MONROVIA, Liberia—Ahead of his inauguration as Liberia’s 26th President next month Joseph Boakai faces growing pressure from human rights advocates to ensure the prosecution of alleged war criminals including his key ally Senator Prince Johnson.
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives
Previous presidents have ignored the recommendation of Liberia’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) report that the country establish a war and economic crimes court to try the so-called “most notorious perpetrators” of the wars. Boakai’s election alliance with Johnson, who holds sway in Nimba – the second most populous county – dampened hopes among justice campaigners that Boakai might back a court as he has promised to do in the past.
But speculation mounted that Boakai might turn on Johnson after all when Front Page Africa published allegedly leaked WhatsApp messages from Boakai’s Unity Party’s chatroom that were circulating on social media. In the alleged chat party leaders complained that Johnson’s demands for cabinet positions were excessive and suggested sending him to the International Criminal Court would please the United States government and solve the party’s Johnson problem for good.
Mo Ali, spokesman for the Unity Party, immediately denounced the leaked messages as “fake, misleading” and “a propaganda ploy” by opponents. But the suggestion comes as nine alleged perpetrators of crimes in Liberia’s civil wars have been prosecuted in Europe and the United Kingdom and as U.S. pressure for the Liberian government to deal with its wartime past rises.
Johnson, the wartime leader of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia, has long been the key target of justice activists in Liberia and internationally. He is number one on the TRC’s perpetrators list. Unlike many other actors, Johnson’s alleged crimes were well documented. In a 1990 video, available on the internet, Johnson is filmed ordering the torture and killing of Samuel Doe, then Liberian President. He is also unusual in that he is accused of killing an American. The TRC report found Johnson responsible for a range of crimes, including the 1990 killings in Monrovia of six Krishnas, including Linda Jury, an American woman, who was also called Hladini devi dasi.
But legal experts say there is no mechanism under which Johnson, or any accused perpetrator from Liberia’s civil wars, could be sent to the International Criminal Court.
“The ICC does NOT have jurisdiction over Mr. Johnson or any other Liberian for crimes committed during the country’s past two wars,” says Hassan Bility, Director of the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), one of the groups that documents alleged crimes committed during Liberia’s civil wars, via WhatsApp.
Johnson’s alleged crimes were committed in the 1990s. Liberia signed the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, in 1998. But the Statute was not ratified by Liberia’s Legislature until September 2004 – a year after Liberia’s 14 years of civil conflict ended. That means that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over any crimes committed during Liberia’s civil conflict.
“They can neither investigate nor arrest or prosecute him,” says Bility. “Thus, it does not make sense to assume that a Liberian president can turn him, or anyone else, over to the ICC.”
Johnson could face prosecution under “universal jurisdiction” – the principle under which nine alleged perpetrators in Liberia’s conflicts have been charged in Europe and the UK in the last decade. The principle holds that crimes against humanity know no boundaries and so perpetrators can be prosecuted regardless of where their crimes occurred. But only one state so far – Argentina – has enacted a law that allows the accused to be outside their jurisdiction at the time of prosecution. Experts say Johnson would need to step foot in one of the countries around the world, including the United States, that have enacted universal jurisdiction laws for him to be charged.
Johnson, was also placed on the US Treasury department’s sanctions list for alleged corruption in 2021. That ended his chances of getting a visa to the U.S. and to many other countries. There is also the possibility that an African nation could act on behalf of a universal jurisdiction state and arrest him. For this reason it is believed that Johnson has not traveled outside Liberia in recent years for fear of arrest.
The best way for Johnson to face justice is for Liberia to hold a war crimes court, according to Bility. The US has already pledged financial and technical support to a war crimes court. Bility challenged Boakai, to “use some influence to lobby Liberian legislators, especially, those who support him” to establish the court, despite his alliance with Johnson.
Boakai supported the court in 2021. His Unity Party also openly backed the court the same year.
Amos Tweh, Secretary General of the Unity Party, Boakai’s political party, did not respond to requests for comments on the matter.
Massa Washington, an ex-commissioner of the TRC, is doubtful Boakai will ensure Johnson’s prosecution.
Boakai never supported the TRC all that time,” said Washington in a WhatsApp message. “I do not see him doing so now especially with Jeremiah Koung and Prince Johnson being major allies whose political party is the number two of the coalition that brought Boakai to the presidency.”
But Washington said she and other advocates for the court “intend to continue pushing and calling for accountability to help Liberia heal and set the country on the proper trajectory towards attainable peace and reconciliation.”
“Boakai can choose between leaving a legacy as that president who actually brought justice and accountability, or he can go down struggling to define his legacy just as Ellen is now struggling to define hers,” said Washington referring to the first post-war president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who refused to back a court.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. Funding was provided by the U.S. Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.
