West African Jihad Update. “Liberia: Truth Commission Member Under Fire,” by James Butty for VOA News, with thanks to all who sent this in:
A member of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has been given a seven-day ultimatum to resign because of an article he allegedly wrote in 1996 calling for a jihad in Liberia. A group calling itself the Forum for War Crimes in Liberia has also accused Sheik Kafumba Konneh of protecting warlords from former Muslim-dominated warring factions during Liberia’s civil war.
According to its constitutive act, members of the TRC are supposed to be persons of high integrity and honor and not known or perceived as human rights violators. The chairman of the TRC, Jerome Verdier, who is visiting the United States, said his commission is looking into the allegations and would respond accordingly. Meanwhile, Sheik Konneh said the allegations are baseless.
“Because of the civil war, there are some individuals who have been traumatized, and they have become so disgruntled, they only take pride in tarnishing the reputations of those who are prominent in the Liberian society. They have given me an ultimatum, and I have told them that I”m not going to resign because their allegation is fallacious,” he said.
Konneh would not say if he wrote an article advocating for jihad as alleged or that he supported Muslim warlords during Liberia’s civil war. He could only say that his reputation would exonerate him.
“In the first place, they have to establish beyond all reasonable doubt that I wrote an article, and that such article called for jihad, and that I was in one way or the other supporting any warring faction during our national nightmare. But I believe that my track record can exonerate myself from those malicious charges that they have meted against me,” Konneh said.