Area Liberians Recount Horrors for Commission

Civilians flee mortar fire in Monrovia, Liberia, in 2003. Liberian refugees in the Washington area are being asked to describe the brutality they witnessed. (By Ben Curtis -- Associated Press)

The fighting ended in 2003, and Taylor is now awaiting trial at the Hague for war crimes. The truth commission has set about creating a record of the mayhem from 1979 to 2003, and commissioners decided that the project could be accurate only if it included the testimony of the thousands of people who left, said Robin Phillips, executive director of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. The overseas project has targeted Liberians in a Ghanaian refugee camp and in London and might expand elsewhere as resources allow, she said.

Unlike the South African commission, Liberia's commission is not offering the possibility of amnesty in exchange for confessions. And although it can recommend prosecutions, it has no power to bring perpetrators to justice.

The latter troubles some Liberians, said Patricia Minikon, a Liberian-born immigration lawyer who practices in Silver Spring and is overseeing the Washington area project.

"Some people have said, 'Well, is the truth and reconciliation commission all that's going to happen? What about accountability?' " Minikon said. "And my suggestion is, if you feel that accountability needs to enter the picture, then you need to give your statement and put that in the statement, to have your voice heard. You have to be a part of the process, or you can't really complain as to the result you get."

Minikon, who left Liberia during the military rule, volunteered to run the local project and was accepted -- after, she notes, her name was vetted by Liberian officials who made sure she did not have "unclean hands."

Aided by American University law students and a Washington law firm whose attorneys also are volunteering their time, Minikon has been papering African markets with fliers and knocking on doors at the apartment complexes where many Liberians have settled, most in Silver Spring. She tells them that they can give statements anonymously and that this is their chance to help establish truth about Liberia's gruesome past and help shape its future. Public hearings are scheduled in the United States sometime this year.

One who will not be giving a statement is Brentwood resident George Siaway, who calls the commission "a cop-out, totally."

Siaway, 54, fled Liberia two decades ago, leaving his young son, also named George, with family friends. Seven years later, with the civil war well underway, Siaway was making plans to send for the younger George.

Before that could happen, George, then 12, went out to search for food and never came back. Rebels later informed his caretakers that the boy had been murdered. His body was never found.

Siaway, now a public health analyst for the District government, said he would like to ask his son's killers why a hungry boy deserved death. And he would like to see them face justice.

Liberia's bloodshed, Siaway said, was caused by "just a bunch of greedy gangsters who held the country hostage. And I feel that they should be held accountable. Because if you don't, you set a precedent where there's incentive to repeat this entire act."

Brewer remembers lucidly the day rebels captured her Monrovia suburb. Her father, a police officer who worked for the government the fighters were ousting, was on duty.