Liberia Transitional Justice Forum
Thoughts from Cape Town Immersion Fellowship Program

By: Lawrence T. Randall

Week 1 Continues…

Paige Arthur will return the next morning keen to meet her deliverables. She promptly reckons that the deliverables for Day 1 were unmet. Don’t forget we are discussing TJ History, Theory, Practice/Principal and Mechanism. She has just one hour and thirty minutes on hand to weave through this rather complex subject. As mentioned before, she has written a long and pretty engrossing essay on TJ History but to have effectively delivered on this, required more time than budgeted.

Nonetheless, she will attempt to make the most out of her genius. The time is fast flowing and Patricia Karim, our moderator and ruthless time keeper will keep it strict. We recap basically, the tune of the previous day proceeding-the various kinds of justice and the various kinds of transitions. Quite the same dissection we had when Dr. Boraine was on display. She brings in a more structured PowerPoint Presentation but we will have to rush this to finality, as she has another session within the session.

She will now revert to break up sessions assigning countries to four groups for the purpose of determining the right kind of transitional justice mechanism to deploy looking at the various countries contexts. This was a brilliant idea and fairly practical assignment, except that she failed to consider the factor of timing, which made it difficult to fall back on the various presentations to examine how they fitted with the appropriate justice claims and the definitions we had previously carved the day before.

As the last group ended, we were in to time. I thought we didn’t meet the deliverables and for couple for good reasons too. The subject was quite complicated and the idea to change gear without considering that there was no or limited latitude of time, further compounded the situation.

But I expect that Paige would gracefully accept responsibility for this, as combined she had four hours thirty minutes.

Helen Scanlon is a seasoned gender expert that has worked for ICTJ for a while. Her task is to lecture on Gender and Transitional Justice. She will begin by freshening up my rather obscure understanding of the gender concept, a term that has been so widely and often used in the last few years. Helen knew, from experience, that our time keeper carried out her work with ruthless determination and as such she was made to adapt a haste approach.

Sometimes limited in depth and content, she will run the lecture faster, keeping to the limits of time. I thought this was rather troublesome, as some key issues and information are left unabsorbed when lectures are fast tracked this way. Worthy of praise, was Helen choice of a semi-animated style, using audio-visual slides in her PowerPoint presentation on Gender and Transitional Justice. This was excellent. My verdict notwithstanding is reserved until Helen completes some remaining sessions on gender in prosecution, reparation etc. However, it should be said without hesitation that Helen kept the pace and fare pretty well. Let’s see what unfolds in the coming days.

Andre du Toit comes across as a very educated and highly knowledgeable man. One of the earliest scholar’s in the field, du Toit is amongst South Africa’s top intellectual elites, reading from his bio and judging by his visage. Andre as he’s called, will be given a subject (Transitional Justice in Africa) that he will eventually abandon and invite participants to map up areas of interest, which will be left largely unattended. He walks us through a replay of the fundamentals of transitional justice, quite good for starters but unwelcomed by practitioners hungry to amass multiple perspectives on the TJ subject in a relatively short period. The crew will be disappointed but in some respect, the dimensions Andre will eventually navigate were looking more visual, though obviously very theoretical. By measure of the subject matter, discussions were off tangent.

We end the day with a very inspiring documentary on Truth Commissions. See you tomorrow, when South African ‘Ambassador’ on TRC best practices, Yasmin Sooka takes to the stage.

Liberia Transitional Justice Forum
Thoughts from Cape Town Immersion Fellowship Program

By: Lawrence T. Randall

This forum is long overdue. Let me, as a matter of principle, insist that the creation of this forum is not an original idea. In fact, Aaron Weah of the International Center for Transitional Justice, ICTJ Monrovia Office and I have been tolling with the idea of bringing young practitioners working in the field of transitional justice in Liberia together in some form of informal discourse. The manner, form and shape that discourse would eventually take were left hanging in the air. Unusually swarmed with routine busy schedules, those thoughts slipped into oblivion.

An invitation from the ICTJ to attend its Cape Town Fellowship on Transitional Justice can be fairly termed the defining moment for reclaiming the imagery that buzzed through our heads when Aaron and I pondered the absence of any contemporary journal on this vast field that was unfolding in Liberia. Come to think of it, we have over a dozen young Liberians that have graduated from some form of orientation in various subjects and thematic areas under this arena, yet, there’s no dedicated intellectual space for these practitioners to review and analyze regional and global trends, new concepts and controversies, and emerging challenges and opportunities facing the sector. In this edition, we will focus large measure on the overall transitional justice debate and how our South African study has affected our perception about the subject. The journey begins.

We start by stressing that even before Immersion, we had some functional definition of transitional justice but the first day of the course has provided an array of contexts by which we are now able to mirror, analyze and appreciate the various underlying issues and debates underpinning the field’s development in the last decade.

For starters, arriving in Cape Town should be quite amazing especially with no prior visits to the developed world. And even with such experience, you are left baffled by the extent to which South Africans have made their tax dollars work. Ask those that have been here and they tell you first hand. The progress notwithstanding, it is instructive to note that sometimes the beauty of this vast and diverse country can prove deceptive. For instance, you might be inclined to believe that hunger and poverty are a media creation, judging by the chain of food stores few blocks away from you. It will be a fatal judgment to conclude that the country is so peaceful reading from your upscale apartment in downtown Cape Town. The many opposite complexions you find elsewhere are the heart of South Africa’s diversity.

It should be noted however, that South Africa minus crime and the glaring disparity in inequality, and standard of living between communities is a place worth living. Cape Town especially has a striking distinction. Cape Town is a peninsula city covered by nature’s bare beauty which descends from the overlooking mountains and provides the scenery you just can’t find in a metropolitan area. The physical, human, structural and material scar left by apartheid is all but visible. Few meters from the Airport, we are greeted by the paradox of prosperity. Two communities divided by a stretch of two lane roads heading to the city center. One very developed and the other, a shanty town typical of Monrovia’s West Point ghetto. These communities lie opposite to each other just about a kilometer from Cape Town Airport. You find this kind of disparity widespread across the country and of course in all fairness to South Africans, it will require some additional time to address these issues of structural inequalities that even very developed countries like the US are still haunted by. Katrina might have just been a tip of the iceberg.

We will probably need a more detailed essay to capture our impression of life in South Africa in general, the case of crime, silent and unspoken discrimination and the relics of the apartheid period. To begin delving in more detail would mean reinventing a discussion so widely articulated by reputed scholars and full time investigative journalists. We move on and focus the forum on the matter most pressing – transitional justice.

Day 1 should have been a basis. Was it really? In some respect, I say yes. Dr. Alex Boraine, you might not be very conversant with this soft speaking walking encyclopedia if you are far removed from the transitional justice community, but simply put, he is a TJ egghead. Dr. Boraine is founder of ICTJ and he brings enormous reputation to this fast growing organization simply based on work and merits. An astute intellectual and calmly intelligently teacher, Dr. Boraine waves through the etymology of Transitional Justice in ways no ordinary scholar would do. He brings the context closer and involves students in carving the basic fundamentals to this sometime controversial cliche “Transitional Justice” that has resonated so well since its introduction as a field of concentration. We got to understand that Transitional Justice is in fact a evolving concept which has rightly sought to claim legitimacy in the last few decades not merely for its relevance as a field but its immense ability to restore fractured societies, re-institutionalize the culture of accountability and promote as in the case of nascent democracies, tenets of good governance the absence of which has become somewhat rational pretext for perpetrators of violence to wage war and instigate social unrest. We were able to establish some historical context of the field’s emergence and how a host of issues affected its development. From Dr. Boraine‘s perspective, I would say we got a deal.

By mid-day, the base was being energized and reading from my Liberian colleague Caroline Bowah, expectations were being met. She was electrified and as a typical TJ practitioner, she was active to the roof and could be seen expressly satisfied with the deal. The base was further consolidated with the introduction of an almost informal lecture from reputed historian and writer, Dr. Paige Arthur who discussed the history, theory, principles and practice of transitional justice from the skin surface. I had actually been one of few fellows that thought to read Arthur’s electrifying thirty-five page essay on TJ history and was of course very impressed with her mastery of the subject and the energy she deployed in collating a vast array of documentations and interviews. I was in anticipation, like a thirsty student waiting to be filled from the master’s flowing fountain of knowledge. My eagerness could be detected and in fact, prior to her presentation I hitched a chat outside the main conference venue and began explaining my reading of her article and expressly indicated my expectations. She was clear and straight. She could not deliver the issues the way and depth I would have loved considering time constraints, the mix of participants and of course the course objectives were all limitations to such narrative’s eloquent delivery.

So, all said and done this was not to be. And to cause further upset to her strategy, Dr. Borain had ventured into grounds reserved for her, looking at the subjects and issues that were outlined in the course itinerary. She had to invent a delivery mode of her own. And true to her credit, she thought to make her presentation more participatory and user friendly. The lectures that I hoped for was all in summary and the bulk was shifted to the participants to carve their path. Think, think and rationalize. I was disappointed but in some measure she resonates as an intelligent instructor knowing the mood and knowing how to deploy her methodology. Half of the session was group work, laying the basis for the definition of key terms and providing the construct for the discourse, which to be honest, was already dissected by her predecessor. We were low on time, as the various exercises were involving more time than expected and then came our shuttle. Time is up. You got to go.

Was the deal complete? I asked my colleague, sensing some uneasiness and lack of gusto. “Well, lets wait for part II tomorrow” she said calmly. After all and true to Paige Arthur’s credit, we need to wait and see.

Have to check the clinic for some ear scan and see you on Day 2, when the forum returns. Good bye from sweet Cape Town.


___________________
Mr. Lawrence T. Randall is a Liberian journalist who lives and works in Monrovia, the country's capital. Mr. Randall is also Executive Director of the Liberia Media Center (LMC), Liberia's biggest local non-governmental organization that works to build the capacities of local journalists and media institutions.

Recommend Prosecution For Heinous Crimes

…US Professor Holloway Tells TRC

…Says Reconciliation in Good, But Justice Is Better

Monrovia, September 4, 2008 (TRC): The TRC must recommend prosecution for past government officials that committed the most heinous economic and political crimes against the Liberian people at a special tribunal set up to address wrongs against humanity, Professor Joseph Holloway has suggested.

Professor Holloway said reconciliation is good and necessary, but justice is always better. By justice, he said the idea of political, economic and social justice should also be considered on the road to reconciliation.

Dr. Holloway said that people who have been violated must be guaranteed their safety from state terrorism, provide them with food security. He said individuals who have committed crimes against humanity should receive justice.

He was testifying Thursday at Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) ongoing Thematic and Institutional Hearing on Historical Review at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia.

Holloway, professor of Pan African Studies at California State University and a prolific writer on Liberia cautioned the Supreme Court, the court systems, government officials, including the office of the president to not use their positions to protect groups that have violated the human rights of Liberian citizens.

“The mandates of most Truth and Reconciliation Commissions have been to discover and reveal past wrongdoing by the governments. In the case of Liberia, one can argued that issues of class, culture, ethnicity and land are at the roots of the historical crisis. More importantly, the people and victims of internal unrest, civil war, state terrorism have been left in a state of confusion because the new governments have established Truth and Reconciliation Commissions based on the South African model, which has been controversial because many of the individuals accused for crimes against humanity are now part of those governments, and go unpunished with impunity,” Professor Holloway said.

Holloway insisted that the government should make a public apology for past crimes against the people and should pay reparation in the form of building schools, roads, and medical centers in rural areas.

He said past economic and political crimes against indigenous peoples by the True Whig Party government should be heard by the TRC, saying that many of these issues involve land ownership.

Dr. Holloway proposed that the TRC should recommend to the government the removal of honors of individuals who abused government offices at the expense of its poor citizens.

Under the theme: “Examining Liberia’s Past: Reality, Myth, Falsehood and the Conflict”, the hearing will provide a critical review and expert perspectives into Liberia’s past not only for the purpose of understanding the historical antecedents to the conflict, but to ensure the country’s history or national narrative reflected the experiences, beliefs and aspirations of Liberians of all backgrounds.

The hearing featuring the testimonies and presentations of historians, anthropologists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, diplomats and clergymen is intended to help Liberians rewrite their history by seeking to identify the issues that underpinned our history, divided us as a people and nearly eviscerated the state.

__________________

Press Release from the TRC's media unit.

1980 Coup Created Opportunity For Disputes

…Professor Holsoe Diagnoses Liberia’s Problems

The April 12, 1980 military coup created an opportunity for disputes to flare up in Liberia, which the True Whig Party (TWP) government had difficulty quashing, Professor Svend E. Holsoe said.

Dr. Holsoe, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Delaware said the overthrow of the TWP leadership in 1980, and with the new leadership favoring people of certain regions resulted into the weakening of the overarching control by force of the central government.

As a consequence, he said, there was an opportunity for disputes to flare up, which the authorities had difficulties quashing.

Professor Holsoe, author of several publications including books, book reviews monographs, edited works, bibliographic documentation and articles on Liberia, was testifying Tuesday at Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) ongoing Thematic Hearings on Historical Review at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion on Ashmun Street, Monrovia.

“The top was off the box, and disputes spilled out, thereby allowing local warlords to arise. As a consequence, some of the patterns of violent disruption, known from the past, began to re-emerge,” Dr. Holsoe founding editor of the Liberian Studies Journal, Liberian Working Papers and Liberian Monograph Series, member of the African Studies Association and a founding member of the Liberian Studies Association said.

He said regional variations in Liberia are real and continue to exist, but recommended the need to re-impose central authority all over the country in order to return to tranquility.

He said it is necessary to acknowledge in any new political structure, that there are regional political and social differences, which any new structure of local governance will need to pay attention.

In the matter of dispute settlement, Dr. Holsoe said mechanisms need to be put in places that are appropriate. At the same time, he said a standardized legal system needs to be made operative across the country.

He said local people must be left to design within a general structure and political system that works best for themselves and not have the specifics of it imposed.

Dr. Holsoe said that Liberia has had dual legal system (the traditional and statutory) which he said had been a troubled boundary and proposed a unified legal system that would alleviate competitiveness between the two systems.

Under the theme: “Examining Liberia’s Past: Reality, Myth, Falsehood and the Conflict”, the hearings will provide a critical review and expert perspectives into Liberia’s past not only for the purpose of understanding the historical antecedents to the conflict, but to ensure the country’s history or national narrative reflected the experiences, beliefs and aspirations of Liberians of all backgrounds.

The hearing featuring the testimonies and presentations of historians, anthropologists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, diplomats and clergymen is intended to help Liberians rewrite their history by seeking to identify the issues that underpinned our history, divided us as a people and nearly eviscerated the state.


____________
Press release from the TRC's media unit.

War Crimes Court Will Undermine Liberia’s Security

…Father Tikpor

The establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia will undermine the peace and security of the country, Monsignor Reverend Father Robert Tikpor has said.

Father Dr. Tikpor said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia should not recommend the establishment of a court of international justice in Liberia at the conclusion of its process. The Catholic prelate believes that such recommendation would not solve the country’s problem.

“Do not waste your time my beloved commissioners. An international court will not give us peace,” Father Tikpor said.

He was testifying Monday at Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Thematic Hearing on Historical Review in Monrovia.

He said the establishment of an international war crimes court in Liberia would ensure a return of the country to the path of confusion.

“We will not sleep if you recommend that. We will not sleep. They have their men around here. An international war crimes court will not heal the country. It will not heal the situation. We are a forgiving society. We are a healing society,” he said.

He recommended that leaders of the former warring factions be granted amnesty so that the country can remain peaceful. “Let’s ignore the heads of the former warring faction. It is God that will judge them,” he said.

Father Tikpor admonished Liberians to allow God to decide the fate of members of the former warring factions, saying, “Let God take our revenge.”

He clarified that his recommendation was personal and not the position of the Catholic Church in Liberia.

Although he said he was not against the commission recommending prosecution, he was opposed to the setting up of a war crimes court in Liberia.

Under the theme: “Examining Liberia’s Past: Reality, Myth, Falsehood and the Conflict”, the hearingwill provide a critical review and expert perspectives into Liberia’s past not only for the purpose of understanding the historical antecedents to the conflict, but to ensure the country’s history or national narrative reflected the experiences, beliefs and aspirations of Liberians of all backgrounds.

The hearing featuring the testimonies and presentations of historians, anthropologists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, diplomats and clergymen is intended to help Liberians rewrite their history by seeking to identify the issues that underpinned our history, divided us as a people and nearly eviscerated the state.

The hearings are focused on events between 1979 and 2003 and the national and external actors that helped to shape those events.

_________________

Press Release issued by the TRC's media unit.

Historical Review Hearing Opens Monday

…Expert Historians To Testify

Prominent Liberian and foreign historians have started testifying at Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Thematic Hearing on Historical Review in Monrovia.

Under the theme: “Examining Liberia’s Past: Reality, Myth, Falsehood and the Conflict”, the hearings which will convene at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion from 1-6 September, will provide a critical review and expert perspectives into Liberia’s past not only for the purpose of understanding the historical antecedents to the conflict, but to ensure the country’s history or national narrative reflected the experiences, beliefs and aspirations of Liberians of all backgrounds.

The hearing featuring the testimonies and presentations of historians, anthropologists, journalists, lawyers, politicians, diplomats and clergymen is intended to help Liberians rewrite their history by seeking to identify the issues that underpinned our history, divided us as a people and nearly eviscerated the state.

Already, as part of the TRC’s endeavor to provide a critical review of Liberia’s past, several Liberian and foreign historians have been invited as expert witnesses to present testimonies during the hearing.

They include Dr. Joseph Saye Guannu, prominent Liberian historian; Monsignor Reverend Father Robert Tikpor, of the Catholic Church in Liberia; Professor Elwood Dunn, the Alfred Walter Negley Professor of Political Science at Sewanee: The University of the South (Tennessee, USA). Dr. Dunn is the author and co-author of numerous books and articles notably on Liberia.

Also to testify is Dr. Augustine Konneh, a professor and former Chairman of History at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Konneh also teaches at Clark Atlanta University and Agnes Scott College and his area of instructional concentration includes African, African-American, United States, Caribbean and World histories. His academic self interest is in economic history, particularly West Africa, and in conflict and conflict resolution in Africa.

Professor Svend Einar Holsoe, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Delaware will also give his historical perspective during the hearing. Professor Holsoe has authored several publications including books, book reviews monographs, edited works, bibliographic documentation and articles on Liberia. He is the founding editor of the Liberian Studies Journal, Liberian Working Papers and Liberian Monograph Series, member of the African Studies Association and a founding member of the Liberian Studies Association.

Another witness, Joseph Edward Holloway is a professor of Pan African Studies at California State University and a prolific writer on Liberia.

The TRC Historical Review Committee is chaired by Commissioner Pearl Brown-Bull. As part of the commission’s mandate to promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation following the country’s long running conflict, the TRC is required to adopt appropriate mechanisms and procedures to document the experiences of Liberians and address varying issues including the country’s historical myths that impacted the conflict.

The commission has been conducting investigations and research into cases of abuse and other violations during the conflict, as well as holding several individual, institutional and thematic hearings.

The hearings are focused on events between 1979 and 2003 and the national and external actors that helped to shape those events.

The TRC was agreed upon in the August 2003 Accra Peace Agreement and created by the TRC Act of 2005. The TRC was established to “promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation,” and at the same time make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003.

___________

Press Release issued by the TRC's media unit.

Deadline is August 29 for Knight International Journalism Fellowships

Dear Lamii, The International Center for Journalists is currently seeking applicants for the Knight International Journalism Fellowships program. As participants of the 2008 Goteborg, Sweden conference we value your regional expertise and support of independent media worldwide. The Knight International Journalism Fellowships program sends international media professionals to key countries where there are opportunities for meaningful and measurable change. If you or someone you know may be interested in applying for a fellowship, please visit our Web site: http://knight.icfj.org/apply for information about the program and current fellowship openings. The countries we are currently recruiting fellows for are: Bangladesh, Brazil, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Philippines, Syria/Lebanon, and Zambia. Journalists applying for a fellowship must have a minimum of 10 years of journalism experience and fluency in the language of the host country. The deadline to apply for the October 20-24, 2008 orientation is August 29, 2008. The Knight International team is also looking for ways to reach potential fellows around the globe. If you know of a job posting Web site in your country or region, particularly one that focuses on journalism jobs, please send an email to knight@icfj.org. Sincerely, The Knight International Team 1616 H Street, NW 3rd Floor | Washington, DC 20006 US