I have followed with interest your apparent refusal to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (The TRC) to explain your role in the violence and murder that took place in Liberia during the last decades as well as to respond to allegations by other witnesses that you committed gross human rights abuses against them and others.

I will use this letter to explain to you the purpose of Truth and reconciliation commissions and the importance of your participation in the TRC process both to you personally and to the nation as a whole. Permit me to also emphasize that you have a legal obligation to appear before the TRC and to explain your role in that terrible chapter of our history.

Why Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Truth and reconciliation commissions are often alternative means of accountability and healing instituted after situations of war or other civil upheavals to help societies and people understand their bitter pasts. These help to establish what happened, why it happened and how it happened. The purpose of establishing ‘what happened, why it happened, and how it happened’ is to help society understand where it went wrong and to enable it to build safeguards against repeating those mistakes that led to those bitter consequences. TRC’s are usually set up in place of war crimes tribunals when a people are reluctant or unable to pursue prosecutions or believe that war crimes trials will be counter-productive to the healing, reconciliation and rebuilding processes. TRC’s are intended to give people an opportunity to get rid of the burden of guilt, embarrassment and fear that they carry around when they have not been able to confront their victims and reconcile with them. They are not instruments of witch hunt and are not intended to disgrace or embarrass people.

Your Appearance and Role in the TRC Process

The purpose of your appearance before the TRC will be to help the country establish a clear picture of what happened, why it happened, and how it happened; as it relates specifically to your role in those bitter events. It will be important to establish, for example, what led you to the war, the Quiwonkpa invasion, and all other such activities you participated in; what you did and why you did what you did. These things will help the country understand what caused those upheavals and then work to ensure that those factors that contributed to the upheavals are never encouraged or allowed.

You mentioned in your public response to the TRC invitation that Krahn people killed Gio people and that Doe ordered the Nimba people to leave their own land and their homes. If that was the reason why you and your followers killed Krahn people then it is important for society to know that. Society needs to know why the Krahn people on the one hand and the Gio and Mano people on the other were killing out so much of each other and caused so much mutual destruction to one another. Having been an important player in this mutual destruction and bloodshed your testimony before the TRC will be an important window through which the nation will understand what happened, why it happened and ensure that it never happens again.

Assuming that the Gio – Krahn conflict is a result of what you claim it is - mistreatment of the Gio and Mano by Doe and the Krahn people- the nation can make a collective decision never to tolerate the targeting of any one group of people and resolve to collectively resist any such actions, knowing that that is a recipe for conflict that could harm everybody, as the Liberian conflict did. The conflict between the Gio and Mano on the one hand and the Krahn on the other, which you alluded to, did not hurt only the Gio and Mano; neither did it hurt only those elements of the two groups that were directly involved in the conflict. It hurt innocent children; it hurt innocent members of the ethnic groups and it hurt the whole nation. The wounds and scars are visible for all to se.

You are also concern that the TRC did not first invite others who participated in disruptive events prior to your participation or those who participated with you or at the same time that you did, specifically mentioning H. Boima Fahnbulleh and Harry Greaves.

The argument that you would not because others have not appeared and testified before the TRC is not a good enough reason for you to refuse to testify. An appearance before the TRC will serve two main purposes- a personal and a national.

The Personal Benefit of Appearing: Testifying before the TRC has a self-liberating effect. Your appearance and full disclosure of your role in the events, a sincere expression of remorse and an apology to those who were hurt by your actions, whether directly or indirectly, is a powerful source of liberation. It will not only lift the burden of guilt and fear off your shoulders, but will also set the stage for the process of reconciliation to begin between you and those victims of your actions or inactions- those whose mothers and fathers, whose children, brothers and sisters, uncles, and bread winners you killed or caused to be killed or maimed. This process is so important you should not condition it on whether others decide to benefit from it.

Societal Benefit: National reconciliation. In the event of civil unrest or violence the natural order of things is broken and the trust that people had in one another (as neighbors, work mates, school mates, friends, etc) to protect one another as well as in the authority of society to protect them is eroded. This creates distrust and acrimony. In such situations people decide to take their security and protection into their own hands. Others may seek revenge. This creates a vicious cycle of conflict. The emergence of ULIMO’S J and K, LPC, LURD, INPL, etc. are testimonials to this fact.

When a nation undertakes reconciliation, as the TRC is purposed to do, it is seeking to re-establish the broken order and trust, and to assure society of its ability to protect them. Your and the testimony of other major players in our history of violence will help society re-establish its authority, build stronger safeguards against the recurrence of those things that brought about the disorder and create an atmosphere of peace and security.

Your testimony could force others to appear

Mr. Johnson, there is another important reason why you should testify. When you testify you give yourself the opportunity say what others did that you have information to. For instance, if Fahnbulleh and Greaves participated in and funded the Quiwonkpa invasion, as you claim, your testimony before the TRC will provide you the platform to say what you truthfully know that they did. Such disclosure will then put the onus upon them and could force them to voluntarily testify or compel the TRC to invite them, if it hasn’t already done so.

Reconciliation with the Doe Family

Another point you raise is that you have already reconciled with the family of President Samuel Doe whom you tortured to death in camera. Reconciling with the Does is a good thing but that is not enough because not only was Doe a family member and president of Liberia, he was also a member of our society who was tortured and mutilated to death in camera for children and the whole world to see. We need to explain to our children why that happened and more importantly we need to assure them and the whole world that that is not our normal practice; that we are not a nation that butchers its leaders and citizens and that those bitter events of our history are sincerely regretted. Your testimony and genuine expression of remorse, as the prime player in this event, is critical in this regard.

What about other families?

Let’s face it sir; Doe was not the only person you killed or whose death, maiming and suffering you are responsible for. Just as you have reconciled with the Doe family you may need to also reconcile with the Bortehs (as in Larry Borteh), with the Roberts (as in Tecumsey Roberts) with the Toes (as in Robert Toe), etc. It is said that you killed those as well.

Legal Obligation

As I indicated from the onset, you have a legal obligation to appear and testify before the TRC on your role in the alleged abuses that you committed. Failure to do so could lend you into serious legal trouble. The TRC has subpoena powers and also could indict you. This could force your expulsion from the legislature and your arrest. Remember the TRC was set up by an Act of the National Legislature, the same legislature that you serve in today. As a senator you must submit to the rule of law. We can not continue to live in the lawlessness that led us to the war and destruction. When you took your oath of office you swore to ‘uphold, protect and defend the constitution and all other laws of the republic’.

Editor's Note: Senator Johnson recently informed the Liberian people that he will appear before the TRC in August

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