War crimes suspect Alieu Kosiah shouted during testimony in the first days of his trial in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. Recruitment of a child soldier is one of the war crimes Kosiah is charged with. Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report in 2009 recommended a war crimes court for Liberia to try ex-warlords such Alhaji Kromah, the co-founder of ULIMO, and Charles Taylor, who is serving a 50-year sentence in Britain for war crimes in Sierra Leone. Kosiah is the first Liberian to be prosecuted for war crimes over the Liberian Civil War (1989-2003), which killed an estimated 250,000 and displaced a million. But he was arrested in the Swiss capital of Bern in November 2014 suspected of war crimes.

Source: Front Page Africa February 28, 2021 12:00 UTC