President Joseph Boakai unveiled a model for Liberia’s national war memorial, saying the country owes truth and accountability to victims of civil wars that killed more than 250,000 people.
The memorial, unveiled Friday at the Executive Mansion in Monrovia, will commemorate victims of the 14-year conflict that ended in 2003, as his administration pushes to establish a war crimes court to prosecute more than 100 people identified for their alleged responsibility for atrocities.
The initiative comes amid renewed efforts to address Liberia’s legacy of war crimes and crimes against humanity, more than two decades after the conflict ended.
The country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended 116 people for prosecution, although those recommendations do not constitute criminal convictions.
Several Liberians have already faced prosecution abroad, including in the US and European countries, under laws allowing national courts to pursue serious international crimes committed elsewhere.
Former President Charles Taylor, convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s civil war, is serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison. His conviction was related to atrocities in Sierra Leone, not crimes prosecuted in Liberia.
Boakai has backed the establishment of a War and Economic Crimes Court, which would give Liberia a domestic mechanism to investigate and prosecute those bearing the greatest responsibility for wartime atrocities.
The memorial project is intended to preserve the history of the conflict and recognize victims whose experiences have remained central to demands for justice and national reconciliation.
