Visa cancellation and war crime news in Liberia: The sad truth
By Arthur B. Dennis 
After reading FrontPage Africa news story on the visa cancellation of certain government officials in Liberia, we prepared this article on our sick bed in order to share the sad truth with our fellow Liberians at home and abroad. The information contained herein was obtained from the laws and official policies published by U. S. Departments and agencies operating under the U. S. Federal Government.
Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act
History tells us that the Founding Fathers of the United States fled religious persecution in England and arrived in North America to establish a nation of their own where human rights abuses and other unspeakable crimes against humanity would be strictly prohibited.
In their first initiative taken on September 24, 1789, the U. S. Congress enacted the Alien Tort Claims Act, granting Aliens the right to sue a person in any U. S. Court for civil offense committed in a foreign state in violation of international law. But because only Aliens had the right to sue, not U. S. Citizens, not very much was achieved under this Act.
On March 12, 1992, the U. S. Congress enacted the Torture Victim Protection Act to supplement the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act. The new provision enacted in the 1992 Act was threefold. First, U.S. citizens and aliens have equal right to file a human rights lawsuit in U.S. Courts against any person for torture or extrajudicial killing perpetrated in foreign countries. The slogan for the 1992 Act was “No Safe-Haven for Torturer.”
Second, the accused perpetrator (s) of Torture or Extrajudicial killing must have acted alone or acted on Government orders. Third, the Act provides that if the perpetrator is residing in the United States, the family of the victim of the extrajudicial killing or torture, can file a complaint to U. S. Department of Justice or to any U. S. Court for judicial remedies.
We understand Chucky Taylor was prosecuted and convicted under this Act. Several other aliens living in the United States, who were identified and convicted of perpetrating torture and extrajudicial killing in foreign countries, have also been deported since the 1992 Act came into force.
No Safe Haven Policy for Human Rights Violators & War Criminals
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States opened the eyes of U.S. policymakers not only to purge the country of aliens with tainted human rights character but also to deny entry to war crime suspects wishing to use America as a safe haven to escape justice.
To achieve this end, on November 25, 2002, the U. S. Congress created the Department of Homeland Security where the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement(ICE) was transferred with its Homeland Security Investigation (HSI). In October of 2009, the Human Rights Violators and War Crime Center, which began in 2008 as a pilot project under ICE Bureau, was created and mandated to carry out the following “NO-SAFE HAVEN” missions:
(1) To prevent the admission of foreign war crime suspects, persecutors, and human rights abusers into the United States.
(2) To identify and prosecute individuals who have been involved or responsible for the commission of human rights abuses across the globe.
(c) To remove, whenever possible, those offenders and war crime suspects, who are located in the United States.
The U.S. Human Rights Violators and War Crime Center is mandated to also target perpetrators of Genocide, Torture, Child Solder Recruiters, Naturalization Fraud, Visa Fraud, False Statement Providers, and other crimes prohibited by U.S. Federal Statutes and international laws.
The list of aliens denied entry into the United States as well as those deported from the country under the operations of the Human Rights Violators and War Crime Center will be published in our next article.
Meanwhile to boost the U.S. No-Safe Haven initiative, U. S. President Barrack Obama, on January 15, 2013, signed into Law a War Crime Reward Program established under U.S. Department of State.
The Reward Program seeks to reward five-million U.S. Dollars to any person who provides information, leading to the arrest of certain wanted war crime suspects, (like Uganda Rebel Leader John Koney) wanted on international arrest list. The Office of Global Criminal Justice headed by Ambassador-At-Large Stephen J. Rapp, supervises this reward program.
U. S. Justice Dept. Human Rights and Special Prosecution Section
On March 30, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice created a Human Rights Special Prosecution Section to be the law enforcement and prosecution arm for the Tort Claims Act, Torture Victim Protection Act, and the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center.
Therefore, the uncomfortable truth is that the visa cancellation news coupled with the war crime rumors in Liberia could be largely centered around the implementation of these laws by the U.S. agencies listed above.
Though we do not have the exact number of people being targeted in the U. S. data base for entry denial or deportation removal, based on the information provided above, FrontPage speculations on the human rights and war crime concerns as the underlying cause of these developments seem to bear some undeniable truth.
Meanwhile on the question of the war crime rumors , here is what we know in truth and reality. First, on July 17, 1998, Liberia signed the Protocol for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ratified it on September 22, 2004 to be a part of Liberian Criminal Laws.
Thus, under the principle of complementarity adopted under the ICC Statute, Liberia is required to try war crimes committed on its territory. Or if Liberia is unable or unwilling to do so, the war crime prosecutor will have no option but to request the government to hand over the accused persons.
Second, under Article 24 of the ICC Statute, the International Criminal Court absolutely has no jurisdiction over war crimes committed before July 1, 2002. Thus, only war crimes committed after July 1, 2002 in Liberia can be prosecuted by Liberian Government or international war crime court.
Third, Article 26 of the Statute expressly provides that persons under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of war crimes, are exonerated from criminal responsibility. Their commanders bear the burden of their crimes under the doctrine of command responsibility. It is these commanders that the U.S. “NO-SAFE HAVEN” Policy is also targeting. THE END.
Arthur B. Dennis, a Retired Army Brigadier-General, holds a hybrid Liberian citizenship, and also holds a naturalized U. S. Citizenship. He can be reached in New Jersey at [email protected] or 609-328-5260.
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