Gongloe, Cummings Set War Crimes Court Establishment

By Mark N Mengonfia

The issue of the establishment of a war and economic crimes court is now a sticky point for political parties who are scrambling for Liberia’s presidency.

The National Election Commission (NEC) Tuesday, 24 October announced a run-off election between the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) the and opposition Unity Party (UP) to be held on 14 October 2023.

Both CDC and UP are faced with accepting a precondition from those who did not make it to the runoff election.

Tiawan Saye Gongloe’s party which attained 26, 394 votes or 1.44% has pledged support to the Unity Party.

As part of the party’s precondition among other things requested that the UP establish a War and Economic Crimes Court and if they didn’t, his party would be the first to criticize and condemn the UP government.

While Alexander B. Cummings who got (29, 613 or 1.44%, said he would only give his parties 1.44% votes to a party that will commit to War Crime Court. Liberia had back-to-back wars that claimed the lives of an estimated 250, 000 people and displaced millions ofothers.

The two parties in the run-off have not done well when it comes to the establishment of the War and Economic Crime court in Liberia.

Unity Party government led Liberia for 12 years after the civil unrest but didn’t make efforts to ensure those who actively participated in the way accounted for their roles played.

CDC who was in opposition for 12 years questioned the UP for not making an effort to establish the accountability court in Liberia.

Most Liberians who lost their relatives saw the Weah administration as an alternative that would have made warlords account for their wrongdoings but this did not happen until the country went for election recently.

Judging from the two parties’ past, it is likely that the decision to support either of the parties might be deeper than the establishment of the accountability court in Liberia.

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