The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is poised to evoke its subpoena power for the first time to force to appear former warlord Prince Johnson, now senator of Liberia's northern Nimba County, says the Commission's Director of Information Richmond Anderson. Johnson was the leader of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), a breakaway faction of the now defunct National Patriotic Front led at the time by Charles Taylor. Anderson said Johnson has been repeatedly invited to testify regarding his activities during the war, in particular the assassination of former Liberian President Samuel Doe in September 1990. In camera, witnesses accused Johnson of spearheading Doe's capture, torture and murder. Johnson is also accused of killing the AFL Colonel Larry Borteh, former Youth and Sports Minister Fred Blay, musician Tecumseh Roberts, INPFL Special Forces commando Moses Varnie, having thrown the children of several market women in the St. Paul River and executing his fighters under the guise of discipline.

"Witch hunt"

However, the Nimba senator has categorically told the TRC to stop bothering him and inviting him to appear before them. He described their actions as a "witch-hunt". In a January 31 press conference at his senate office, he admitted to having killed Samuel Doe, further explaining that he has already reconciled with Doe's family and relatives and there was no need to testify to this at a TRC public hearing. The senator also pointed out that he was not the first to have killed an acting president. "President Tolbert was acting head of state when he was murdered in cold blood by Doe [...]. Some of those who killed Tolbert are still alive, as are those who killed the thirty members of his administration. If the TRC is interested in president killers, Doe and his group should appear first," he angrily responded to reporters' question.

"I will never appear before the Commission to explain circumstances in connection with the death of President Samuel Doe, unless his family indicts me," the former rebel general bragged. An unlikely event, according to the former president's brother and current minister of transportation, Jackson Doe, who says he is not ready to testify before the TRC regarding his brother's death. "Doe's family forgave Prince Johnson in Lagos, and even back here in Liberia," he confirms.

"My people will resist any attempt to force me to appear"

Johnson believes the TRC is not doing the work for which it was created. Gloves off, he threatens, "My people, the people of Nimba, will resist any attempt by the TRC to force me to appear." In his opinion, explaining what his men did to Samuel Doe could ignite another war between the people of Nimba and Grand Gedeh. "We don't want to dig old wounds," Johnson asserted. But that doesn't stop him from denouncing the supposed co-authors of Doe's arrest and murder: prominent Liberians such as former interim president Amos Sawyer, now chairman of the Governance Reform Commission, Archbishop Michael K. Francis and some western powers.

Meanwhile, two former important warlords, Alhaji Kromah and George Boley have expressed - respectively on 22 and 29 January - their intention to appear before the TRC to testify regarding their activities from 1979 to 2003. Kromah led the United Liberation Movement for Democracy (ULIMO) which later split into ULIMO-K under his command and ULIMO-J under the leadership of the late Roosevelt Johnson. Boley led the Liberia Peace Council (LPC), a rebel faction that has also expressed its preparedness to appear before the TRC. These two testimonies, if they are heard, could very quickly bring the Commission to the heart of its most sensitive matter: the responsibility of war lords in the crimes committed.