The Executive Director of OWECC-L, Dr. Jallah Barbu, has decried the appalling condition of mass grave sites bearing the remains of those that were massacred during the Liberian civil war.
Dr. Barbu, a lawyer by profession, referred to the Duport Road Massacre memorial as one of those sites.
He said the site is abandoned, which, according to him, does not reflect well on Liberians’ commitment to honoring those who were massacred and buried in mass graves.
He therefore wants relevant authorities to see it as a national responsibility to rehabilitate memorial sites across the country, as doing so will further assure victims and survivors of a platform of honor and justice.
According to him, keeping memorial sites unclean is a high degree of disrespect to those who were murdered and buried in mass graves across the country.
As part of dignifying massacre victims, Barbu recently collaborated with partners to renovate the Carter Camp Memorial, which had been unattended for several years.
Dr. Barbu spoke at his Mamba Point Office during the signing ceremony of an MoU between OWECC-L and the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, intended to support the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court as well as the National Anti-Corruption Court for Liberia.
Peterson Sonyah, a survivor of the Lutheran Church 1990 Massacre and Executive Director of the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, expressed excitement that perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity will now face justice once the courts are established.
By signing the MoU, according to Mr. Sonyah, was a renewal of hope for victims and survivors, as it establishes a platform where they can see perpetrators held accountable for their roles in the civil war.