Brown-Bull says TRC report part of international conspiracy

I’m not sure how I missed this.

Hat tip to Ruthie Ackerman for pointing me to this story by Boima J.V. Boima on Ceasefire Liberia on former TRC commissioner Pearl Brown-Bull’s disagreement with the TRC report recommendations. 

[Bull] said that one of the main reasons why she is opposed to the report is because of the international conspiracy that had earlier occurred in crafting the report.

“I want this generation to know that it was based on the instrumentalities and recommendations of the Minnesota Advocates, which is comprised of white criminal lawyers, that the current unedited TRC report came into being. Therefore, being a renowned lawyer in this country for years I will not and never will support such an act of conspiracy that resulted in the crafting of the TRC report,” Cllr. Bull said.

Uh, what?  Anyone know what she’s referring to?

Bull also said the US is using the TRC report to push for prosecution of war criminals in an international court.  She said the TRC chair never asked for her comments on the unedited version of the report.  She apparently disliked the format of having “victims” and “perpetrators” testify at separate times.  (Though so few of the “perpetrators” apologized, I’m not sure how any other format would have worked.)  And she has misgivings about the TRC’s decision to recommend prosecution for several people:

The former commissioner, whose son was brutally killed by the NPFL rebel faction during the war, said that the majority of the people that she earlier interviewed within the counties as part of the TRC called for forgiveness instead of retributive justice. “But the Jerome Verdier-led commission, after conspiring with international communities, went ahead to  publish and recommend punishment for people in the country,” she asserted.

None of these points seem especially crazy to me (except maybe the Minnesota Advocates claim), but one wonders why she did not push for changes in the TRC’s activities and recommendations earlier.  After all, she has been one of just a few commissioners for several years.  It sounds to me like she is seeing all of the criticism the TRC is getting, and is now trying to distance herself from it.  Thoughts?