Liberia’s reconstruction is going full steam ahead – but the people appear to be left behind.

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By Bram Posthumus

Anyone who has been to the Liberian capital Monrovia in the past decade immediately notices the huge changes that have taken place. Instead of pot-holed and dirty, the streets have a new smooth asphalt surface and are clean. The main road east, known as Tubman Boulevard, is changing faster than the rest: from a grim and disorganised drag to a showcase street with shiny new office buildings. The people who used to live here have moved to faraway suburbs.

To lawyer and human rights activist Jerome Verdier, the former chairman of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), what is happening to Tubman Boulevard may well be symbolic for a lot that is going on in post-war Liberia. ‘We are focussing on material and physical reconstruction, not the minds and the souls,’ he says on the line from Monrovia. Nevertheless, he does not regret having served as the TRC chairman. ‘It was a wonderful and revealing experience. I have no regrets.’

Something went wrong
But he is decidedly disappointed about the implementation of the TRC’s recommendations. Early 2008, TRC spokeswoman Massa Washington had this to say in an interview with Radio Netherlands, about Liberians: ‘I think we are a forgiving people. I think that basically we are good people. But something went wrong.’ The TRC’s brief was to find out what exactly had gone wrong and point towards ways to put it right again.

Two of its recommendations stood out: prosecution of the worst perpetrators of crimes against humanity and no access to public office for 30 years to those individuals who had contributed financially to the war effort. This last affects the current head of state. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has never made a secret of the fact that she did indeed fundraise for former president and warlord Charles Taylor, now in The Hague, awaiting the outcome of his trial concerning war crimes he allegedly committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone. But she then decided to ignore the TRC’s recommendation about exclusion from public office. She famously said during the Independence celebration of 2009 that she became a formidable opponent of Taylor once she became aware of his true intentions. Her record, she said, had also been submitted to the people of Liberia. She said to rousing applause: ‘In 2005 I was elected president.’ And her re-election later this year is almost certain. You cannot argue against that.

Jerome Verdier says he knows of at least one instance in which the Executive Mansion (the seat of the presidency in Liberia) actively attempted to interfere with the TRC’s work, an allegation the Executive Mansion has always strenuously denied. If true, it would not be the only case. Here is another one.

Window-dressing
Saclepea, Nimba County, northern Liberia: There is a dusty road that connects this town with the bustling centre of Ganta, on the Guinean border. But on the evening of May 28, traffic on this road is unusually heavy. A long row of four-wheel-drives and motorcycles throws up clouds of dust that are never allowed to settle. The drivers have ripped off leafy twigs from trees and bushes and are brandishing them in victory. It is the triumphant entry of senator Prince Johnson, also a candidate in this year’s presidential election. Prince Johnson tortured a former president, Samuel Kanyon Doe, to death in front of a video camera, in 1991. He has, at various occasions, tried to belittle, derail and infiltrate the work of the TRC, even during his own high profile and boastful testimony before the Commission.

And this, argues Verdier, has set the tone. As a result, he has no illusions about addressing the root causes of the civil crisis in Liberia. ‘As long as the current crop of politicians are here, there will be no justice. We are window dressing.’ It means that crimes remain unpunished, victims remain without redress and no-one, unless forced, will take personal responsibility for what happened during the war. The upshot, Verdier thinks, is that foreign bodies such as the International Criminal Court will have to take on the task of bringing the worst perpetrators to book.

Returning to the minds and the souls, Verdier is particularly concerned that while the elites set the wrong example, the rest of the good people of Liberia follow suit. ‘There is a very worrying tendency that problems are now settled by violence,’ he says. ‘As soon as an issue arises, people go on the rampage.’ Post-war Liberia may look brand new but if the people inside remain the same, there may be new trouble ahead.

Lead photo - mjmkeating on flickr.com - all further use subject to this CC license