Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) submitted its final report on human rights abuses committed during the country's devastating civil wars and calls for an 'Extraodinary Criminal Court for Liberia'.

"This report is our roadmap to liberation and lasting peace which means that reconciliation in Liberia is
never again an elusive goal. It is both a possibility and a reality we must achieve by opening our hearts and accepting the realities and consequences of our national existence and move forward," the report says.

Prosecutions

The 370-page report recommends that ex-President Charles Taylor and seven other former warlords be prosecuted for crimes against humanity for their alleged roles in the West African country's civil war. The TRC also submitted a draft statute to establish an 'extraordinary criminal court for Liberia', similar to the war crimes court in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
 

The commission recommends that Taylor and seven other former warlords be prosecuted for offences including "human rights violations, violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights laws, war crimes, [and] egregious domestic economic crimes."

Taylor, who launched the 1989 invasion of Liberia, is on trial at The Hague, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone.

Among the others recommended for prosecution is Prince Johnson, a former rebel leader who won a landslide victory in the 2005 post-war election and is now a sitting senator.

He is best known for the gruesome torture of former Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, who died in 1990. Last year Johnson told the truth commission that although it was his forces that captured Doe, others are responsible for his death.

Involved but not prosecuted

The report also details the names of those who should not be prosecuted, despite their involvement in the conflict. It says 30 people should be exempt from prosecution because they spoke truthfully during public hearings and expressed remorse.

Included in that list is Joshua Milton Blayir, otherwise known as General Butt Naked. He admitted to killing about 20,000 people at the height of the conflict. He is now a pastor at a church with a large congregation of ex-combatants.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

The TRC recommends that 52 others be subject to public sanctions for their involvement in war crimes. Among them is President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The report suggested she could be barred from holding public office after her presidential term ends.

President Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female president, testified about her involvement with Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front rebel group. She was one of many politicians who supported rebels fighting against Samuel Doe's brutal regime.

TRC

Liberia's post-war government set-up the truth commission in 2003  - modelled on the one in post-apartheid South Africa - inviting both victims and perpetrators to recount their version of events. It was mandated to probe war crimes and human rights violations during the back-to-back civil wars that ravaged Liberia between 1989 and 2003 and left around 250,000 people dead.

In past years, the TRC has heard from key figures in the conflict, including some warlords. It documented over 22,000 written statements, several dozens of personal interviews and over 500 hundred live public testimonies of witnesses including actors, perpetrators and direct victims.