Renowned Liberian Artist Fears Attack from Former Warlord
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Loading... - Martha Adu
- 06 Apr 2023
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A renowned Liberian sketch artist and cartoonist, Leslie Lumeh, who is most famous for his paintings and courtroom sketches of former warlords and individuals who participated in the Liberian civil war says he fears for his life, as he recently faced threats and verbal attacks.
Lumeh, who in his recent work done in the French city of Paris with New Narratives, partnering with Civitas Maxima, a Swiss-based group working independently at the international level as a legal representative of victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity, has come under verbal attack from individuals purporting to be representing the interest of well-known former warlord and now sitting senator of Nimba County in Liberia, Prince Yormie Johnson.
Johnson is a powerful man in Liberia. Prior to the Liberian presidential and general elections in 2017, which brought to power the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), of which a merger was entered into between the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), the former ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Liberia People Democratic Party (LPDP).
On the morning of October 28th 2022, individuals acting in Johnson’s stead approached Lumeh threatening him and calling him out of all the sketches he had drawn.
“I was shocked. I mean, amazed but frightened when I was approached by these guys in a black Nissan Patrol suburban jeep which drove by with the car window being down, at which time a gentleman seated next to the driver in the car pointed his left index finger at me,” Leslie said.
“He said, ‘Hey Leslie Lumeh. You are doing a good work going around drawing Mandingo people all around the world in courtrooms, but I assure you, you will not have the chance to draw any Gio man, or Prince Johnson in any war crimes court, just so you know,’” he said as the car's tinted window went up, and it drove off.
But Johnson, in a phone conversation, told the Daily Observer that he does not know Lumeh and has no interest in targeting him.
“Those who are prosecuting people for war crimes in Europe and America know that a war crimes court cannot happen in Liberia because of the law that grants amnesty for all warring factions and perpetrators of the Liberian civil war. If that law were repealed to make way for the war crimes court, the law would not be retroactive.
“Me, I am 70 years old. What am I going to do in France? But for those who are still pushing for war crimes court and prosecution, that is their way if making money. I have no problem with that. Just take my name out of it, because I have no problem with anybody, except with President George Weah, for the way he is handling the country. And for that, I have taken my support from him.”
While Senator Johnson's response might present a stance of plausible deniability of the threats experienced by Lumeh, the artist remains warned by the fact that those who issued the threats — whether on behalf of or in the interest of former warlords, or in whoever else's interest — remain at large and could act on their threats at any time. Read More…
