By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives
MAMBA POINT, Monrovia – People living with disabilities and women’s rights groups took center stage at a meeting of stakeholders in Liberia’s transitional justice process on Friday. While stressing the importance of the country’s nascent war and economics court, the groups said the process needed to go beyond criminal accountability and provide reparations in various forms, including medical. And, they said, it needed to happen fast.
“People with disabilities are dying on a daily basis. Every week, we bury,” said Daintowon Domah Pay-Bayee, ex-executive director of the National Commission on Disabilities during the meeting held at the Office of War and Economic Crimes Court Mamba Point. “Some of them can’t even afford the antibiotics that they are supposed to be on. What we need is healthcare. It’s true that we will setup the war and economic crimes court. We will set up the anti-corruption court, but please, let us appeal to the president, what we need is drugs and other things. At least, we will live to see those who will be punished.”
The meeting co-chaired by Dr. Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office, and Mr. Christian Mukosa, country representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was attended by stakeholders, including victims groups, the Liberian government, senior diplomats from the French, Swedish and EU missions. Two transitional justice experts from the UN headquarters in New York were also among the participants.
Madam Pay-Bayee said the groups were pleased to see that the Office of the courts and the international community were focused on inclusion of victims
“If persons with disabilities can be a part of the transitional working group, can be a part of the whole process, even with the war and economic crimes court thing, we think it will get somewhere,” she said.
Madam Pay-Bayee’s call was echoed by other members of the disabled community and women’s groups at the meeting. At estimated as many 20 percent of Liberia’s more than 5 million population lives with disabilities, many of them incurred during the country’s 23 years of civil crisis.
Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2009 final report recommended $US500 million in reparations payments be made available to victims and communities of Liberia’s two civil wars over a 30-year period. Experts said, as well ensuring that victims had buy-in with the justice process, reparations was essential to helping reconciliation and to keep victims alive to testify in trials.
“There is no way we can have one successful prosecution before those courts if we don’t have the material evidence to do that,” Cllr. Bornor M. Varmah, president of the Liberian National Bar Association, told the meeting. “If we don’t work on the evidence gathering, this whole process, will just be a failed process.”
The issue of evidence gathering and victims care and support continues to come up in gatherings of transitional justice actors, including earlier this month at a memorial service for an estimated 600 people killed during an attack by the forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front for Liberia in 1993 known as the Carter Camp massacre. The new administration of President Joseph Boakai has yet to fulfil its pledge at a UN meeting in August to openly apologize to Liberians for the wars, as well as provide reparations to individuals and communities victimized by the wars.
Ms. Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah, the deputy minister of state for administration, told the meeting that the government was deeply touched by the ordeals of victims at Friday’s meeting.
Ms. Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah, deputy foreign minister for administration, said she will take the concerns of victims to President Boakai.
“I will be taking this back to the president,” she promised, to “see how we can make necessary interventions in those areas.”
Friday’s meeting came in the wake of new United States President Donald Trump’s startling decision to end almost all international aid including previously Congressionally approved support to Liberia’s war crimes court process. The Liberian government had been counting on significant support from the US. Dr. Barbu told the meeting his office is again facing financial difficulty having not received $300,000 funds allocated to it from the Liberian government’s 2025 budget. He said he had raised the issue with President Boakai.
“Sometimes it’s embarrassing to express this in public, but here at this meeting, is good for everyone to be clear that we are struggling,” said Dr. Barbu. “We are going through very serious difficulties. All of these speak to whether or not the government is interested in moving this process forward beyond expressing political will verbally.”
Ms. Kruah, who left the meeting before Dr. Barbu’s speech, had said Mr. Sylvester Grigsby, minister of state for presidential affairs, had asked her “to use this opportunity to express to you the president’s recommitment to this effort.”
“At the Ministry of State, we are expected to work closely with you to provide the necessary financial support and political space for you to operate while trying as much as possible to maintain your independence as an institution,” said Ms. Kruah. “So whatever way we can make that happen, we are open to that.”
Dr. Barbu also told the meeting that he had no assigned police officers at the moment after he “personally became very insecure” with the officers the police had assigned him. He said he had “registered that to the police at the highest level. We were guaranteed intervention today, as we speak, we have never seen that intervention for over three weeks now. We sent WhatsApp messages and make calls, there is no response.”
In a phone interview with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives, Col. Gregory Coleman, Liberia’s police chief, said he was unaware Dr. Barbu had no officers.
“Dr. Barbu has no reason to lie,” said Col. Coleman. “If there are no officers, there are no officers there. The police did not withdraw them. We know that they are on assignment. But I have not gotten any communication of such.”
Ms. Isabelle Le Guellec, French Ambassador to Liberia, was among the senior diplomats present. She said the French government was supportive of the country’s transitional justice process and pointed to the role its government has played in prosecuting Kunti Kamara, a Liberian warlord with Ulimo rebel group, who was convicted of committing war related crimes during Liberia’s first civil war and sentenced to a thirty year prison in France in 2023.
Saturday Tuah, a former commander with Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, who was arrested and indicted in 2023 in connection with atrocious crimes in Bong County, is expected to go on trial later this year. Liberian authorities have aided French prosecutors, police and investigative judges to investigate alleged crimes of accused warlords. Global Justice and Research Project, the Liberian justice activists and Civitas Maxima, their Swiss partner, have been at the center of documenting those alleged crimes. Ambassador Le Guelle praised Liberia’s move to establish its own war crimes court.
Ms. Isabelle Le Guellec, French Ambassador, expressed her government’s support for Liberia’s transitional justice process.
Liberia’s move to set up the court received more support this week with the arrival of a team from the United Nations headquarters in New York. The team, which will be holding a technical working session with the Office next week, attended Friday’s meeting. The move followed a request for financial and technical assistance for the court from President Boakai to Mr. António Guterres, the UN Secretary General. Dr. Barbu told the meeting that Mr. Boakai and Mr. Guterres have been communicating about the issue.
“At this moment, we’ve been provided with the authority to provide capacity building within our current mandates, and we are very happy to be able to do that and to support the Liberian people in this process,” said McCall Carter, a judicial affairs officer at UN Department of Peace Operations.
Ms. Isabelle Le Guellec, French Ambassador, expressed her government’s support for Liberia’s transitional justice process.
Dr. Barbu hailed the international community for its support to Liberia’s accountability process but promised Liberia’s leadership in the process would not be compromised.
“Clearly Liberia does not have the technical capacity to do what we’re talking about, but Liberia is a member of the community of nations,” said Dr. Barbu. “Therefore, there are so many other things that we have to bring from outside to help us in this process. We are conscious, and we know that fully well. Nonetheless, this process is Liberian owned and Liberian driven. Therefore, Liberia has to ensure that it plays that driver’s role, not to sit in the back seat.”
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.
