ST. PAUL (AP) – More than 5,500 miles from Liberia, those who fled the ravaged West African country as long as three decades ago will get the chance to tell their stories on a placid college campus this week.

It’s apparently the first time a national truth and reconciliation commission is traveling abroad to put refugees on the record. Minnesota is home to the largest Liberian community in the United States, numbering more than 20,000. Other exiles are expected to come from Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York and Providence, R.I.

Public hearings begin on Tuesday in the music hall at Hamline University and continue through Saturday.

“Liberians in the Diaspora have always had a burning desire for change back home,” said Jerome Verdier, who heads the nine-member Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia.

He added: “It’s a significant voice we think should not be overlooked.”

The violence in Liberia started in 1979 when government security forces killed dozens during riots over the price of food. A bloody coup then toppled the presidency of William Tolbert.

followed a year later. In 1989, rebels led by warlord Charles Taylor invaded, setting off another civil war that ended 14 years later when Taylor was forced into exile in Nigeria.

He now faces war crimes charges in connection with a rebel movement in neighboring Sierra Leone.

Verdier said 97 percent of Liberia’s population was displaced at one point or another during the years of violence. Most who could get out left. The country – founded in 1847 to resettle freed slaves – has historically close ties with the U.S., leading refugees to Minnesota and other pockets on the East Coast.

The commission has taken statements from more than 1,000 Liberians in the U.S., United Kingdom and a refugee camp in Ghana since starting its work in 2006, said Jennifer Prestholdt of Advocates for Human Rights, a Minneapolis-based organization coordinating contact with Liberians outside of Liberia.

About 30 Liberian refugees who live in the U.S. are expected to testify this week. Prestholdt wouldn’t release their names, saying the commission has a policy against publicizing their identities before their testimony.

The commission aims for a full accounting of wartime atrocities. It doesn’t have the power to charge perpetrators with crimes, but can recommend prosecutions, reparations and policy changes to the Liberian government. Verdier said the ultimate goal is to prepare the ground for a lasting peace.

In St. Paul, Verdier said he expects a sharper focus on the early years of conflict, when many of the U.S. refugees left. Hearings throughout Liberia have centered on the violence from 1990 to 2003, fresher in people’s minds there. Exiles also are expected to raise concerns about immigration and legal issues.

“We thought it was necessary to reach out to as many Liberians as possible so that their experiences, their voices can also be heard, because ours is a healing process,” he said.

AP-ES-06-09-08 1816EDT