"You Can't Look Back" - BY GLENNA GORDON | JULY 7, 2009

"You Can't Look Back"
Liberian warlord-turned-senator Prince Johnson speaks out about the war crimes charges against him and his plans for the future.
BY GLENNA GORDON | JULY 7, 2009


At the end of last week, Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released a report examining the causes and consequences of Liberia's 14 years of brutal and gruesome civil war. The war may have ended six years ago, but Liberia's 3.4 million people are still reeling from a conflict that displaced a million people, left a quarter of a million dead, more than three fourths of women raped, and everyone traumatized.

The commission's report has made waves in the Western media for its condemnation of internationally popular President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf over her past support for rebel groups. But the charges against another high-ranking government official are far more serious and might have more-lasting consequences.



Prince Y. Johnson is now a Liberian senator. During the war, he headed a notorious rebel group called the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia. The final TRC report names him the No. 1 most notorious individual perpetrator and recommends that he be prosecuted for gross human rights violations and war crimes, specifically mass murder, extortion, destruction of property, forced recruitment, assault, abduction, torture, and rape. Johnson labeled the report a "JOKE" and vowed to resist with force any attempts to arrest him, raising fears of renewed violence. Last week, just before the report was released, freelance journalist Glenna Gordon went to his home on the outskirts of Monrovia for an exclusive interview. Excerpts:



Johnson discussed the (then forthcoming) TRC report, which he saw as biased and aimed at the wrong targets:

TRC is supposed to be neutral. It's supposed to be an institution that people of Liberia can depend on to help reconcile. But instead, it has disappointed the people of this country. It is supposed to bring together perpetrators and victims to reconcile both sides. But the TRC chose to keep the victims away from the so-called perpetrators. They never brought the two people together, so where is the reconciliation?



Reconciliation is not an overnight thing. It is a gradual process. There are many programs that can bring people together. If two people have a problem, how do you solve it? By keeping them apart? No, by bringing them together. The perpetrator can remember what he did and he may or may not say sorry. That's the first phase to begin reconciliation, and [it] was not done. And if you cannot reconcile yourself you cannot reconcile a nation.



Who supplied the guns to them? Who supplied the finance to buy the weapons? Who provided the training? It's a whole lot of questions that need answers.

The first group of people that bear the greatest responsibility is not the fighting man but the people who supplied and bought the weapons. I don't know who planned and bought all the weapons, but the men didn't just come here shooting guns from the sky.



When justice itself is unjust, there is injustice. So if you want justice, ... you have to go for the big Nigerian men who got the weapons, who supplied so many things. They are still in power.



I spoke at the TRC and said, "Forgive me for my sins, but when two elephants fight, the grass suffers." I was repentant. I've accepted Jesus.

Every country in the world knows the history of Nimba [Johnson's county]. They know what [former President Samuel] Doe did to my people. I had to defend my people.



Johnson Once Displayed The Skull Of Samuel K. Doe by LHRC

Prince Johnson reportedly kept the skull of former Liberian ruler Samuel K. Doe at his base in Caldwell and would displayed it to visitors. It is unknown if Johnson, who is also running for president, still have the skull of Mr. Doe

Defunct INPFL leader Prince Johnson displayed the skull of late President Samuel Kanyon Doe to a delegation of the Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) at his Caldwell Base, Commany Wesseh, then sports minister of IGNU said.Mr. Wesseh said during a meeting with the INPFL leader to discuss the intention of IGNU President Amos Sawyer to resign, Prince Johnson told him and others that he had killed Doe who wanted to kill him (Wesseh

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Protecting Liberian War Criminals?

Not Only That She Refused To Prosecute Them, She Appointing Them To Serve In Her Government

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf broke a very important promise she made to the Liberian people, and Liberia's partners within the international community that she will never appoint any one with human rights abuse record in her government. However, the president, in what some are describing as search for votes in the ensuring Liberian 2011 presidential election, has fallen back on that promise by appointing potential war criminals in her government. In 2010, President Sirleaf made series of appointments that included Mr. John T. Richardson, a top rebel commander of the Charles Taylor led rebel group National Patriotic Front of Liberia, or NPFL, to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Liberian National Housing Authority, or NHA. Richardson was the lead organizer of the NPFL's infamous "Octopus Operation" in 1993 when NPFL rebels invaded Monrovia, the Liberian capital, during which time five Catholic nuns were reportedly killed, along with over 3,000 Liberians who were murdered, many in their homes, by NPFL rebels, and is responsible for recruiting kids as young as seven years old to serve in the NPFL "small Boys" unit.



Roland Duo On The Mahare River Bridge in 2003

Roland Duo, another rebel commander of the NPFL accused of throwing babies into the Mahare River during the Mahare River Massacre in Bomi County was appointed as coordinator for special project at the National Security Agency. Roland Duo, upon the orders from Benjamin Yeaten, Duo and his men reportedly massacred 175 persons, mainly members of the Mandingo tribe, for being sympathizers of the LURD rebel faction, according two survival. Duo, like many former rebel commanders, is said to be living large benefiting from loots he gathered during the war at the expense of thousands of innocent Liberians. On June 9, 2003, Roland Duo and those he was commanding arrested 18 persons as POWs from the LURD rebel faction. He turned them over to Charles “Chucky” Taylor and were summarily executed the same day.

President Sirleaf also appointed Mr. Alhaji Kromah leader of the ULIMO-K rebel faction responsible for various massacres in Northwestern Liberia, including the Sinje Massacre in Bomi County, as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Liberian Broadcasting Corporation, or LBC. Also appointed to the LBC Board is Madam Weadi Kobbah Wureh, an executive member of the Liberian Peace Council, a rebel group that operated in southeastern Liberia and is accused of roasting people alive in the fire, and placing hot burning iron between women's legs. Liberians are describing these appointments along with the refusal of the Ellen Sirleaf government to implement the recommendations contained in the final report of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission as insensitive to the memories of thousands of Liberians who were forced to their early graves as a result of the actions of these people.

At the very start of her administration, President Sirleaf appointed Mr. Kabinah Janeh as Associate Justice at the Liberian Supreme Court. Mr. Janeh is widely known among Liberians as a recruiter and legal advisor to Alhaji Kromah and his ULIMO-K rebel faction and also the lawyer for another rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, based on that he was appointed justice minister in the Liberian transitional government in 2003 when government positions were being distributed among warlords, rebel commanders and their civilian supporters.

TRC Report question?

As Liberia crawls towards the 2011 presidential and general elections, a powerful question is finding its way into the minds of many Liberians. Which is; can the 2011 elections consider credible without the implementation of the final report of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or TRC?