The Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia, Cllr Jerome J Verdier, describes recent statements made about him by Senator Prince Johnson as “very false and unfortunate”.

	• Cllr Jerome J Verdier

While the Commission frowns on the antics of Senator Johnson, it said it however recognizes his right to freedom of expression and hopes that his future utterances will be founded on truth growing out of the desire to contribute constructively to the ongoing TRC process.

While it is true that we believe in the rights of the people to peaceful assembly and petition their government and leaders, unfortunately the chairman has never before been privileged to participate in any public demonstration, let alone carry a placard.

He said “to the best of his recollections, there was a spontaneous reaction of jubilant people to the announcement of the Quiwonkpa takeover and he seriously doubts whether there was an organized demonstration anywhere, the University of Liberia campus included, calling on “monkey to come down” when Thomas Quiwonkpa had announced his takeover.

Moreover, Cllr Verdier graduated from the William V. S. Tubman High School in 1984 and at 18 years of age in 1985 he sought admission at the University of Liberia and was neither a student activist nor leader of the University of Liberia at the time.

Women Group Presents To TRC

A Liberian women organization, Voices in Empowering Women and Women’s Rights International (VIEW) will Monday begin special presentation to the public and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia on a survey finding of women experiences during the Liberian civil conflict.

The presentation, which will include the participation of over 100 women from various parts of the country, will be made over three consecutive days at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia.

The presentation will provide interpretation and discussion about the significance and meaning of the survey findings with respect to women’s experiences during the conflict.

View will make suggestions and recommendations for future activities and programs for women that will draw on the survey findings and on their experiences working with women in Liberia throughout the war.

In order to address the multiple levels of literacy among the Liberian people, VIEW said it will use multiple presentation styles such as dramatic readings and plays and the findings will be presented using multiple visual data presentation formats.

The survey findings are directly relevant to the TRC special mandate to “address the experiences of women, children and vulnerable groups, paying specific attention to gender-based violence.

According to VIEW, the survey was devised and conducted by Liberian women who themselves were living through the conflict; they knew exactly what questions to ask to draw the complexities of how women and their families were affected directly and indirectly by the war violence.

The findings, VIEW said reflect the intimate local knowledge of women who lived through their experiences themselves. The organization said the data were collected while the conflict was still going on and the findings can be generalized to a larger population of Liberian women.

Voices in Empowering Women (VIEW), founded in 2008, is a collaborative of an original team of six Liberian women who came together in 1994 to document and address human rights violations against women during the Liberian conflict.