Some in Liberia think the most violent warlords should face trial. Others worry this would become a “witch hunt” that could renew conflict
Today, not far from the bullet-scarred church, gold letters on the Temple of Justice declare: “Let Justice Be Done To All”. Yet not a single person has been convicted in Liberia for the massacre—or for any war crimes committed during the back-to-back civil wars between 1989 and 2003, in which about 250,000 people were killed.
Impunity is not hard to spot. Prince Johnson, an influential senator, is a former warlord who, in a video available on YouTube, can be seen drinking a Budweiser beer and barking instructions as his men cut off the ear of a former president, Samuel Doe, in 1990. Mr Johnson, who has admitted that his men killed Doe, has declined to comment beyond saying, “There is no need to dwell in the past.”
In 2009 the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that some of the most violent warlords face trial. But that recommendation was not acted upon by the government of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was then president. Activists and politicians, including Rustonlyn Dennis, a congresswoman, are trying to revive the idea, through protest and by proposing draft legislation. “This country will never go forward if people don’t take responsibility,” says Ms Dennis.
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