TRC Makes Strive Despite Constrains.. Cllr. Jerome Verdier in Year End Message (TRC press release)

January 5, 2007

Despite constraints facing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the organization remains on course with the implementation of its two years and three months mandate. Among the achievements of the Commission in the year 2006, are the set up of the secretariat, the hiring of core staff, setting up county offices, training for Commissioners, staff and Statement Takers, public outreach and awareness Nationwide, establishment of local and international partnership, creation of diaspora program, establishment of TRC Traditional Advisory Council, consultations with woman throughout the Nation and the implementation of the first phase of statement taking.

The TRC has received funding and technical support from the following sources: The Government of Liberia,, UNDP, UNMIL, ECOWAS, OSIWA, EU, FHR and ICTJ.

In October the TRC collected almost 2000 statements across the country during the testing phase. After the process has been reviewed acording to the workplan and Statement Takers have received additional training, the statement taking exercise will resume early January. The Commission’s public and in-camera hearings will commence shortly.

The TRC is committed and determined to complete the process within the statutory timeframe. It calls on all its partners and civil society to get involved in the process and to give all support necessary to ensure that it fullfills its mandate successfully. In that light the Chairman states: “With your collective support, we will pursue our mandate with renewed vigor and determination in the coming year to overturn the pages of our sordid past and open new chapters of peace, reconciliation and progress.”

The Chairman stated that “the inauguration of the TRC and its eventual launching on June 22, 2006 gave to every Liberian a glimmer of hope, crucially connecting individual truth and reconciliation to collective peace by offering a space where concerns of the past meet those of the future.”

In his Year End Statement and Goodwill Message TRC Chairman Jerome J. Verdier extended his gratitude to the Government and People of Liberia for their political, moral and financial support in 2006. He also expressed gratitude to all partners of the TRC for technical and material support since the inauguration of the TRC on February 20th 2006.