Monrovia, September 17, 2008 (TRC): Ex Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) chief of staff Retired General Charles Julu will Thursday testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia.
General Julu, who led the army during the latter days of the reign of President Samuel Kanyon Doe, will testify as part of the ongoing "Contemporary History of the Conflict (1979-2003)" Institutional and Thematic Public Inquiry Hearing of the TRC at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia.
Before ascending to the post of chief of staff, Gen. Julu served as commander of the once elite defunct Executive Mansion Guard Battalion (EMG) and previously chief of the Plant Protection Department (PPD) of the Liberian-American Mining Company (LAMCO) in Yekepah, Nimba County and Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
Under the theme: "Understanding the Conflict Through its Principal Events and Actors," the ongoing hearings are addressing 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.
