By Grace Q. Bryant
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the Liberia Peace Building office, has validated the draft on national policy on reconciliation in Liberia.
The program, which was held at Bella Casa Hotel in Sinkor, brought together Civil Society Organizations, INCHR, Government Ministries, Media, Governance Commission, UNDP, and other organizations across the country.
Giving the overview of the program, the Executive Director of PBO, Edward Mulbah, said the reconciliation policy is a dynamic and inclusive process of addressing the root causes of the conflicts, healing the trauma from the violence, and building relationships for a brighter future for all Liberians.
According to Director Mulbah, 350 persons have responded, including 229 males, equaling 65 percent, and 121 females, equaling 35 percent, in the fifteen counties across Liberia.
Liberia Peace Building Executive Director revealed that during the drafting process, there was literature reviewed on the strategic roadmap for national peace building, healing, and reconciliation.
He further disclosed the National Economic Dialogue, Opportunity Mapping for Peace Consolidation, report of the National Colloquium on the implementation Conference on Reconciliation, the 207 recommendations of the TRC, and Report of Wave 1, 2, and 3.
He further explained that those who responded are youth, women groups, chiefs, elders, policy makers, teachers, opinion leaders; security apparatus, traditional leaders, and political parties, amongst others.
Mulbah stated that the international framework of the drafted policy includes 14 pillars of the policy framework, which are Traditional Justice, Memorialization, Reparation, Liberia’s Diaspora and Reconciliation, and Political Dialogue, amongst others.
Also speaking, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Varney A. Sirleaf, cautioned participants and Liberians that peace has to be found everywhere and within everybody, saying that once you are peaceful within, reconciliation becomes much easier.
Minister Sirleaf explained that if Liberians can consider sociological peace, rational peace, and spiritual peace as the pillars to define peace that will lead Liberians to recognizing the country, there will be a foundation upon which the draft national policy document can be important.
“You cannot have peace if you don’t love one another as Liberians,” the Minister concluded.
However, the chairperson on election monitoring and violence prevention situation room, Madam Marjon V. Kamara, said Liberians should not take peace for granted, but they should be deliberate in sustaining peace in Liberia.
She noted that sustaining peace should be a roadmap that everyone will follow and see it as their responsibility.
Meanwhile, Head of Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Emmanuel Bawoh, said national policy paper on reconciliation streams from stagnation in the areas of transitional justice and reconciliation after a contested final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2009.
He further explained that justice and security sectors remain a priority. The Liberian Police Force is still largely absent outside of Monrovia and a lack of access to the statutory justice system risks impacting people’s decisions to pursue justice through the customary system.
“With a small and decreasing segment of the population carrying autobiographical memories of the conflict and in the absence of a national curriculum on the conflict, memorialization is a priority in Liberia,” he added.
