For Immediate Release:

Contact: Jeffrey Buchanan (202) 463-7575 ext. 241 buchanan@rfkmemorial.org
Sushetha Gopallawa (202) 463-7575 ext. 270 gopallawa@rfkmemorial.org

RFK Center and Justice and Peace Commission Help Truth and Reconciliation Commission Obtain Additional U.S. State Dept. Records Highlighting Human Rights Abuses in Liberia

WASHINGTON D.C. (July 2, 2008) – Today the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Liberia (JPC) handed over another 2,500 de-classified US Government documents to the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) detailing human rights abuses experienced by Liberians during the country's protracted fifteen-year civil war. JPC has handed over a total of 6,500 pages of documents from the U.S. Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) obtained through a Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the DC-based National Security Archive on behalf of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights and its partner JPC.

Monsignor Andrew Karnley, Apostolic Administrator of the Catholic Archdiocese of Monrovia and J. Augustine Toe, JPC National Director, handed over these documents to the chairman of the TRC. The TRC is the investigatory body tasked with recording rights violations and abuses that occurred during Liberia's civil war.

“The Justice and Peace Commission and the Catholic Church remains committed to continuing to support the work of the TRC of Liberia,” said Monsignor Karnley. “These FOIA documents will help the TRC in its mission to reveal the truth about human rights abuses in Liberia.”

The documents reference such human rights violations as
• 1990 counter-insurgency operation conducted by the Liberian Army, targeting ethnic Manos and Gios in Nimba County through killing citizens, burning villages, and looting.
• Attack led by Capt. Tailey Yonbu on over 500 Liberian men, women, and children who were seeking refuge in Saint Peter’s Lutheran church in Sinkor, Monrovia.
• December 15, 1994 massacre of 48 civilians at Cow Field, Dupont Road, Montserrado County by Paul Vaye, Sam Lartee, and other soldiers. The civilians were either burned alive or were viciously executed.
• Continual abuses against Kissi civilians in 2003 by Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) members.
• September 9, 1994 massacre at Bahla Bridge and Kokoya District by General Junior Vaye and National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) where bodyguards threw men, women, and children (about 20) into the river. The Liberia Peace Council (LPC) mutilated and scattered body parts around town to frighten their enemies.
• The severe beating of human rights attorney Tiawan Gongloe (current Solicitor General of Liberia) and 5 other members of the National Human Rights Center of Liberia who were arrested and held without charge on April 24, 2002.

"These documents provide clear evidence of unspeakable crimes of past regimes, warring factions and individuals in Liberia," said Monika Kalra Varma, Director of RFK Center. "It is our hope, that sharing this information with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee will assist the TRC in completing its on-going work and laying the foundation for peace, reconciliation and justice in Liberia."

JPC, founded by the Archbishop of Monrovia, Michael Kpakala Francis, recipient of the 1999 RFK Human Rights Award and one of Liberia's most renowned human rights defenders, also plans to use the information gathered from the documents to bring perpetrators of abuses in Liberia to justice in local courts.

The National Security Archive filed the FOIA requests on behalf of RFK Center and JPC in July 2006. Despite the willingness of the Department of State to comply with the FOIA requests, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been slow to comply with similar requests. As of May 2008, the National Security Archive has filed 51 FOIA requests with the CIA and 24 with the DIA relating to the recent conflict in Liberia, and those requests are still pending. Any additional documents released via the FOIA process to RFK Center and JPC will be shared with the TRC.

National Security Archive (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/) is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University that collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights is a non-profit non-governmental organization that engages in long-term partnerships with human rights defenders who win the RFK Human Rights Award, advocating for the social justice goals they champion.

Source: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial (www.rfkmemorial.org)