Reconciliation Deferred – Liberia’s TRC After fourteen years of civil war, Liberians faced the task of confronting the past and finding a way to live together again. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to document what had happened, hear testimony from victims and perpetrators, and recommend measures to promote accountability, reconciliation and lasting peace. But how much could one such commission realistically achieve? In this episode of Liberia: Remembering the Future, Gerry Naughton and Aaron Weah examine the origins, work and contested legacy of Liberia’s TRC. Drawing on his personal experience of attending the Commission’s hearings, Aaron recalls the testimony of victims and perpetrators, the reactions of those listening, and the difficult questions raised by attempts to establish a shared historical record. We also explore the tensions between the Commission and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s administration, the controversy surrounding its final recommendations, and the distinction between establishing the truth, delivering justice and achieving reconciliation. The TRC left an extraordinary record of testimony. But its wider ambitions remain unfinished, and questions of accountability and reconciliation continue to shape Liberia’s political life. Truth was heard. Reconciliation is still awaited. Liberia: Remembering the Future is presented by Aaron Weah and Gerry Naughton. Follow or subscribe for more conversations exploring Liberia’s history and its continuing influence on the country’s future. Transcript Welcome to Liberia: Remembering the Future, with me, Gerry Naughton, and Dr Aaron Weah. After fourteen years of civil war, it was time for the Liberian people to reckon with what had happened – the violence, the suffering, the trauma – and find a way to live together again. One response was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC was given the task of establishing a historical record, hearing from victims and perpetrators, and recommending measures to prevent a return to conflict. But not all such commissions are created equal. Can a single process establish the truth, deliver justice and bring about reconciliation? And what happens when the search for a historical record runs up against the realities of political power? In this episode, Aaron draws on his own experience of the Commission’s hearings, and we examine both the scale of the TRC’s ambition and the controversy surrounding its eventual recommendations. What did Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission achieve – and what remains unresolved? GerryYou know, let’s just start with a broad — a broad question. And I know you’ve got so much background and so much, you know, time in your life that’s gone into thinking about this, but if you could sum it up, the answer to this question, I’d be grateful. What was the TRC supposed to do? What did Liberians hope it might achieve before it started? AaronSo the TRC, and my response may be — my response to this question may come from the place of someone who’s been involved with it, and it may not be shared, it may not be the expectations that were shared with everyone. AaronBut I would say the centralmost purpose of the TRC was to create a historical account of what had happened, and to be able to recommend actions that would evolve a repeat of what happened between 1979 or earlier, up to 2003. AaronSo that was essentially what the TRC was set up to do, to create a historical record, and by way of investigating the antecedent to the Liberian conflict and recommending concrete actions that evolve a repeat or a potential relapse into the Liberian conflict. AaronDid we achieve that? That’s the big question that we can discuss. GerryWe’ve got an hour to get there, or so. AaronThat’s it. GerryDo you think that’s how the people of Liberia saw it? Were they happy that it was coming, did they welcome it, were they frustrated, or did they see it as a diversion? AaronSo let’s — let’s go back a little and say, let’s go back, because everything began at the Accra Peace Agreement, the way the agreement — remember now, the Accra Agreement was just one of the many peace agreements that were signed. GerryYeah. AaronAnd the question here is, why did the Accra Agreement succeed and why others fail? In lots of different ways, it’s because — for a couple of reasons. One was the subregion had changed considerably, and then leaders within the subregion were now transitioning from the era of military rule to civilian rule. Democracy was now invoked, and everyone was trying to get along, or get on, get on that bandwagon. AaronAnd the third point about why I think Accra succeeded was it happened at a time where it overlapped with the success of the South African Truth Commission. We know South Africa was at the brink of its own collapse with the violent crime that we saw happening after — before the elections of Mandela, and after that, how the TRC process was used to engineer a setting change that was almost unthinkable because the country was very close to some fear of collapse. So why did Accra achieve? The combination of these factors. AaronSo specifically on Liberia, you see how after the peace agreement and the compromise that was reached, that instead of establishing a war crimes court — because that was a major point of bargaining and point of contention during the Accra Peace Agreement — and eventually there was a compromise reached between establishing a war crimes court and the TRC, and so it was agreed that we need — if you see the fine prints of the Accra Agreement, you will see in there the language is, “We need a South African-style Truth Commission.” Now, at that point, it wasn’t really clear what are the powers of a Truth Commission, to what extent can the enabling legislation of a TRC be massaged, or be given the powers that resemble — if not entirely, but that resembles that, in part, that of a tribunal or war crimes court. At the point in Accra, it wasn’t obvious. AaronSo when the Accra Agreement ended, for some of the actors who were familiar with how the previous agreements have always played out, for them it was yet another power-sharing arrangement. And so they went back to Monrovia to carry on with business as usual. Others thought that there was some unfinished business in Accra that needed to quickly be adjusted in Monrovia. And so this is how the TRC Act came about, and the sweeping powers — if you read the Act, that talks about the Act should prevent the use of amnesty, or that amnesty is declared — I mean, for international crimes, you cannot — amnesty cannot be amnestyed. War crimes and crimes against humanity cannot be amnestyed. AaronSo what that meant is that the TRC Act went straight into the process of designing a law that enabled the Commission to — in dealing with the mandate of providing — the purpose of providing a historical record that established clearly why we went to war and to recommend a set of actions that prevents a relapse or a repeat of that. In that framing, in that particular framing, it was envisioned that prosecution and issues of war crimes and crimes against humanity be a major part of how we envision preventing a relapse — a relapse to war. And creating a historical record, dealing with a historical antecedent, it was almost seen as inexplicable that dealing with war crimes was also an integral part of it. AaronSo, and the thing about the TRC, when the TRC Act was being drafted, there was a consultation done across the country. In different regions of the country, there were different aspirations, some wanted reparations, lots called for memorialization, other called for prosecution, and so all of that aspiration went into the design and the design of the TRC Act. It would be unfair to say that across the board everyone had the same sort of aspirations here and there in terms of — so Liberians wanted, essentially wanted to understand why we went to war and to establish an accurate historical picture … This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit liberiartf.substack.com/subscribe
