By Staff Writer | Smart News Liberia
MONROVIA, LIBERIA – The Ministry of Justice’s April 23, 2026 press release was intended to reassure the public that President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s administration remains committed to establishing the War and Economic Crimes Court. Instead, it exposed a troubling reality: Liberia is still trapped in excuses, paperwork, institutional finger-pointing, and avoidable delays over one of the most important justice processes in the nation’s history. For victims of war crimes and economic plunder, patience has long expired.
Justice Minister Cllr. Oswald Tweh sought to dismiss claims by Dr. Jallah A. Barbu, Executive Director of the Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia (OWECC-L), that the Ministry is impeding progress. But Dr. Barbu’s concerns should not be brushed aside. They should be treated as a warning signal from the very institution established to move this historic process forward. When the head of OWECC-L raises concerns publicly, Liberia must listen carefully.
Dr. Barbu’s claim is important because it reflects the frustration many Liberians already feel: that successive governments praise accountability in speeches but hesitate when action is required. If the institution charged with preparing the court says progress is being obstructed, then the Boakai administration must urgently address those concerns with transparency, not defensive statements. Justice delayed in Liberia has too often become justice denied.
The Ministry says multiple draft bills are undergoing technical review and harmonization before submission to the Legislature. While legal precision matters, Liberia cannot allow endless consultations to become a burial ground for accountability. The country has had years of recommendations, international support, expert reports, and public demands. The legal road map has existed long enough. What Liberia now needs is political courage.
President Boakai must understand that fully supporting OWECC-L is not optional; it is a moral and national duty. His administration came to power promising rescue, integrity, and a break from the failures of the past. Supporting the War and Economic Crimes Court is one of the clearest tests of whether those promises were genuine. A president who claims reform cannot remain neutral on justice.
The civil conflicts that devastated Liberia were not abstract political events. Liberia’s two brutal civil wars are widely estimated to have claimed around 250,000 lives, while countless others were wounded, displaced, orphaned, or psychologically scarred for life. They were years of slaughter, rape, mutilation, torture, child soldier recruitment, and mass terror. Entire communities were burned to the ground, families were erased, and children grew up amid gunfire instead of classrooms.
The destruction of human life was matched by the destruction of national property and institutions. Roads, schools, hospitals, government buildings, farms, bridges, and markets were ruined or abandoned. Communities that once sustained themselves were reduced to poverty and fear. Even today, Liberia continues to pay the economic and social price of that devastation.
The economic crimes linked to those years were equally destructive. While ordinary citizens suffered hunger and insecurity, powerful actors allegedly looted national wealth, diverted public resources, and enriched themselves. Corruption after conflict deepens the wounds of war because it steals the recovery victims desperately need. It turns postwar hope into prolonged hardship.
That is why OWECC-L must receive full presidential backing, adequate funding, political protection, and operational cooperation from every ministry and agency. No more confusion over spending plans. No more bureaucratic turf battles. No more public contradictions between institutions of government. If the Executive Mansion truly supports the court, it must compel the machinery of state to move in one direction.
President Boakai still has an opportunity to lead decisively. He can order full coordination, ensure funding compliance, fast-track the harmonized bill, and publicly stand with victims rather than with delay. Liberia’s credibility and conscience are on the line. History will not remember who won bureaucratic arguments in 2026. It will remember whether Liberia finally chose justice over excuses.
