Prince Johnson

Liberia may set up special court for war crimes suspects

MONROVIA (AFP) — Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission wants a special court to try those guilty of rights abuses during the west African nation's brutal 1989-2003 civil wars, an official said Saturday.

"The TRC will be recommending the setting up of a special court, a tribunal to try people who committed major human rights violations during the war in Liberia," commission member John Stewart told reporters.

The announcement comes after a notorious warlord turned politician Prince Johnson claimed the commission was preparing to indict a raft of former warlords for crimes, citing a confidential TRC report he said he had obtained.

Johnson, a rebel leader known for his brutality who videotaped his fighters torturing and slowly dismembering Liberian president Samuel Doe in 1990, warned that there would be trouble if anyone tried to arrest him.

"We former faction leaders, we revolutionaries, we are for peace in this country. But no one should witch-hunt us; no one should try to arrest me, because there will be resistance," he said.

Some 250,000 people died in back-to-back civil wars that shook the West African country between 1989 and 2003. The TRC was set up in 2006 to probe war crimes and rights violations during the period, marked by savage killings.

Stewart said Prince Johnson had "made some allusions which were not correct. He said there were more than 200 ex-combatants indicted, which is not true.

"It is a confidential document but I don't know how Senator Johnson got his copy. Maybe as a legislator he has the opportunity to look at the report. But he is under obligation not to disclose the content ... because it is confidential."