Liberian war rights office protests exclusion from memorial unveiling
The OWECC-L says war victims, survivors and people with disabilities were left out of the November 6 ceremony at the Executive Mansion.
The Office for the Establishment of War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia, known as OWECC-L, has objected to the exclusion of war victims, survivors, persons with disabilities and key transitional justice stakeholders from the unveiling of a proposed National Memorial in Monrovia. In a statement issued on Tuesday, November 10, the Office called the decision unacceptable.
OWECC-L Executive Director Cllr. Jallah A. Barbu described the exclusion of his Office, and above all of victims' representatives, as "a shock and unacceptable." He said memorialising Liberia's civil wars should not be run solely as a government project, and that people whose lives were directly affected must have meaningful opportunities to shape how the country remembers its past.
The Office welcomed the government's plan for a National Memorial as part of transitional justice and reconciliation, but urged the Executive Mansion to reconsider and hold broad national consultations with victims, survivors, persons with disabilities and affected communities. It stressed that people disabled during the wars should help design and manage the memorial, not only observe it.
Why it mattersVictims, survivors and persons with disabilities are the people shut out of deciding how the memorial to the 14 years of conflict is designed and managed.