Ex-Senator Blamo Nelson wants an end to the culture of impunity in Liberia, saying the act of committing hideous crimes and going with impunity is unacceptable in every society, and no one should go with impunity here.
“Impunity is unacceptable; right now no one will want to allow people that once hurt them or their relatives to go with impunity.”
Speaking with state radio ELCB in Paynesville outside Monrovia last Friday, he says no one will harm another person and go with impunity any more in Liberia.
“There is only one person that I know that allowed people to go with impunity, and that person is Jesus Christ, and no one wants to be like him.”
The former Grand Kru County senator and executive of the United People’s Party says it wasn’t possible to put the establishment of war crimes court in the peace accord brokered in Accra, Ghana as the warring parties and civil society thought the war-based issues should be addressed through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which mandate was to seek the truth by bringing perpetrators to book.
He continues that the TRC should have gone to phase two by bringing victims, and perpetrators to face one another but the TRC did not do that.
He says the current debate about the establishment of a war crimes court for Liberia should be addressed either by palava hut conversation or thru other means to bring the situation to an end.
According to him, President George Weah should be thinking about making periodic reports on implementation of the TRC recommendations, recalling that former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf reported about four times on the implementation of the TRC Report.
He says there are ways to healing the country, and Liberians should try by engaging those ways to save the state, because this is gradually becoming intense and such has the propensity to undermine peace.
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Calls for the establishment of war crimes court here is heating up on a daily basis with several citizens, including prominent individuals being supportive, something they say will create an opportunity for perpetrators to appear in court.
Recently, rights campaigner Hassan Bility joined the conversation on a local radio station by calling for the establishment of a war crimes court, something which he says is a must.
He notes that if those who committed hideous crimes against ordinary citizens including likes of Senator Prince Y. Johnson, Representative George Boley, and ex-rebel leader Sekou Conneh think the calls by citizens for the establishment of the war crimes court will end as mere calls then they’re getting it all wrong, because one day, they will face the law.
By Lewis S. Teh–Editing by Jonathan Browne
