The leader of the defunct ULIMOD-K faction, Alhaji G. V. Kromah Monday wept profusely as he expressed penitence for his role in the Liberian conflict.
"Our objective in ULIMOD was not to target anybody. But it is very possible that some people could have died in crossfire. We are really sorry that this whole thing happened," Mr. Kromah, the first defunct warring faction leader to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (TRC) said.
He rendered the apology during his marathon appearance at the ongoing TRC Thematic and Institutional Inquiry Hearings at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia.
"We are really sorry that this whole thing happened. We say sorry to the Liberian people. Unnecessary deaths; no reason, just for power; you say you believe in democracy; the people had nothing to do with this thing," Kromah who served as vice chairman of a power sharing government styled, the Liberia National Transitional Government (LNTG) said.
He described the deaths of people during the civil conflict as "unnecessary" saying they died because of others quest for power.
Mr. Kromah, now a professor of Mass Communication at the University of Liberia called on Liberians to pray for peace and reconciliation.
"Let's pray when we go to the mosque. When you go to the church let's pray for peace and genuine reconciliation in our country. Let's feel sorry for one another. The world is laughing at us. We need to reconcile. Do we want this country to be colonize?", the one time director general of the Liberia Broadcasting Corporation and minister of information in the Peoples' Redemption Council junta said.
He recommended the holding of a national conference where there will be a meeting between Americo and indigenous Liberians to pave the way for genuine reconciliation among the two groups.
"Let us sit and talk this thing here. I am sorry. Let's pray that nobody will die here again. War should never be our policy again. Anybody who targets anybody again you are targeting yourself," he concluded.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kromah is for the second day running continuing his testimony before commissioners and a record crowd of hundreds of Liberians in the pavilion.
Under the theme: "Understanding the Conflict Through its Principal Events and Actors," the ongoing hearings will address the root causes of the conflict, including its military and political dimensions.
The hearings are focused on events between 1979 and 2003 and the national and external actors that helped to shape those events.
The TRC was agreed upon in the August 2003 peace agreement and created by the TRC Act of 2005.
The TRC was established to "promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation," and at the same time make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003.
