Liberia’s political, civil, and factional stakeholders, guided by the international community, agreed in 2003 that the way to peace and reconciliation in Liberia is through truth telling and forgiveness.

In fulfillment of that agreement, the government of Liberia established a 9-man Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to prepare the ground for victims and perpetrators to confront one another in an atmosphere of altruism for the sake of nation building.

Now the D-Day for that confrontation is at hand. But the question many are asking is “Are peace and reconciliation within the grasp of the Liberian people or will animosity be amplified?”

	• Cllr. Verdier - TRC Boss
	" It’s better for you to record one accurate statement, than to record several statements from your imagination. "

The Analyst Staff Writer has been looking at the issues raised.

The Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Cllr. Jerome Verdier, said the commission is committed to opening hearings on January 16, 2007 for victims of Liberia’s 14-year civil war and autocracy dating back to 1979.

He said the commission was committed to the schedule even though it is hamstrung by enormous difficulties posed by delays in releasing operational funds pledged by Liberia’s partners in the drive for peace in Liberia.  

Fresh information gathered by The Analyst this week says the TRC has received, from the statement takers deployed throughout the country last year, nearly 2,000 statements of atrocities in Liberia since 1979.

A TRC insider said the 2,000 statements, which were collected from all regions of the country, including the remotest villages and hamlets, would be modified and sent back into the field for verification. He did not elaborate on what that means or entails.

But in order to keep pace with the January 16 schedule and to ensure that the process remain flawless and professional, commission sources said, the TRC is conducting a 3-day refresher workshop for the 192 “Statement Takers”.

The workshop, the commission said, is intended to prepare the participating statement takers for redeployment throughout the country.

The participants are being taught readiness skills to enable them record accurately and appropriately the statements of victims, witnesses and others who are due to recount their experiences of human rights violations in the country during the country’s fratricidal war.

Besides, according to the information gathered, the 3-day workshop is in line with the TRC’s work plan and timeline for the implementation of various phases of its mandate.

It comes in the wake of the current reassessment exercise into initial statements from statement takers in the field, The Analyst has learnt.

According to the planning process of statement taking, statement takers who were initially deployed in October 2006 are expected to return to their various counties of assignments, following the workshop, for full-scale statement taking.

This, observers said, raises another question of whether or not the hearings to resume on January 16 will run alongside more statement taking. Available information however notes that statement takers will resume collecting statements from the public beginning later this month.

While that question waits, commission sources said the evaluation of the initial statement forms has been concluded and all necessary improvement and corrections made.

Speaking at the workshop, which is currently ongoing at the headquarters, TRC Chairman, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, admonished statement takers to be committed to the process.

“It’s better for you to record one accurate statement, than to record several statements from your imagination,” he said.

He then reechoed the commission’s call to those who committed themselves to funding the activities of the reconciliation process to come forward with their quotas in order to smoothen the process.

The TRC Chairman disclosed that the Commission has received over US$250,000 from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and US$1.6 million from the Liberian government.

He then thanked the Liberian government, its international partners, and the Liberian people for the continued level of support given to the work of the Commission.

Though in line with the process of obtaining peace through the trading of confessions for forgiveness, observers say, the news that the TRC is poised to climax the peace process with the holding of open public hearings provides sufficient ground for disquiet.

So the question they are asking is, “Are peace and reconciliation within the grasp of the Liberian people beginning January 16, or will animosity be amplified on account of the hearing?”

On this question, The Analyst’s sampling of public opinion this week revealed two schools of thought.

Some Liberians sampled fear the process of public hearing may raise hard feelings and constitutional questions, and start a cycle of finger pointing and allegations of witch-hunting that would be blamed on reasons external to the search for reconciliation and peace in Liberia.

“It’s a good thing to hold these public hearings during which the victims of war and excesses and autocracy will confront those who treated them cruelly and for the perpetrators to confess their wrongdoings and ask for forgiveness. In fact, there can be no better way of providing for natural reconciliation.

But my fear is most of these perpetrators, some of them now in the high echelon of the present government, will not take the allegations in good faith,” said social worker Felicia Thompson of Gardnersville in Monrovia.

Aloysius V. Tuazama agreed and wondered, “The last time the TRC called Patrick Biddle Jr. and one former fighter of ULIMO and ATU to tell their war stories, Alhaji G.V. Kromah, one of those accused in the statements, flared up and accused the TRC of political misfeasance and attempt to castigate peaceful and law-abiding Liberians.

How much more of this sort of reaction we will get when the process starts in earnest with more than a 1000 Liberians telling their stories and accusing some 500 or more perpetrators? We will surely have chaos.

Instead of healing wounds and obtaining reconciliation, we will get bad feelings and allegations of selective persecution. Can we stand this?”

Like Ms Thompson and Tuazama, other Liberians who spoke with The Analyst wished the nation did not have to come this way in its search for reconciliation and peace.

“The war crimes tribunal approach, like what we have in Sierra Leone and Tanzania for Rwanda, would have saved us the headaches of facing former faction leaders some of who are still potentially violent, unrepentant, and justified,” said war-crime court for Liberia advocate Charles F. Green of Duala Market.

While one pro-TRC activist conceded the validity of the fears of Thompson, Tuazama, and Green, he said there was absolutely no reason for anyone to fear that the process would bring chaos and hard feelings rather than reconciliation and peace.

A significant portion of those sampled also agreed, upbeat about the hearings bringing Liberia closer to peace and reconciliation, besides bringing to peaceful co-existence various belligerent groups that were directly engaged in the war or fueled it.

When the process is managed properly, they contended, it may even end the existence of such belligerent groups as tribal and religious advocacy groups that appear locked on allegations of hegemony and land dispossession.

“The TRC process is all-embracing. It takes care of all the fears. For instance, intransigent former factional leaders who are still believed to be potentially violent can be taken care of if they feel above the process. There is the subpoena that will force them to face the hearing.

Refusal to do or to cooperate with the process in full is sufficient reason for such persons to be taken to the advance process of criminal arbitration,” said one TRC insider who preferred not to be named.

He said the process would be opened and transparent, according every accused the opportunity to accept, reject, or modify the testimony of the accuser. He said the transparency and impartiality that will characterize the process will make it easier for the general public, international observers, and the media to evaluate allegations of partiality and selective persecution.

“I think peace and reconciliation, and not chaos and hard feelings, are within the grasp of the Liberian people. No single individual or group is above what the nation resolves to do.

So if instead of cooperating with the process by confessing their roles in the war and asking for forgiveness, anyone thinks he or she has monopoly over violence and is therefore prepared to confront the process, that persons will be singled out and dealt with according to plans laid down in the TRC Act,” said civic instructor Barnabas Peters.

He said while it should be expected that the process will initially be tedious and slow, “eventually all will come on board” because it is only then that even those now in government will have peace of mind.

“They’ve consciences and even though some of them are threatening to disrupt the peace process, most of them know deep down in their hearts that with the blotch of war atrocity on their characters, they cannot make meaningful impact on society.

It is only when they remove these blotches through the TRC process that they will feel free to interact with fellow Liberians as law-abiding, peace-loving citizens,” he said.

Peters may have a point that conscience and character cleansing will force some thoughtful powerful former perpetrators of violence on the Liberian people to the hearings, but the question analysts are asking is, “Is there sufficient magnanimity and conciliatory spirit amongst such elements to make the process smooth and without raucous?”

Many anxious Liberians will not wait to see this question answered beginning January 16, which is dubbed variously “D-Day”, the “Day of Reckoning”, and Red-Letter Day”.