Critical lessons in post-conflict security in Africa: The case of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

from the conclusion of an occasional paper by Ozonnia Ojielo for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation:

While the work of the Commission is now concluded, its Final Report and its processes provide penetrating insights into the challenges Liberia faces in consolidating the peace and providing security to its citizens. Many citizens testified to the erosion of public confidence in the institutions of the state, as these had become agents of oppression and were no longer delivering public goods and services. They also testified to the intense ethnic rivalries that the conflict generated and the need to re-develop a sense of the nation and national loyalty. The Commission’s second volume contains recommendations for institutional reform and national renewal. Above all, the Commission’s key finding was that the major root causes of the conflict were: poverty; greed; corruption; limited access to education; economic, social, civil and political inequities; identity; and land tenure and distribution.

May 21, 2010 Country:Liberia, National Reconciliation

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