Monrovia – Residents of the borough of New Kru Town in Montserrado County have highlighted lack of access to justice and sexual-based violence as vices affecting many communities.
Report by Jackson F. Kanneh, [email protected]
They made the disclosure on Wednesday, August 28, at a one-day peace and reconciliation dialogue held in the borough of New Kru Town, Montserrado County.
They also mentioned ritualistic killings, illicit drug, illicit mining, poor health and education systems and economic hardship as major challenges that should be curbed in order to maintain peace in the country.
The dialogue was organized by the National Youth Movement for Transparent Elections (NAYMOTE) in partnership with the Ministry of Internal Affairs with support from UNDP.
It was held under the theme: “Advancing Reconciliation through Legislative Reform and Civic Engagement.”
Similar event has also been held in Grand Bassa, Bomi, Gbarpolu, Rivergee, Maryland and Grand Kru Counties.
It is a platform for citizens to voice out their concerns in relation to peace and reconciliation and to forge a strategic way forward in strengthening community driven peace and reconciliation efforts.
The platform is also gear toward increasing the participation of diverse stakeholders in developing the counties’ reconciliation road map, endangering local ownership of reconciliation processes and mitigating drivers of conflicts for sustainable development.
Thomas Cassel of Liberia Peace Building Office said the justice system is partly responsible for the country’s underdevelopment and that it only favors the “rich at the helm of power”.
The country’s justice system is not prioritized by national government to attract investors and gain public confidence, emphasizing that the justice system is fragile and weak, Cassel said at the forum in New Kru town.
“Our justice system is one of our main problems in this country because now a day, only the rich have justice,” he said, while calling for “more improvements”.
Alice B. Weah, Governor of the Borough of New Kru Town, lauded NAYMOTE and its partners for working with locals across the seven political subdivisions to advance peace and reconciliation through community engagements.
And Alexander Freeman, a community leader of the borough, added that increase in sexual based violence across the country is alarming and needs the collective effort of every Liberian to curb.
“The issue that has to do with rape and all forms of sexual base violence related matters have to be handled with urgency, because I think it is somehow responsible for providing disunity in a country, such as ours,” he stated.
At the same time, the Program Officer of NAYMOTE, Joshua Cleon said the peace and reconciliation dialogue is intended to bring out issues affecting the “common people” of Liberia.
Cleon said recommendations and findings from the dialogue will lead to a five-year reconciliation action plan.
“These dialogues are considering the bottom-up approach at the community level,” Cleon said.
“We are identifying, assessing and validating the problems at these various dialogues which will be compiled and develop into action plan in a possible time.”
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