaties. It demands tenderness. It demands courage. It asks us to view the past not with bitterness, but with resolve.”
Boakai said reconciliation was the key to Liberia’s future.
“To move forward, we must first heal the divisions that threaten to pull us apart,” he said. “Our development will not endure without reconciliation; our future cannot take root without unity. That is why this year’s theme — ‘one people, one destiny, healing the past and building the future’ — rings loud with such urgency.”
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.
