Liberian Poster-Child in Peril

Emerson Sykes, till recently a  Century Foundation researcher, has spent the summer assessing the scene from Liberia's justice ministry, and sends these observations deserving of wider note:

Monrovia, Liberia

Liberians love George W. Bush. As Americans of every political persuasion eagerly anticipate the end of the Bush era, Liberians credit the “very powerful” American president with ending their 14-year civil war with a single speech calling for the resignation of Charles Taylor. As a show of gratitude and affection Bush received a most exuberant reception in Monrovia during his farewell tour of Africa last year.

While the popular recollection of Bush’s role in ending Liberia is certainly generous, it is not entirely inaccurate. In fact, with the President’s HIV/AIDS initiative, PEPFAR, debt relief, and increases in humanitarian aid, Africa policy represents one the few areas where Bush is widely considered to have been (relatively) successful.

But Bush’s shining accomplishment of peace in Liberia is in jeopardy.

Ironically, it is Bush’s great weakness-- the law, and more specifically the sanctity of the law and the strength of the rule of law—that is causing Liberia’s most vexing problems. As Bush and his loyalists are finally feeling the political consequences of their willful trampling of the American constitution from Guantanamo Bay to the politicized Department of Justice, the Liberian government and its international partners have neglected the rehabilitation of the Liberian justice system.

The causes of the two phenomena differ dramatically. The Bush administration seems to exhibit a deep-rooted disdain for nagging legal concerns that stand in the way of its political and military schemes. Meanwhile, the neglect of the law in Liberia is a result of the extraordinary resource, human capital, and security challenges facing the country in the wake of civil conflict. As different as the situations may be, the lesson is the same: governments (and their friends) ignore or neglect the law at their own peril.

While Liberia and its president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, continue to be embraced by the international community and hailed as an African success story in the making, there are troubling signs that lingering post-conflict security issues may be turning into legitimate threats to the government. Since the end of the civil conflict in 2003 ex-combatants have been the chief security concern. Small gangs of young, unemployed former fighter are thought to be responsible for much of the crime in the country. But a few weeks ago a disciplined group of uniformed and heavily armed men systematically looted an entire neighborhood while receiving instructions from a commander. Fortunately, the attack did not include any of the gruesomeness for which the Liberian wars became famous, but organized bands of marauders readily bring horrific memories to mind in this post-traumatic society.

Many believe that the attacks are part of a coordinated strategy to undermine the three year old Sirleaf administration. While the country is still largely behind their history-making executive, many wish that the Iron Lady would exhibit more of the characteristics of the former part of her favored moniker than the latter. To her credit, President Sirleaf has called for the re-vetting of the national police, a force so corrupt that most officers are not trusted with weapons and six were arrested recently for an armed robbery not dissimilar from the raid mentioned above. She is in the process of putting together a new security strategy, but with extreme financial and human resource constraints it will be exceedingly difficult for the government, even with the assistance of the 15,000 UN peacekeepers stationed here, to ensure the safety of citizens.

Armed robbers only pose an existential threat to the government and society because impunity continues to reign in Liberia. There is, as of yet, no formal institution capable of restoring true law and order. From the corrupt police, to the dormant Ministry of Justice, and the farcical judicial system, five years after the end of the war, the justice system is still not functional. Few Liberians expect anything resembling a fair hearing from Liberian judges. Almost none have access to Liberia’s full legal code, most are not legally trained, and many are illiterate. Bribery is widely considered a basic component of any legal proceeding. Courts are under-funded, under-staffed, and in many places outside of the capital, without roofs, doors, and windows. Vigilantism is commonly viewed as the only practical course to justice in the country.

In setting its reconstruction agenda the Sirleaf administration and its international partners decided on peace and security as the first pillar, finances as the second pillar, law and order as the third pillar, and infrastructure as the forth. With the overwhelming task of rebuilding an utterly decimated state, prioritizing activities was necessary, but the current situation in Liberia is evidence of one of development’s most vexing problems: each pillar of society reinforces the others, and they are all needed immediately.

The Sirleaf administration inherited a reasonably stable peace from the kleptocratic transitional government and immediately set to work on the second pillar by getting the country’s books in order. Impressive progress has been made in financial the arena by the former World Banker as nearly all of Liberia’s external debt has been, or is in the process of being, cancelled. But with the justice system still in shambles and nagging questions about why roads remain impassable and power-lines are yet un-laid, security is again the top priority. Before the second pillar has been completed and without yet addressing the third or fourth, the first is starting to crumble.

Time is short to progress through development priorities and the government and international community in Liberia have put off judicial and other justice reform for too long. The country remains at peace, but the persistent lawlessness threatens efforts in any other regard. To be sure, building a justice system from scratch is extremely expensive and would benefit from a steady revenue stream that has yet to be established, but far more attention and donor funding should be directed toward creating some degree of rule of law.

The Sirleaf administration’s task is something like building a house one pillar at a time while trying to live under the roof. It will require immediate attention and concerted efforts in the area of justice and judicial reconstruction, many more years of diligence on the part of the government and people of Liberia along with their international partners, and perhaps a small miracle or two, but Liberia may yet become Africa’s, and Bush’s, great success story.