
Liberia’s first female Vice President Chief Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor has said the decision to establish Economic and War Crimes Courts in Liberia lies within the purview of Liberians.
“The issue of the war crimes court is actually a national issue that Liberians must decide,” the Vice President noted.
President George Manneh Weah on Wednesday, September 25, said when he addressed the UN General Assembly that his government is “a listening one” and has been paying keen attention to the voices of the people.
Though his government will continue to listen to the voices of the people, Weah noted that what he discerns from their cries for a war and economic crimes court is that it is important to bring closure to the wounds of the 14-year brutal civil war.
The calls for the crimes court, President Weah noted, also denote that Liberians need to agree on a mechanism that would guarantee sustenance of the peace, stability, justice, and reconciliation, as well as enhance the nation’s prospects for economic recovery.
“Mr. President (of the UNGA), we are at a loss to understand why the clamor for the establishment of the Court is now being made, almost a full decade after it was first called for, and during which time no such pressure was brought to bear on the government that grew out of the Accra Peace Accord,” Weah said.
But, speaking to reporters Thursday at her Capitol Building office in Monrovia, Dr. Taylor indicated that President Weah has already submitted a communication to the National Legislature to begin discussion on the matter.
She added that it is essential to solicit the views of the National Legislature on the matter since they are the representatives of the people.
“I think the Legislature that represents the people of Liberia, in the first instance, will begin to look at it and out of the process we will see,” the Vice President stressed.
“I am just an individual; I am a civil servant working for the people. I believe the will of the people is what we must do,” Chief Taylor emphasized.
Also, the Vice President asserted that she made a conscious decision to join the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), stressing: “As a Vice President, I was elected and I know better.”
“There is no way that I, Jewel Howard Taylor, has ever been or will ever be a part of anything trying to destabilize this government. And I think those who are spreading these rumors are wicked and diabolical people,” the Liberian Vice President clarified.
Meanwhile, the Vice President has called on the health workers of Liberia to abort their protest action on grounds that the government is doing everything possible to settle their salary arrears for the months in question.
She said the government is thoroughly going through the disbursement of salaries in line with the harmonization process in order to curtail mistakes that happened during the disbursement of salaries in the month of July.
The Vice President urged medical practitioners across Liberia to be ethical in discharging their assigned duties.