TRC shouldn't be handle the Liberia way

Question – What if we (Liberians) were to find out the names and countries of all those who had their hands in the “cookie jar” of the Liberian war, is Liberia in the position to take those involve to court? Or will we only reconcile with them as well? Personally, I don’t think Liberians can handle the truth regarding the war because no two sides will agree on whose to blame.

Sometimes I think the reasons we are getting help from the outside countries in rebuilding Liberia is their way of saying “we are sorry for what we started in your country and to your people” nothing more. I don’t think they really care, do you? All of the assistances we are getting from the USA are only a mere “we should not have let Charles Taylor out of jail, we made a mistake” gesture. Then again, one can only wonder what was in it for them, the diamonds or to reduce the population of an African country or both.

Some of the things I see and hear happening in various African countries I think are all plans to hopefully reduce the African populations. The sad part is we (Africans) know this all too well but still take the bribe for our own selfishness and greed. Africans are known to sell their own for a buck dating back to the biblic al days. As much as we are reconciling, it will take only one person to sell us back to 1979 or 1989. We always claim to want help with our day to day and long term lives in Liberia but the minutes someone comes along and present us with a dollar, we will sell whatever and whoever for that buck no matter what the short or long term consequences are.

To reconcile is to be willing to forgive and acknowledging that no one groups or tribes is to be blamed. We also need to acknowledge that we deserve a second chance. We need to know that we are valuable to the world. We need to start by showing respect for ourselves and our countrymen and women. One can not love their country and steal from it and break it down to nothing. It is impossible to love someone you do NOT respect; we have to learn to respect each other and take pride in our country first. We have to stop wearing our emotional on our sleeves and genuinely work on our feelings for one another.

We need to de-program ourselves to connect the dots, meaning we need to use what we learned in school in our personal everyday lives. We have psychologist using and abusing women emotionally and don’t see sleeping around as a sign of uselessness towards one self; we have medical doctors sleeping around without protections but go to work everyday and give advice on protections. We have RNs sending for over the counter drugs (street drug) from Liberia to use when they are sick, by the time they realized the Liberia street drug is not working, it’s too late. We have accountants who can not count but know how to steal but at the same time never want to be accountable for their actions; and lawyers who are more of a criminal then the guys on the streets but yet practice the law everyday. We have educated, well rounded Liberians still believe when they are sick someone must have witched them. We have PhD holders acting like third grade dropouts but know how to present themselves at work. We have food specialist that are over weight and eating large amount of fufu and soup at 11pm at night; shouldn’t they all know better or was their schooling only for “name sake” to say I have a degree. Why are Liberians not connecting the dots, education and life should go hand in hand, why can’t we use our education to live better lives?

By the time we Liberians are 45 – 50 years old, we have multiple kids by multiple women/men; multiple marriages; many illnesses; and no real family connections; no dependable friends around to lean on and we looked 20 years older then our peers from another country…..and then we died before our 55th birthday, why, only two reasons…

1. We wear our feelings on our sleeves meaning our feeling do not go beyond the present moment, when you are out of sight, you are out of our minds, we don’t care what we do or say to or about you.

2. We do not apply our education in our personal life, we spent 4 – 12 years reading for a good job but when we get home from work, our minds and behaviors are as if we were never in school!!!

All the reconciliations in the world will not get Liberians to:
Respect each other
Make real peace with one another
Love the land call Liberia
Stop the hate
Stop the envy
Stop the unnecessary greed
Think of what they can “do for” Liberia and not what they can “steal from” Liberia
Seek counseling for ourselves and our love ones
Mentally change our mindset of what we consider the word LOVE to be.

We have a long way to go my friend!!

Roberta Williams



=0 D Liberian TRC: Reconciliation before the Truth?


(Jun 15, 2009) By: Dr. Abdoulaye W. Dukulé

Like many people in the country, I was surprised by an announcement last week that the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the institution set up by the Accra Peace Accord to investigate the Liberian civil war and foster national reconciliation, would organize a national reconciliation conference, at the Unity Conference Center, in Virginia, starting June 15, 2009. A gathering of such magnitude takes long preparatory efforts and the participation of many in stitutions. According to press reports, the conference will bring together some 400 people, 20 representing each of the 15 counties and 100 people representing diverse organizations. The broad agenda seems to center on “reconciliation.” It is hoped that the conference will end with resolutions calling for the implementation of many decisions that could impact the national reconciliatory process.

As it has happened for the greatest part of the existence of the Commission, this conference will not go without controversy. First, according to news reports, the media event where the conference was announced was attended by only a few members of the Commission. It is said that one member, Counselor Pear Brown Bull who claims to represent the Western counties disrupted the press conference and later “held” her own media briefing in her office. Her pronouncements were almost the opposite of what the TRC Chairman said in the other event, whom she accused of carrying out his own agenda.

Personality differences exist in any organization where people, from different cultural and political backgrounds have to work together. The task of the TRC involves highly charged emotional issues which can exacerbate those differences. The challenge for those involved in the process consists in elevating the national interest above their own preferences and dislikes. However, with accusations and counter-accusations that marred its work from the beginning, the TRC seems not to be able to move away from the personal to embrace the national. The question now is whether people who could not put aside their petty issues to work as a team could reach any level of cooperation to bring about national healing.

In our traditional setting, under the Palava hut – now Peace Hut – elders judge quarrels and misunderstandings. Everyone trusts their judgment, based on a lifelong experience. They don’t allow their personal feelings to get involved when they are seeking the truth. Their decisions and judgments are accepted by all because they are “after a ny personal gain” in the process. In order words, their age and the wisdom they acquired put them above suspicion. The South African TRC worked mostly because nobody could doubt the sincerity and impartiality of Bishop Desmond Tutu.

The other problem facing the Reconciliation process comes from the fact that for the past few weeks, the leadership of the TRC has introduced another word that was not its mandate and that is the word “justice.” This had led to speculation that the TRC was recommending and emphasizing the establishment of a war crimes tribunal. The mandate of the Commission, inscribed in its name, was to find the truth about our national upheaval and lead us onto a path of national reconciliation. It may be that Liberians, after knowing the truth, could decide to seek justice or simply move on.

We believe that the tru th about what happened between 1979 and 2003 is yet to be told on many levels. We have heard personal stories from many Liberians, including the President but we are far from knowing the truth.

We do not know who did what on the fateful day called the Rice Riots in 1979. We do not know how many people were killed and who gave the order to shoot. We do not know who actually killed President William Tolbert. Conspiracy theories abound in all directions. Was Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe really the mastermind behind the coup? Why then, on the morning of the coup, after the President was “assassinated” – the exact word used in the first press statement read by Samuel K. Doe – were the soldiers wrangling about leadership? If we fast forward to 1985, we may ask who funded the Thomas Quiwonkpa coup attempt. Who helped Charles Taylor escape from jail? Who financed his movements in the sub-region as he traveled and organized his military group? How did he get to Burkina Faso and Libya?
& nbsp;
Beyond those issues, we must also find out the level of responsibility of other state agents: Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Libya, Nigeria, Guinea, France and the United States. Who did what and when? In each of those countries, there are people who have taken active part in what happened. For example, what is the level of responsibility of Burkina Faso and Libya who made no secret about training and arming Charles Taylor? What kind of relationship existed between General Ibrahim Babanginda and President Samuel Doe? Why did Herman Cohen, the then Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs at the US State Department “re-assured President Houphouet-Boigny that the war would not spill over and would be contained inside Liberia?” Mr. Amara Essy who affirmed this fact was Foreign Minister of Cote d’Ivoire and in charge of the Liberian dossier and is well and alive. The questions are many and their responses could lead Liberians to understand what happened to their country.

The primary condition for rec onciliation is the truth, not necessarily justice. After a fight of any sort, two people can decide to reconcile, especially after each recognizes their part of responsibility. There is always the possibility of one party deciding to go to justice. If Liberians do not know the truth about what happened how could they reconcile? Is justice more important than national reconciliation? What is the ultimate objective of the TRC? Is-it in its mandate to lead Liberia towards a war crimes tribunal or a genuine reconciliation process?

There is no way to prejudge an event that is yet to take place. The National Reconciliation Conference could lead to another stage in our search for the truth… Maybe, one resolution could be that we must go back to the drawing board and start all over. We deserve to know the truth, the whole truth before we can reconcile or taken anyone to court…