The scourge of the Liberian civil unrest, which can be traced as far back as 1979 when Monrovia turned bloody in a mass protest recorded in history as the “Rice Riot”, claimed many lives and destroyed valuable properties. But, as it said, “Ninety-nine days for the rogue and one day for the master.” The impunity days of both war and economic criminals recorded during the civil unrest are numbered, as the society demand for them to account for their atrocities, either through retributive or restorative justice.
Apart from those who committed murder, massacre, rape, torture, cannibalism, etc., there were others who committed gross economic crimes, which are considered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as gross human rights violations.
Section 16.0 of the TRC Consolidated Final Report recommended that perpetrators of economic crimes be prosecuted, defining the crime as any prohibited activity committed for the purpose of generating economic gain or that in fact generates economic gain by persons and actors whose economic activities contributed to gross human rights and/or humanitarian law violations in Liberia, as well as those who benefited economically from the armed conflict in Liberia.
Popular names among the economic criminals are Oscar Cooper, Coocoo Dennis (also war criminal), Charles McArthur Taylor, Jr., Emmanuel Shaw, Edwin Snowe, Charles G. Taylor, Morris Saytumah, Benoni Urey, Lewis Brown, Roland Massaquoi, Nathaniel Barnes, Lone Star Communication, Bureau of Maritime Affairs and Oriental Timber Company.
The economic crimes list, which comprises of individuals, corporations, institutions and state actors that committed the most crimes against the nation’s economy, is seen as next in line in terms of committing heinous crimes during the civil war, only preceded by those recommended for war crimes prosecution.
The TRC recommended that all corporate assets of a complicit corporate person, acquired unlawfully, be subject to seizure by nationalization for use for the public good, and that all unlawfully acquired assets and properties of all individuals recommended for prosecution for economic crimes be confiscated and nationalized for the benefit of the public good, especially so where the property acquired is from unexplained or unjustifiable sources unconnected to the income of the individual.
According to the TRC, confiscation may be necessary so as to prevent the perpetrators from using unlawfully acquired wealth to frustrate and obstruct justice to their gain and to the disadvantage of the public interest.
However, economic criminals were given an option to apply to the Independent National Human Rights Commission to make restitution of the full sum of all gains from their engagement in such economic crimes, whether in the form of cash or assets illegally acquired, to the government and people of Liberia, and that anyone who admits to the commission of economic crimes, thereby eliminating the need for lengthy and expensive prosecution, such person shall benefit from mitigation of liability and sanctions, legal, judicial or otherwise.
It is not yet clear, as to the Investigative Hot Pepper, whether or not anyone on the economic crimes list has made restitution.