Following years of violence and chaos, Liberian stakeholders met in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, and with the help of ECOWAS, dedicated the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC).

	• Pres. Johnson-Sirleaf

Victims as well as the perpetrators of the violence and their collaborators are to work together to move the country from an era of violence to an era of truth telling, forgiveness seeking, and cultivation of peace and reconciliation.

TRC has begun that process, but it is now becoming apparent that the process has reached the cross-roads of being “crucified” or preserved: one key former belligerent element in the violence won’t testify unless the other does!

Pres. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf seems trapped in the whirlwind of that contention.

The Analyst looks at the President utterances and their implications. Observers who described the current situation of the TRC as “crossroads nightmare” say President Sirleaf has no choice but to testify before the commission in order to preserve its dignity and anchor public trust and confidence in its hearings.

They say it is not the making of a spectacle of the TRC but the fear of silence and political maneuvering, which are the antithesis of the peace and reconciliation process that are enemies of the Liberian people. This refusal, others opined, may embolden some key perpetrators in the Liberian conflict to avoid the TRC process.

Let the President not provide an alibi for individuals who are now sheltering under the cloaks of officialdom to escape cross-examination by the people of this country for past wrongs. If she does, then she must be prepared to take blame for the demise of the TRC process. This is stabbing the commission from the back,” they said.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had reiterated her support for the TRC process during her monthly radio talk show, last Tuesday, but then indicated that she would be unprepared to submit to the TRC process and tell her people what she knows about the war and the period dating back to 1979.

Testing before the commission, according to President Sirleaf who insisted that she was authoring a book on what she knew about the Liberian crises, would make the TRC a spectacle.

But observers say the President was making light of a serious situation and that she needed to rethink her decision and choose the route that leads to the revelation of the truth, the offering of forgiveness, and the nurturing of reconciliation.

“We see no point in choosing, at this early stage, the route that will eventually uphold running public speculations and the suspicion borne by it in the name of avoid making the TRC a public spectacle by documenting personal accounts. It is this account that the public, 80% of whom is said to be illiterate, wants to hear in open forum,” said political observer Timothy K. Moses of Tubman Boulevard in Sinkor.

He contended that by choosing the route that upholds the integrity of the TRC through the courtesy of a presidential appearance, the Liberian leader would not only be moving the commission from a ditch of public ridicule and disrepute but that she would be galvanizing the summoning and subpoena powers that are crucial to the success of its mandate.

He was not along in his contention and urging of the President to choose the path of open confession that will open the door for other officials in the cabinet and Legislature to follow.

Some that spoke to The Analyst over the weekend said the President’s appearance will also jumpstart the process reconciliation while putting a lid on an era of suspicion, speculation of the true characters of the nation’s stakeholders, and the hurt and the posturing for revenge.

By being the highest financial contributor to the commission to date and by following that with a dedication that empowered the commission to begin the process of truth telling, they said, President Sirleaf had set the ball rolling toward the era of peace and reconciliation and cannot undermine that process by refusing to testify.

“It is an irony of a political drama at this time after her avowed public support for the open confession and true telling process for the President to be the first and highest public official to refuse to appear before the commission to tell the Liberian people what she knows about the war that devastated this nation and killed or maimed more than 250,000 of its citizens in cold blood,” said one observer.

In commissioning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in June 2006, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf declared her unflinching support and unwavering commitment to do everything to make the TRC succeeds in the discharge of its mandate.

The President vowed then that if called upon she would be willing to appear and testify her role in the alleged financing of the rebellions against the Doe and Taylor administrations.

But on January 16, 2008 she modified her desire to tell her stories about the Liberian crises dating far back as 1979, when she said, “Even if I will have to voluntarily come and testify I will do so.”

Liberians praised the Liberian leader for the expression of her willingness to dignify the TRC process to appear before the commissioners and tell them what she knows about the civil conflict that broke down every fabric of the nation’s social, political and economic infrastructures.

But during her live phone-in radio program, “Conversation with the President,” held on the state-owned ELBC and relayed on several local FM stations, President Sirleaf made a shift in her position when she somewhat evaded the TRC process.

A caller quizzed her as to whether or not she has any intentions to appear before the TRC and testify, she said, “I have said that I will appear, but I don’t want to make spectacles of the process. You know I am doing a book which will be out next year and most of things people are talking about will be there.”

The caller wanted to ascertain from the Liberian leader whether or not she has to emulate the example of former Sierra Leonean President Tejan Kabbah and former South African Presidents Nelson Mandela and Frederick W. De Clarke who appeared before the TRCs in their countries and give account of their involvement in the crises of those countries.

Diplomatically, political pundits say President Sirleaf has expressed her true intention not to appear before the TRC, and according to them, her statement of not wanting to create spectacles amount to declining to testify at all before the Commission to gorge out everything that she knows and participated in during the period covering TRC’s mandate -1979 to 2003.

The President’s other reason for her unwillingness to appear before the TRC is that she is writing her book that is expected to be released by next year.

She says things she should be testifying to at the TRC hearing are already the chief contents of the book. She however failed to give hints of some of the issues she highlighted in her pending book.

Citizens want Pres. Sirleaf testify 

That single statement from the President dashed the hope and expectations that she would one day appear before the TRC to testify. Many believe she has an enriching experience to tell the Liberian people the events as they occurred between 1979 and 2003.

Although the President is yet to expound on what she means by not wanting to create spectacles, a cross section of the Liberians interviewed by The Analyst have expressed mixed reaction to President’s statement.

Some believe that her statement was tantamount to eschewing the TRC process which amounts to crucifying the Commission on the altar of fears not to create spectacles and/or sparking controversy that would follow her testimony.

Bana Korkollie, a student of politics at the University of Liberia, agrees with President Sirleaf. He says there is no compelling need for the President to testify if she believes her testimony will create spectacles.

“The President has mammoth problems to tackle. She could rather focus on them instead going to the TRC to open a Pandora’s Box. You don’t want to shift the focus of the TRC because the president chose not to testify,” Bana said.

Cecelia Behjah concurs with Bana. She says the issue of TRC is a matter of reconciliation, and noted that once the president’s embarks on the course of reconciling the people this country, she will be strengthening the work of the TRC and at the same time create an enabling environment for all Liberians to co-exist and put the past behind them.

But several individuals and institutions and/or organizations have called on President Sirleaf to make a conscious effort to appear and testify before the commissioners of the TRC as a way of cementing the much-needed reconciliation drive that is yet to gain momentum in the country.

Former Senator Pro-Tempore during the regime of the former President Taylor, Tom Woewiyou recently wrote an open letter to Madam Sirleaf urging her to testify.

According to Woewiyou President Sirleaf’s voluntary appearance before the TRC will lift stormy clouds that will continue to haunt Liberians should key players in the Liberian wars like her fail to tell their stories.

The former spokesman and defense minister of the defunct National Patriotic Front of Charles Taylor insists that Madam Sirleaf should appear before the TRC on her own volition to state the roles she played in the protracted and horrific Liberian civil insurgency that allegedly killed over three hundred thousand citizens and residents.

In his letter to President Sirleaf, Woewiyou said, “This letter is to express the anguish that I and most Liberians are experiencing with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a direct result of the lackadaisical and inconsequential treatment given it by your Administration.”

He said that based on the belief that the TRC’s approach will produce a lasting-healing effect, Liberians and the International Community concluded that a War Crimes Tribunal or a prosecutorial resolution to our problem would do nothing but exacerbate the pain and continue the anguish among the people.

“Had you been interested in genuine-lasting peace and reconciliation among all the people of the Republic of Liberia, and also, had you being conscious of the deep seated pain caused by the 135 years of minority domination of the Liberian society, a principal cause of the war, your administration could have declared and sponsored a broad based National Mourning and Memorial Service across the country for the almost 300 thousand lives lost as a result of the 14-year civil war to include the two Presidents (Tolbert and Doe) that were killed under grotesque circumstances including the 13 Officials of government of the Tolbert Administration who were executed in 1980.”

Another civil society organization that believes the testimony of President Sirleaf is germane is the Prisoners and Assistance Program (PAP), which says it is interested in the Truth and Reconciliation achieving its mandate with dignity.

PAP has suggested that President Sirleaf show her support for the TRC process by appearing and testifying to everything that she knows dating from 1979 to 2003.

PAP said it believes that the appearance of President before the commissioners of the TRC will help heal the wounds of the 14-year bitter civil conflict and will provide useful information as to her involvement with the defunct National Patriotic Front of Liberia.

Quee Jarploe, a secondary school teacher, told The Analyst, “The President may have point that her testimony would create spectacles but how much more spectacles she can create than the ones Liberians have heard and see?”

Quee believes that President is simply crucifying the TRC by not appearing before it. “What does she expects of the other warlords and white collars rebels if all of them refuse to appear? She will be showing a bad example,” Quee noted.

While proponents of the President’s appearance before the commission focus solely on strengthening the citizen’s confidence in the commission, there is another question that haunts the process, The Analyst has discovered. And that is that some key elements in government are contending that they wouldn’t appear unless the President did.

One such element, it may be recalled, is former INPFL field master general, Prince Y. Johnson who now represents Nimba County in the Liberian Senate.

Senator Johnson recently told newsmen that he would not feel the compulsion to testify before the TRC unless President Sirleaf told her role in dethroning the Doe administration and the Tolbert administration before it.

Mr. Johnson’s INPFL arrested, tortured, and killed Mr. Doe in September 1990, but he seems to indicate that someone else outside his movement is guiltier than himself.

He has not said who that person is. But by insisting on the testimony of Pres. Sirleaf, many say he may have an ace up his sleeves much as President is prepared to avoid a “spectacle” of accessions and denials.

Problem is, they say, Senator Johnson is not alone; there are others such as Senator Dolo and scores of others.

“If President Sirleaf will not testify because she is writing a book and does not want to make a spectacle of the TRC process, then there is a likelihood that a pandora box would be opened that will make it difficult for anyone to testify.

The TRC has subpoena power; but if the President flouts its proceedings, will it muster and be justified, to use it against another person?” That is the question many are asking and President Sirleaf will do well to consider the question, analysts say.