LIBERIA: TRC BRINGS SOME RECONCILIATION TO COUNTIES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MONROVIA 000248

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE DRL FOR SHARON COOKE.

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV EAID ECON PREL LI
SUBJECT: LIBERIA: TRC BRINGS SOME RECONCILIATION TO COUNTIES

REF: MONROVIA 30


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The GOL Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) recently concluded one-week public hearings in five of
Liberia's fifteen counties, and will head out again to the
remaining counties after a two-week break. The hearings were
positively received and the traditional leaders of each
county organized reconciliation and forgiveness ceremonies
for local citizens to coincide with the TRC's visit, which
contributed to concrete healing in many cases. The rugged
five-week trip has taken its toll on the Commissioners,
however, causing tensions to run high between them at times,
although reports of physical fighting are unfounded. The
DRL-funded project implemented by Benetech to statistically
analyze witness testimony appears to be going well. The TRC
intends to hire more staff in order to code and data-enter
witness statements more quickly, with the goal of including
all 20,000 statements in the analysis for its final report
due in December. END SUMMARY.

TRC "ROAD SHOW" HITS FIVE COUNTIES


2. (SBU) The TRC Commissioners have conducted one-week public
hearings entitled "Confronting Our Difficult Past for a
Better Future" in Maryland, Grand Kru, River Gee, Grand
Gedeh, and Sinoe counties. The Commissioners' schedule has
been hectic, as they have essentially worked over twelve
hours per day, every day for five weeks, in very rustic
conditions. TRC psycho-social teams have followed them to
provide counseling to any Liberian citizen wishing to discuss
traumatic experiences during the war. Press coverage has
been extensive, and of fairly high quality; a recent report
by the Press Union of Liberia was basically positive.

HEARINGS HAVING SUPRISINGLY POSITIVE IMPACT


3. (SBU) The response of people in the Southeast was
overwhelmingly positive and exceeded TRC expectations. In
many counties, large audiences packed the venues. Often more
witnesses came forward to tell their stories than the
Commissioners had time to hear. Local citizens walked miles
from their villages to the county capitals to participate and
then reported back to their neighbors the events of the visit.


4. (SBU) For rural Liberians -- especially those who are
illiterate and don't understand English -- their county's one
week TRC visit constituted the whole TRC process. For many,
this one week visit was enough to let them turn the page and
move on. Others are benefiting from the TRC's psycho-social
teams that are in the counties to help anyone who needs their
care.

LOCAL CEREMONIES HAVE LEAD TO CONCRETE HEALING


5. (SBU) Traditional leaders organized forgiveness and
reconciliation ceremonies in each county during the TRC's
visit. Though the ceremonies were not officially part of the
TRC's program, they complemented the TRC's goals and had a
profound effect on many of the local citizens. In at least
some cases, the ceremonies provided real healing, and gave
communities the impetus to move beyond the past. In River
Gee County, for example, a man named Washington Moore served
in the National Patriotic Front of Liberia during the war and
forcibly took four men who refused to fight away from their
families to go to war for Taylor, despite pleadings from
their wives. All four men were ultimately killed under
unknown circumstances, and Moore has been a pariah in his
village ever since. A special traditional ceremony was
organized during which Moore apologized to the women, they
forgave him, and all the villagers pledged to accept Moore
again. Now the women are providing food and helping him to
reintegrate into society.


6. (SBU) However, Moore's reconciliation ceremony created
tension among the tired TRC Commissioners, as the ceremony
was announced at the last minute and was planned in a village
that was an eight-hour drive and a two-hour canoe trip in the
opposite direction from their next assignment. The
Commissioners held a heated three-hour closed-door argument
to decide whether to attend. The press alleged that
Commissioners Massa Washington and Pearl Brown Bull got into
a physical fight during that meeting. Ultimately, four
Commissioners attended the ceremony for Moore.


7. In a meeting with PolOff the following week, the
commissioners acknowledged that tensions were high between
them due to the stress of the trip but denied any sort of
physical violence. Washington and Brown Bull were friendly
and joking with each other. The Commissioners decided they

MONROVIA 00000248 002 OF 002


needed a two week break in Monrovia (after five weeks on the
road) to allow rural officials to conduct the census and TRC
staff to reconnect with their families.

DRL-FUNDED CODING AND DATA-ENTRY NEEDS MORE STAFF


8. (SBU) The DRL-funded project to statistically analyze
witness testimony appears to be going well. Implementer
Benetech's manager for Liberia Kristen Cibelli moved to
Monrovia from California to oversee the TRC employees' coding
and data-entry of the statements. Of the approximately
20,000 statements collected thus far, the crew has coded
7,000 and data-entered 3,000. Cibelli said Benetech will run
a preliminary analysis of the data they have captured in June
to help the TRC plan for its thematic hearings this summer.
She is confident that the sample at that point will be
statistically significant and lead to meaningful conclusions.
The GOL feels, however, that it is politically essential for
every statement submitted to be included in the TRC's final
report due in December. TRC Chairman Jerome Verdier told
PolOff that the Liberian people had opened their hearts in
good faith to give their statements and that "no one should
be excluded from history."


9. (SBU) While Verdier would liked to have had all the
statements coded by the June hearings, the TRC does not
currently employ enough coders and data-enterers to achieve
that goal. (Benetech is barred contractually from paying
local staff.) A $1 million Swedish grant included some funds
to hire between six and ten new staff members. These new
employees mean that the TRC could realistically finish all
coding and data-entering in time to draw conclusions for the
December report. Verdier has vowed to push the report back
to January or later if necessary to make sure every statement
is included. Meanwhile, the TRC will look for other funding
options to speed up the statement coding and data-entry
process.


10. Post notes that the TRC has launched a website,
including press releases, videos, and photos of the hearings,
at www.trcofliberia.org. The site also allows Liberians to
submit formal statements to the TRC online.

COMMENT


11. (SBU) Donors continue to be worried that the TRC will be
under political influence when it has to decide whether to
recommend prosecutions and restitution payments concerning
individuals in its final report. It is clear, however, that
the TRC's visits to counties affected by the war have already
had a very positive impact for the people living there. The
county public hearings, psychological counseling sessions,
and the traditional reconciliation ceremonies have been
vehicles for a veritable healing process at the local level,
making the effort successful even if the Commissioners never
quite get the "major-league warlords" to testify. Media
coverage of the hearings in the counties, like earlier
coverage of proceedings in Monrovia, has been extensive and
generally factual. Overall, the public response has been
calm, and the TRC seems to be providing a valuable outlet for
Liberians while helping build a common story/history of the
war years.
BOOTH