A former Liberian rebel commander, Alieu Kosiah, accused of committing atrocities between 1993 and 1995 during the civil war in his country, is on trial from Thursday, November 3 in Switzerland, a doubly historic trial.
No Liberian has so far been convicted, at home or abroad, for war crimes committed during the civil war in Liberia.
In addition, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) explains, Alieu Kosiah
"is the first individual to be tried for war crimes by a non-military criminal court in Switzerland"
.
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One of the main actors in the conflict, the former warlord turned president (1997-2003) Charles Taylor, was convicted in 2012 for crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated in Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbor, but he was not worried about the atrocities committed in his own West African country.
The conflict in Liberia, one of the most atrocious on the African continent, left some 250,000 dead between 1989 and 2003. Most of the commanders of the various armed groups fled the country after the war.
Kosiah, who had been living in Switzerland since 1999 according to HRW, was arrested in late 2014, following criminal complaints filed by victims.
Switzerland, which recognizes the principle of universal justice, has been called upon to deal with several cases of international justice, but this is the first time that a suspected war criminal has been brought before a non-military body.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the preliminary questions and the hearing of Alieu Kosiah will take place from Thursday and until December 11 before the Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona.
But the victims, who reside in Africa, will not be heard before 2021. The organization Civitas Maxima, which represents some of the victims, however intends to request the postponement of the hearing of Kosiah to 2021.
“This is a case where Kosiah claims they are all lying and that he has committed no crime.
We want this contradictory debate to take place, ”
Romain Wavre, lawyer at Civitas Maxima, told AFP.
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The Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office accuses Alieu Kosiah of having committed, between 1993 and 1995, as a member of the armed faction ULIMO (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy), a faction of armed groups hostile to the movement of Charles Taylor (the National Front Patriotic Liberia, NPFL), several offenses amounting to
"war crimes"
.
Namely: recruitment and use of child soldiers, forced transport, looting, cruel treatment of civilians, attempted murder, killings (directly or by order), desecration of a corpse and rape.
In France, the anti-terrorism prosecution recently requested a trial against another former Liberian rebel commander, Kunti K., accused of acts of torture.
“Alieu Kosiah and Kunti K. were both commanders of the same armed group - ULIMO - and were fighting at the same time in Lofa County in northern Liberia,”
said Wavre, of Civitas Maxima.
More than fifteen years after the end of the conflict, a large number of personalities directly involved in the civil war still occupy important positions in the spheres of political and economic power.
The recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report, published in 2009, have largely gone unheeded, especially in the name of peacekeeping.
"
There is a huge frustration of many victims in Liberia because there is complete impunity in this country when it comes to the prosecution of war crimes"
, lamented the director of Civitas Maxima, l lawyer Alain Werner.