A rebel commander during the first Liberian Civil War, Kunti Kamara goes on trial in Paris on Monday for crimes against humanity, torture, and acts of barbarity, including the enslavement of an entire community in Lofa County, northwestern Liberia.
“From 1993 to 1995, United Liberation Movement of Liberia (ULIMO), enslaved the local population,” says Alain Werner, director of Civitas Maxima, which provides independent legal representation for victims of crimes against humanity.
“They looted their goods, and then put these goods on the heads of the people forcing them to walk to the border with Guinea to sell the goods,” he says.
Civitas Maxima represents several victims who are plaintiffs in the proceedings against Kunti Kamara. The organisation is itself a civil party in the case which opened in Paris on Monday.
Alain Werner says that, while the atrocities carried out in Monrovia, the capital, during the civil wars are well known, no one remembers the crimes committed in Lofa county, far from the capital.
Eyewitnesses who spoke to Liberian and French members of the fact-finding mission in Lofa County, northwestern Liberia, in 2019 repeatedly identified Kamara as the perpetrator of various acts, including enslaving the village of Foya. Those still living in the village reportedly named him responsible for a series of six murders carried out under his orders in 1993.
Kamara allegedly committed these acts, including cannibalism, in 1993 and 1994. He has denied all allegations, but does admit he was a commander for ULIMO.
His lawyer, Tarek Koraitem, told The Guardian newspaper that this trial “isn’t justice, it’s a theatre show.”
Former ULIMO friend to testify
Although he obtained Dutch nationality, Kamara eventually moved to France in 2016 and trained as an electrician. He was granted French nationality.
Although arrested while traveling on an expired passport, he was released on a technicality in 2019 by the Paris Court of Appeals. However, he was still under investigation. He was re-arrested in 2020 after he reportedly tried to leave the country.
Kamara’s fellow ULIMO comrade Alieu Kosiah was convicted of war crimes in Switzerland last year, but is appealing the conviction.
Kamara testified at Kosiah’s trial. Kosiah was convicted of 21 out of the 25 charges including use of child soldiers, murder, rape, and looting.
Kosiah will be testifying at Kunti Kamara’s trial.
No war crimes court in Liberia
Liberia is still trying to recover from two civil wars — the first from 1989 to 1997, and the second from 1999 to 2003 — but the spectre of the crimes committed during that time continues to haunt Liberians.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Liberia handed President George Weah a report on how to deal with the crimes committed. While campaigning for president in 2017, Weah told RFI he vowed to make reconciliation a priority.
None of the recommendations made in the TRC report have been implemented.
Werner believes that this trial could set a precedent after 30 years of inactivity.
“This is where victims and lawyers can make a difference, even when there is inaction from the government where the crimes occurred, and from the international community,” he says.
US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack visited Liberia last week to speak to officials regarding this oversight that still hangs over the many survivors in the country.
Although no justice has taken place within Liberia, alleged war criminals have gone on trial in Europe and the US.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 50 years in The Hague; Alieu Kosiah was convicted of war crimes in Switzerland in 2021; Sierra Leonean Gibril Massaquoi was put on trial in Finland for war crimes in Liberia but acquitted in April; and Agnes Reeves-Taylor, Charles Taylor’s ex-wife, was in a UK court in 2019 until the war crimes charges were dismissed.
A US court ruling that found soldiers from the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) under the command of Colonel Moses Thomas shot and hacked to death approximately 600 unarmed civilians in 1990.
However Thomas lives freely in Liberia because the government has not brought him to justice. The families of victims are currently suing the Liberian government.