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From the dark hours of the civil war in Liberia to the Assises de Paris. The trial of a former rebel leader opens this Monday, October 10 in France. That of Kunti Kamara, commander of Ulimo during the first Liberian war (1989-1997). He faces life imprisonment. He was prosecuted for complicity in crimes against humanity, torture and acts of barbarism, in 1993 and 1994, in the county of Lofa.
In the county of Lofa, territory rich in diamonds in the northwest of Liberia, bordering Guinea and Sierra Leone, in the early 1990s, it is terror. Torture, killings, forced labor and sexual violence. The rebel armed movement Ulimo (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy) formed in 1991 is gaining ground over the NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia), an armed movement led by Charles Taylor.
At the time of the facts with which he is charged, Kunti Kamara was barely twenty years old. As a commander within Ulimo, he encourages rapes and acts of extreme violence against the inhabitants, to intimidate them or punish them for supposed collaboration with the opposing group.
On its website, the organization Civitas Maxima, at the origin of the complaint against Kunti Kamara, recalls that according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Ulimo was responsible for more than 11,000 human rights violations during the Liberia’s first civil war.
Kunti Kamara was arrested in France in 2018. Released on bail following a procedural error, he was arrested again in January 2020 as he tried to leave the country.
His trial will last until November 4 in Paris under universal jurisdiction which allows the most serious crimes to be tried regardless of the country where they were committed.
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According to Civitas Maxima, which documents international crimes to obtain reparations on behalf of victims, for this case, French authorities, alongside Liberian authorities, visited Lofa County in 2019 for a fact-finding mission.
It was the first time since the end of the civil war that Liberian authorities, together with foreign authorities, had undertaken reconstructions of war crime scenes.
Kunti Kamara’s trial is the first to be heard by the “crimes against humanity” unit of the Paris Court (created in 2012) that is not linked to the Rwandan genocide.
Kunti Kamara is the second Liberian warlord on trial to date. Before him, Alieu Kosiah, also commander of Ulimo, was sentenced at first instance in Switzerland to 20 years in prison. His appeal trial is scheduled for early 2023. After two civil wars, and more than 250,000 deaths, no trial has taken place to date in Liberia.
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