Liberia

President should be barred from office, says Truth Commission

Article published on the 2009-07-07 Latest update 2009-07-07 14:16 TU

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf denies being a member of a movement led by Charles Taylor
Photo : AFP

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf should be barred from holding public office for 30 years, according to the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The body recommended on Monday that Sirleaf be punished for her early support of rebel leader Charles Taylor.

 

In its final report, the investigating panel included Sirleaf’s name on a list of people it accused of being “the financiers and political leaders of the different warring factions” in Liberia’s successive civil wars between 1989 and 2003. Several other members of Sirleaf’s parliament have also been mentioned in the report.

During a hearing in February, Sirleaf denied ever being a member of the movement led by Taylor, but she did tell the truth panel that she had met  him several times and had collected funds for him in the 1980s. Taylor headed the National Patriotic Front of Liberia in the country’s first civil war in 1989.

Sirleaf has not yet responded to the report's recommendations, but others named in the report did. Liberian senator Prince Johnson, who the TRC listed along with Taylor as one of eight warlords that should be charged with crimes against humanity, branded it a "joke."

Taylor, who was president of the west African country between 1997 and 2003, is currently on trial in the Hague for his alleged involvement in a civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.