A prominent Liberian opposition figure told AFP on Friday that his support in the country's presidential runoff was conditional on the creation of a war crimes tribunal, long called for by the international community.
Incumbent President George Weah will face Joseph Boakai on November 14, after neither candidate scored an absolute majority following October 10 polls.
The vote was the first to be held since the UN ended its peacekeeping mission in Liberia in 2018, created after more than 250,000 people died in two civil wars between 1989 and 2003.
While the bloody conflicts resulted in massacres, mutilation, rape, cannibalism and the forced recruitment of child soldiers, no trial has yet been held, but several have taken place abroad.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2009 recommended the establishment of a war crimes tribunal, but this has largely gone unheeded, particularly in the name of peacekeeping as a number of accused warlords remained influential in their communities.
"We believe it is important to help Liberia move forward, to heal the nation, to put behind us this era of impunity," said Alexander Cummings, who came fifth in the first round of the October presidential vote.
"If we should put the past behind us, the establishment of a war and economic crimes court is the beginning of that process," he added.
- 'Never brought to justice' -
Cummings told AFP that the establishment of the court was one of the 12 conditions he had relayed to Weah and Boakai for his possible support.
The two candidates for the November runoff are stepping up their negotiations to forge alliances with the 18 other candidates who had contested the first round.
Cummings said the creation of a tribunal was "still relevant precisely because we have warlords and others who it is alleged committed war crimes and are in government... (and who) were never brought to justice".
One of the most prominent of these is current senator Prince Johnson, who was shown in a video sipping beer while his men tortured then-President Samuel Doe to death in 1990.
Johnson has forged an electoral alliance with Boakai.
"That alliance is something that gives us a bit of pause and it is something we have to consider," Cummings said, adding that it was just one of many to take into account.
As president, Weah spoke about but never set up a war crimes tribunal, despite international and domestic demand.
"That is just one of many things the president did not follow through on and this is why this is a difficult decision," Cummings said.
