Prince Yormie Johnson, Liberian warlord-turned-politician, who became infamous for the 1990 footage of him sipping beer while the-then president was tortured nearby, has died at the age of 72.
As one of the key figures in the two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said he should be prosecuted for war crimes, though he was never brought to trial.
But as a senator since 2005, he was highly influential in Liberian politics, backing the last three successful presidential candidates.
While some have celebrated his political role, others viewed him as a symbol of the country’s struggles with accountability.
“We see his death as a blow to many victims who were awaiting to see the senator to face justice given his role in the civil war,” human rights activist and campaigner for a special war crimes court Adama Dempster told the BBC.
An estimated 250,000 people died in the conflicts and many survivors from sexual assault and other attacks were left permanently scarred.
The cause of Johnson’s death in the capital, Monrovia, has not been disclosed.
In a condolence message to his family, President Joseph Boakai – who Johnson supported in his presidential campaign last year – described him as “a figure who played a pivotal role in Liberia’s complex historical evolution and contributed to national discourse through his service in the Senate”.
Back in 1990, rebel soldiers from Johnson’s Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia captured President Samuel Doe and were then, in front of their leader, filmed mutilating him – his ear was sliced off – before he was killed.
The warlord later expressed regret for what had happened, but, as quoted by the AFP news agency, justified his role in the war, saying he was defending “my country, my people, who were led to the slaughterhouse as if they were chickens and goats, by the Doe regime”.
He also said he had changed and later became a pastor in an evangelical church.
As a politician he was praised by his constituents in Nimba county for working to improve their lives.
But he also courted controversy.
In 2021 Johnson was sanctioned by the US for alleged involvement in so-called pay-for-play funding, where he would reportedly personally benefit from the distribution of government funding to various ministries.
He was also accused of selling votes for personal gain in several elections, leading to criticism from some of his allies.
But Wilfred Bangura, a former leading official in Johnson’s Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction, said “politically he was very weighty and strong” and that he only changed alliances once he saw people moving away from him.
While certainly revered and being mourned by many in his home county – where he was seen as a hero and liberator – elsewhere people feel he was not made to pay for the crimes committed during the civil war.
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