Monrovia – The push for a war crimes court in Liberia appears to have hit a snag in the wake of a reported agreement between President George Manneh Weah and former warlord-turned Senator Prince Y. Johnson. FrontPageAfrica has reliably learnt from unimpeachable sources that the President looking to shore up support from the two Senators from Nimba County – Senator Johnson(NUDP, Nimba) and Junior Senator Thomas Grupee(NUDP, Nimba), has promised the former head of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia that he would resist the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia if the Senator supports his bid for the impeachment of Associate Justice Kabineh J’aneh.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Senator Johnson, FrontPageAfrica has learned has notified a couple of his colleagues in the legislature regarding the overtures from the president and is very concerned about mounting pressure from international stakeholders regarding the court for Liberia.
The report comes just days after the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Bhofal Chambers termed as ambiguous the petition seeking the establishment of an economic and war crimes court in Liberia.
Hesitant Legislature Asking Questions
Chambers, once a stern critic of the previous administration, is one of President Weah’s strongest allies in the lower house and is said to be the key instrument leading the charge against the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia.
In May, a group of protesters under the banner National Student Movement for the establishment of an Economic and War Crimes Court in Liberia submitted a petition to the legislature which was again rejected by Speaker Chambers noted who noted that the petition did not state which of the houses should address the matter.
The speaker said the petitioners needed to redo their petition specifying the main arm of the legislature that should look into the claims.
Fubbi Henries, head of the group says the group is calling for those who committed atrocities during the Liberian civil unrest to be punished for their wrongdoings and that the recommendations as contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report should be implemented.
Henries, in a FrontPageAfrica interview Thursday slammed the speaker for his outburst against the establishment of war crimes court, saying the speaker had drawn the line and is openly supporting impunity in Liberia. “That means your integrity for the 3rd highest seat is questionable, and as such you need to be removed by your colleagues. The position of Speaker of the House of Representatives is not one for dictatorships”.
Following yet another presentation of a petition Thursday, members of the Lower House once again requested that the group resubmitted its petition, this time, asking the group to separate the establishment of a war crimes court from an economic crimes court. The House further asked for the group’s suggestion to ensure that the court is established given the current economic situation in the country and also inquire whether those fueled the war without basically holding arms should also be prosecuted.
The Lower House was also concerned as to why the group is being very vocal in its demands for the establishment of a war crimes court in this administration when it wasn’t in the previous administration?
Yesterday’s CDC, Weah Advocated for Court
Ironically, the current administration, including President Weah which ran on a change mantra, was very vocal against the previous administration over the establishment of a war crimes court for Liberia.
In 2004, Weah then a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Liberia’s international soccer star and UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador called for the formation and establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia to arrest and prosecute all “warlords” for recruiting and arming children in Liberia. The former UN envoy said the tribunal when established, should be given the authority to identify, locate, arrest and prosecute all those who committed heinous crimes during the devastating and bloody war in the country. “Those who armed the children and committed heinous crimes against them should be brought to book”, Mr. Weah said at the time, adding that those to be prosecuted include warlords and military commanders of the various belligerent groups who, for their own selfish gains, brought children into the conflict.
In addition, the party’s current chair, Mulbah Morlu was a strong advocate for the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia.
Mr. Morlu’s Forum for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia held multiple rallies and at one point solicited some 10,000 signatures supporting a Liberian court to the then speaker of the legislature. Morlu at the time said a war crimes court is a necessity after such a vicious war. “We witnessed a tremendous exercise of abuse against human rights and violations against international laws,” said Morlu. “We felt there was a need to build a consensus for establishing a war crimes court in Liberia.”
The Liberian peace agreement signed in Accra in 2003 made a provision for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document the causes of the war and investigate human rights violations.
The war crimes debate though unrelated to the ongoing impeachment saga against Associate Justice Kabineh J’aneh, has been intertwined by the unfolding developments amid reports that President Weah is under increasing pressure from international stakeholders to turn the former warlord now an influential member of the Senate over to answer to allegations of war crimes during the lengthy civil war.
A Trail of Deaths Tied to PYJ
Senator Johnson was crucial in the capturing, torturing, mutilating and execution of former President Samuel Kanyon Doe, who had himself overthrown and murdered the previous president William R. Tolbert.
Johnson’s INPFL emerged after an internal power struggle between he and Charles Taylor, head of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia(NPFL).
Besides killing Doe, Johnson was notorious for killing anyone who opposed or criticized his actions. One of his most brutal killings involved the death of Linda Jury. Johnson was angered after Hare Krishna devotees, who were distributing food to starving people in Monrovia in the midst of the chaos of the civil war, sent him a letter begging him to stop killing people. An angry Johnson personally orchestrated the murder of Hladini devi dasi—born Linda Jury—and five of her students on the bank of the St. Paul River on the night of Thursday, 13 September 1990.
In September 1990 Johnson’s supporters abducted President Samuel Doe from ECOMOG headquarters in the Monrovia port district. Doe was tortured and executed in Johnson’s custody on 9 September, with the spectacle videotaped and broadcast around the world. The video showed Johnson sipping a Budweiser beer and being fanned by an assistant as his men cut off Doe’s ear.
Johnson has also been linked to the killing of several executives of the US firm, Firestone during the civil war.
Additionally, witnesses say Johnson masterminded the killing of two of Liberia’s renowned musicians, Tecumsey Roberts and Robert Toe.
The former warlord is also seen on a video shot during the civil war, interrogating and slapping Mrs. Watta Allison, wife of former Defense Minister Gray D. Allison, shortly before she was reportedly killed by Johnson and his rebels.
Speaking from the pulpit last Sunday, Johnson appeared unmoved by murmurs that President Weah is under pressure to turn him over for war crimes trial, labeling the process as a fiasco and bragging that such a court will never come to Liberia while branding as “foolish” anyone calling for the establishment of war crimes court in Liberia.
The Nimba County Senator boasted to his congregation that he was instrumental in the election of President Weah, insinuating that President Weah will not give the county up to a war crimes court. In this regard, he says he as a leader of the county will galvanize all Nimbaians to overwhelmingly support President Weah’s second term bid. He, however, said such support would be based upon the number of Nimbaians appointed to key government positions.
“… If you touch George Weah, you’ve touched us. He has got our backing and we, too, got his backing; so, your war crimes court is fiasco,” he told the congregation.
Senator Johnson accused the then Chairman of the defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Jerome Verdier, of concealing the true results of the referendum as to whether Liberia should have a war crimes court or not. According to him, the true results of the consensus show 85 percent of Liberians, both at home and in the diaspora, voted against the establishment of war crimes court.
TRC Chair Fires Back at PYJ’s ‘Scare Tactics’
But Cllr. Verdier, responding to the former warlord’s utterances, that anyone who wants to sacrifice other people or the majority of the people he claims to love or lead just to save his own skin is a brutal criminal and terrorist!
The former TRC chair dismissed Senator Johnson’s assertions that prosecuting a mass murderer for his crimes will not lead to chaos. “Senator Prince Johnson scare tactics will not alter the course of justice in Liberia. Truth and justice is power, not fear. A few evil men will not hold the Country siege to cover their cowardice and ignominious deeds.”
Cllr. Verdier added: “Prosecuting PYJ is not persecution of the Nimba People. Real heroes stand up to the cause of their “heroism” and are never afraid to be accountable for their actions. It is terrorists and criminals who always flee justice and seek human shield to cover their behind or use ethnic bigotry to hide their true colors. The 1.5 million Nimba People, as he claims, know better that Liberia is one family , all tribes are united for the good of the nation and that the rule of law is a civilized principle of human development which uplifts all nations and peoples. That Liberia belongs to that civilized world which holds sacred the rights and freedoms of all citizens to enjoy their life without fear or favor.”
President Weah’s reported overtures to Senator Johnson was reportedly triggered by a walkout of all nine members from the Nimba Legislative Caucus in the lower house who chose to walk out of session because efforts to amend a motion on the J’aneh impeachment proceeding, made by Francis Dopoh of River Gee County District #3 was denied. In the Nimba Caucus’ argument filed by Rep. Dorwohn Gleekia (Dist. #6) and Rep. Johnson Gwaikolo (Dist. #9), they called for the vote on the impeachment bill to be taken by headcount and not by ‘yae’ or ‘nay.’
Following the lawmakers’ walkout, a similar amendment to the motion was made by Representative Acarous Moses Gray, one of the two proponents of the impeachment bill and was accepted by the Speaker.
In the Bill of Impeachment submitted by the Special Committee set up by the Speaker, the Committee, among other things, found that there was probable cause for the impeachment of Associate Justice Ja’neh for official misconduct because his intention is nothing more than putting the House of Representatives at loggerhead with the Supreme Court and engender an unnecessary confrontation between both branches of government and maliciously exposing the House to public ridicule.
In the Bill of Impeachment, the lawmaker accused Ja’neh of stealing information (minutes) from a meeting held by an ad hoc committee chaired by Representative Kanie Wesso, Co-chair on Judiciary that drafted the rules and procedure that led to his impeachment.
Excerpt of the Committee’s report regarding theft of records states: “The Special Committee found that there is probable cause for the impeachment of the respondent, Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh for reasons of officials misconduct because the records which were not in the public domain was attached to the rate of prohibition and as such he must be made to show how these records came into his possession.”
The Bill of Impeachment also calls for the suspension of Associate Justice Ja’neh from the full bench during the impeachment proceedings by the House of Senate but should be allowed his salary, benefit and other emoluments.
Complicated Debacle for Liberia
The reported agreement between President Weah and Senator Johnson puts Liberia in a complicated debacle regarding the international push for war crimes.
A recent session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee which focused on Liberia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the “Covenant”), specifically, addressed the failure of the Government of Liberia to undertake fair and credible prosecutions of international crimes committed in Liberia during armed conflicts between 1989 and 2003, and to end impunity for civil war-era crimes.
In the List of issues in relation to the initial report of Liberia, the Human Rights Committee (“Committee”) requested that the Government of Liberia provide information regarding the follow-up to the final report and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(“TRC”).
Specifically, the Committee requested that the Government of Liberia among other things, make a complete list of persons recommended for prosecution for gross human rights violations and war crimes, including the number of individuals prosecuted and for which crimes, the number of convictions secured, the sentences imposed and the reparation granted to victims.
The report also cited widespread and systematic abuses of international human rights and violations of international humanitarian law characterized Liberia’s brutal armed conflicts from 1989 -2003, the period of the TRC’s mandate. “These abuses included summary executions; large-scale massacres; rape and other forms of sexual violence; mutilation and torture; and forced conscription and use of child combatants.”
The TRC report concluded that all warring factions were implicated in serious abuses. The TRC specifically recommended the establishment of the Extraordinary Criminal Court for Liberia, a hybrid international-national chamber to try individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.
For the foreseeable future, two unrelated cases – an impeachment attempt against a sitting Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a former executive of one of the former warring Faction, LURD entangled in a land saga being heard by the high court, and a quest for a war crimes court appear to be on a collision course.
The matter is becoming even more complicated by the day amid fears of a full blown constitutional crisis.
Article 43 of the constitution states that “No person shall be impeached but by the concurrence of two-thirds of the total membership of the Senate.” This is where things become murky. Those advocating for the removal of Associate Justice J’aneh need at least twenty senators to secure and impeachment.
As it stands, the former ruling party is currently in a coalition with the opposition Liberty Party and the Alternative National Congress.
Scramble for Impeachment Votes
The Senate, which is the upper body of the bicameral legislative branch has thirty senators representing fifteen counties and equally represented by two senators, elected to serve nine-year terms.
For now, Senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence and Jonathan Kaipay(Liberty Party, Grand Bassa), Senator Steve Zargo(Grand Bassa), Senator Sando Johnson(NPP, Bomi), Senator Oscar Cooper(NPP, Margibi) are said the be the sure bets against the impeachment of Associate Justice J’aneh. The President’s overtures to the Johnson, who is also said to be prevailing on Grupee to follow his path, could make the future bleak for J’aneh. One Senator, Geraldine Doe-Sheriff is unlikely to vote due to illness, making the quest for two-thirds a challenge for both sides of the aisle.
For many political observers the reported deal between President Weah and Senator Johnson is tough to decipher. Both men who have a history of reneging on promises in the past, now find themselves relying on each other with the possibility of the ultimate betrayal looming amid mounting push on President Weah for the establishment of a war crimes court.
In the final analysis, some say, Johnson’s future may not lie in President Weah’s hand as the international community press on.
Noted lawyer Tiawan Gongloe, in a session with visiting international groups mounting a push for war crimes this week declared that Justice is on the way. “A war criminal is a person who violates the law of war. Therefore, those whom we refer to as war criminals in Liberia are those who killed civilians and committed other gruesome acts during the fourteen years of civil conflict in Liberia. These people are well-known to the Liberian people and others, including employees of non-governmental organizations and journalists who covered the war. They cannot be forgotten and they cannot hide. The testimonies that were given by Liberians against Jungle Jarbah and Tom Woweiyu in the United States of America, recently, show that the events of the war are still fresh in the minds of the victims, families of victims and those who witnessed the perpetrators of war crimes in Liberia.”
Senator Johnson, who now finds his fate in the hands of President Weah is betting on his monopoly on vote-rich Nimba and the fear of the unknown as he aims to continue his haven from a potential war crimes trial, a fate that has already landed former President Charles Taylor and a few other figures from civil war’s past on the hotseat as victims’ families continue to make a case for a court in hopes of bringing closure to the ones they lost to guns, mayhem and war.
