Robert Blair: Following Up on Kristof in Liberia: Views on Truth and Reconciliation from the Ground

[Rusty5329]

The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has released its long-anticipated final report on the country's devastating 14-year civil war, and this small West African nation finds itself in an unfamiliar place: the news. Well, sort of. Since the war ended six years ago, Liberia has rarely made it to the headlines of any major American media outlet. The last week has been something of an exception, with articles on the TRC from Time.com and Voice of America and an appeal from New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who asked his blog readers, "What on earth is happening in Liberia?"

The stir is over a handful of puzzling recommendations made in the July 3 report, foremost among them a call to ban President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from politics for 30 years for her role in the war. Sirleaf is the continent's first elected female head-of-state, a darling of the international community, and by most accounts a flawed but dedicated leader. Like many Liberian politicians, however, she has a troubled past. At the outset of the war, she admits funneling food, money, and supplies to rebel leader Charles Taylor, now on trial at The Hague for the atrocities he committed at the helm of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL)...

continued at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-blair/following-up-on-kristof-i_b_227668.html