Transitional Justice in West Africa

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Liberia

The Republic of Liberia occupies 111,370 sq km of territory in West Africa. Its population numbers approximately 3.3 million with a per capita income (2007 est.) of $500.

Liberia is bordered by Cote d'Ivoire in the east, Sierra Leone and Guinea in the north, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west and south.
Liberia is Africa's first republic, founded in 1822 as a result of the efforts of the American Colonization Society to settle freed American slaves in West Africa. The society contended that the immigration of blacks to Africa was an answer to the problem of slavery as well as to what it felt was the incompatibility of the races. Over the course of forty years, about 12,000 slaves were voluntarily relocated. Originally called Monrovia, the colony became the Free and Independent Republic of Liberia in 1847.

Ethnic Diversity

The English-speaking Americo-Liberians, descendants of former American slaves, make up only 5% of the population but have historically dominated the intellectual and ruling class. In addition to the Americo-Liberians, there are 18-25 ethnic communities, including Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Kru, Grebo, Mano, Krahn, Gola, Gbandi, Loma, Kissi, Vai, Dei, Bella, Mandingo, and Mende. The population is divided religiously between 40% Christian, 20% Muslim, and 40% traditional religions. There are approximately 20 indigenous languages spoken in Liberia, in addition to the official language of English.

Politics

The government of Africa's first republic was modeled after that of the United States, and Joseph Jenkins Roberts of Virginia was elected the first president. Ironically, Liberia's constitution denied indigenous Liberians equal rights with the lighter-skinned American emigrants and their descendants.

In July 1971, while serving his sixth term as president, William V. S. Tubman died following surgery and was succeeded by his longtime associate, Vice President William R. Tolbert, Jr. Tolbert was ousted in a military coup on April 12, 1980, by Master Sgt. Samuel K. Doe, backed by the U.S. government. Doe's rule was characterized by corruption and brutality. A rebellion led by Charles Taylor, a former Doe aide, and the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), started in Dec. 1989; the following year, Doe was assassinated. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) negotiated with the government and the rebel factions and attempted to restore order, but the civil war raged on. By April 1996, factional fighting by the country's warlords had destroyed any last vestige of normalcy and civil society. The civil war finally ended in 1997.

In what was considered by international observers to be a free election, Charles Taylor won 75% of the presidential vote in July 1997. The country had next to no health care system, and the capital was without electricity and running water. Taylor supported Sierra Leone's brutal Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the hopes of toppling his neighbor's government and in exchange for diamonds, which enriched his personal coffers. As a consequence, the UN issued sanctions against Liberia, which further damaged the economic situation on the ground.

In 2002, rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) intensified their attacks on Taylor's government. By June 2003, LURD and other rebel groups controlled two-thirds of the country. Finally, on Aug. 11, Taylor stepped down and went into exile in Nigeria. Gyude Bryant, a businessman seen as a coalition builder, was selected by the various factions as the new president. By the time he was exiled, Taylor had bankrupted his own country, siphoning off $100 million. According to the New York Times, Taylor left Liberia the world's poorest nation. In 2004, international donors promised more than $500 million in aid.

In a Nov. 2005 presidential run-off election, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist who had worked at the World Bank, defeated George Weah, a former world-class soccer star. In Jan. 2006 she became Africa's first female president. Also in 2006, former president Taylor, in exile in Nigeria, was turned over to a remote chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Hague to face trial on charges of crimes against humanity for supporting rebel troops in Sierra Leone's brutal civil war that claimed the lives of about 300,000 people in the 1990s. Taylor refused to appear in court when his trial opened in June 2007. His trial resumed in January 2008.

Part Two - Transitional Justice in Liberia