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 Civic Initiative (CI), a Liberian civil society organization, is
pleased to announce the publication and release this August of the book
Impunity under Attack: the Evolution and Imperatives of the Liberian
Truth Commission.
This 239 page book, with Foreword by Priscilla Hayner, author of Unspeakable Truths and co-founder of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), is an outstanding work of advocacy by three active members of Liberia’s civil society – Aaron Sleh (commentator and former student activist), Samuel Toe (former Hearings Officer of Liberian TRC), and Aaron Weah (staff of ICTJ). The authors all have previous staff experiences with Civic Initiative.
Impunity under Attack is the result of two years of research, analyses and other work, chronicling rights abuses and violations committed across four decades by Liberian “security” forces and rebel movements in the course of recent conflicts. It analyzes the practice of amnesty – explicit, implicit, and consensual - as a major fundament underpinning Liberia’s perennial culture of impunity.
Until the establishment of a TRC in late 2003, and the success of Sierra Leone’s Special Court against former President Charles Taylor, the gaudy assortment of rebel generals and political perpetrators freely roamed Liberia and the world, taunting international justice with little regard for the concerns of victims.
As a tribute to civil society’s struggle for accountability, and in the attempt to call public attention to the Liberian TRC process, the authors have highlighted numerous egregious crimes against innocent civilians and sounded a caveat that the commission risks disrepute and condemnation if it fails to address these crimes, or propose any serious remedy for victims.
In very absorbing analyses of the TRC Act and the nature of the crimes involved – “violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity in conformity with international laws and standards” - the authors conclude on a number of specific crimes whose perpetrators are “unpardonable” under the current process.
Readers will find this book both evocative and historically illuminating. As the debate rages about the most appropriate action against gross human rights violators even in the face of a TRC, this book represents the first major post-conflict effort of its kind to stir up, quite controversially, such accountability issues in the Liberian public and beyond.
With support from Civic Initiative (CI) and ICTJ, a formal book launch is scheduled for 22 August 2008 at the University of Liberia – the day, time, and venue 24 years ago when former President Samuel Doe unleashed his military in a brutal armed attack against innocent and unarmed students of the University who were simply agitating for a wider democratic space.
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Interested readers may contact
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for copies of this piece.. Its introduction and Preface are here attached.
Signed: Kanio Bai Gbala, Program Associate Civic Initiative (CI)civic.
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