(guns firing)
- The conflict in West Africa
has not been terribly attentive to borders.
There have been atrocities and killings in Liberia.
They subsided for a while
and went across the border to Sierra Leone.
Even once peace came to Sierra Leone,
the killings simply went back to Liberia.
Charles Taylor has been one of the most prominent figures
throughout this ugly period of West Africa's history.
- Charles Taylor came to power in order to
take control of the resources of Liberia,
but he didn't stop there,
and the war in Liberia quickly spread over the border
into Sierra Leone as a way of
grabbing that country's diamond wealth.
- In Sierra Leone, a rebel group by the name of
the Revolutionary United Front was contesting power
by rampaging through the countryside,
chopping off the limbs of its victims
as a way of sending a message to the government
of Sierra Leone that its days were numbered.
- Charles Taylor, both as a rebel leader
and later as president of Liberia,
was the primary logistical and political backer
for the war in Sierra Leone.
The signature atrocity of limb amputation,
but there was so many other
horrific violations that happened:
massacres, rape of girls and women,
abduction of entire families.
- [Man] Appalling crimes, not for any practical purpose,
but simply to create that absolutely naked fear.
- The prosecution of Charles Taylor is significant
because there are very few heads of state
that have been brought to justice.
The status of being a sitting president
is no longer an absolute bar to indictment
when it comes to the mass slaughter of innocent civilians,
the forced displacement of populations
on the basis of their ethnicity,
or the use of rape as a weapon of war and intimidation.
In 2003, the special court for Sierra Leone
issued an indictment for Charles Taylor,
charging him with 17 counts of war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
Not surprisingly, Taylor refused to surrender.
A few months later, Nigeria offered Taylor asylum
as a way to get him to step down as president.
The UN, the US, and the African Union
all supported his exile in Nigeria,
but for activists, exile was no substitute for justice.
They organized the Campaign Against Impunity
to push for Taylor's transfer
to the special court for trial.
One of the key members of the campaign was Elise Keppler.
- Groups in West Africa expressed really intense desire
to see Charles Taylor face justice,
and there was a really strong feeling that
there needed to be a break from the past in that region,
there need to be an end to impunity,
and Charles Taylor's surrender and facing trial
was a key part of that advancement.
- Charles Taylor is viewed as the devil
that is one of those responsible for
the sufferings of the people of Sierra Leone.
- We were working closely with a campaigner
at Amnesty International,
who had a number of close relationships
with activists on the ground in West Africa.
It was our work with that campaigner
where we sat down and basically strategized
who are the groups in West Africa
who might be working on this issue
and who might want to join forces.
After identifying some of those groups, we reached out.
We reached out by email,
and we waited to see what came back in terms of
were groups working on this?
Did they want to be in coalition?
Did they really want to work together
in a close, coordinated fashion on these issues?
We ultimately ended up with about two or three groups
in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Liberia
that we had kind of a core group approach
where we were all in contact in email.
There were many, many more groups
who were part of the campaign,
and those groups would be affiliated, in a way,
with our press releases and our statements.
In terms of deciding what strategies and when,
it was the core groups that really
helped define those strategies.
Some of the initial aims of the campaign
were, first, to make it clear why Nigeria
was obligated to arrest Charles Taylor
and transfer him to the Special Court for Sierra Leone
and also why they should do it,
what were the incentives or what were the reasons
that this was going to be beneficial
from a rule of law perspective,
from a human rights perspective.
It was also to make clear that this was a global,
international human rights concern.
This was not just a Western issue.
Then, the third was also to make this an issue
that wasn't going to go away,
and that's something that went across the campaign
for several years, was to really make this
something that would be front and center
for Nigeria, for Liberia.
That the feeling would be that
this would have to be resolved,
because it wasn't going to fade away
from international consciousness.
Press releases were a big part of the campaign,
and we really tried to project
both the local and international activist voices
in those press releases,
but we also tried to time our press releases
in ways and at events that would be relevant
to the public popular debate.
When President Obasanjo, the president of Nigeria,
was traveling, to try and basically dog him with questions.
If he was at an event, to perhaps email journalists and say,
"Obasanjo is gonna be there.
"What's he doing about Taylor?
"Why don't you ask him what is he doing about Taylor?"
At the same time, we looked at
pressing the UN Security Council.
We looked at pressing the European Union.
We looked at pressing the US government.
Really, with a triangulation effect.
The idea was to have those players then
raise the issue with President Obasanjo
and raise the issue with President Johnson Sirleaf.
Challenges that we faced in the
Campaign Against Impunity were definitely
I don't know if stubbornness is the right word,
but definitely the resilience of the Nigerian president
at the outset of not really feeling the pressure.
There we were churning out press releases,
strategizing, coming up with a wide array of arguments,
and in the early years,
it didn't really seem to prevail, to
pierce the debate.
I also think there was a lot of
I don't know if the word is guilt,
but a feeling on the part of the US or the UK
that they just really couldn't revisit this issue,
because they had been involved in the decision for
Nigeria to take Taylor in.
- He made clear that he would only
turn Taylor over to justice
if a democratically elected president of Liberia
were to make the request.
- In late 2005, the campaign had been underway for two years
when Liberia held its first democratic elections
in nearly 20 years.
- When we realized that President Johnson Sirleaf,
that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was going to be elected
as president of Liberia, we got very excited,
because she was a known international figure.
She was known for being
not necessarily justice and human rights oriented,
but very aware of international standards,
in line with rule of law.
So we thought this should be a cinch.
We thought she would say,
"I'm looking to raise this with ... "
You know, set in motion certain pieces
that would then lay the groundwork for that surrender.
Instead, she said, "This is not a priority.
"I have roads to build.
"I have electricity to turn on.
"Liberia's coming out of civil war.
"That was in Sierra Leone.
"He's in Nigeria now, Charles Taylor.
"This is not a major issue for us."
That was, I would say,
somewhat of a setback in the campaign,
because we really had high hopes for Johnson Sirleaf,
but it also was a clear opening for us
where we then start to work with the Liberian groups
but also the Nigerian groups and Sierra Leonean groups
to have Johnson Sirleaf realize that this was not an issue
she could sideline.
In working in coalitions between
local and international groups, and over the years,
I've been in quite a few of those coalitions,
it's become clear to me that
often, we're in a situation where
international groups, Human Rights Watch
and others like Amnesty International,
can often bring certain pieces to the work
that local groups have less experience with
or less expertise with, while local groups
can often bring other assets that our groups
would not be able to bring to the table.
- Local groups kept the issue alive in Liberia and Nigeria.
In Liberia, they sent letters to government officials.
They used talk shows across the country to raise the issue.
They organized marches in Liberia's capital.
In Nigeria, campaign members printed 10,000 posters
with the slogan: "Charles Taylor Wanted."
- I've also found that, a lot of times,
local groups are able to bring a sense of timing
to the unfolding debates locally
and pressure points, what the pressure points should be.
For example, around Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
and knowing when that first press conference
was going to happen when Johnson Sirleaf came to power.
Understanding who would be the journalists locally
who would be able to raise the issue.
That is not something we would have been aware of.
On the other hand, Human Rights Watch could come in and say,
"We know the UN Security Council discussion
"is going to be on X date."
So, we had more of a sense of the international calendar.
I certainly think that the relationship
between the international groups and the local groups,
we each gave value to the other,
and I think the sum was greater than the parts for sure.
For me, I think one of the greatest moments
of my career as an activist was getting to the point where
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was at the UN Security Council
and was briefing journalists about Liberia
and the meetings there,
and she indicated that she was, in fact,
going to request Charles Taylor's surrender from Nigeria.
Because, in fact, Liberia could no longer move forward
with its essential business
unless she dealt with that issue.
- I've just said, we've said to President Obasanjo,
"It's time to bring the Taylor issue to closure."
- When Obasanjo finally understood that he would have to
surrender Taylor, he began to play games.
He made an announcement saying,
"I'm not Charles Taylor's custodian.
"I'm not his jailer.
"Come and get him."
It sounded great in principle, but in reality,
it was an invitation to Taylor to flee.
- You didn't need to be with Scotland Yard or Interpol
to understand that Charles Taylor was going to take that
as a signal to get the hell out of town, which he did.
- President Obasanjo was scheduled to meet
with President Bush, and there was a lot of outrage
in the US Congress on the fact that Taylor had disappeared.
- And Human Rights Watch helped convince the Bush administration
to make clear that Obasanjo was not going to get to
meet with President Bush without actually
surrendering Taylor to justice,
and at that stage, Taylor was, in fact, handed over
to the special court.
- I think it would be hard to overstate
the significance of Charles Taylor's conviction
for crimes in Sierra Leone
for the whole subregion in West Africa.
Really, people looked at Charles Taylor as an untouchable,
a big man in Africa.
The idea that someone at the highest echelons of power
could be brought into the dock,
could face trial, could be convicted,
and is now serving essentially a life sentence
changes forever the landscape in West Africa
about what's possible.
I'll never forget with Charles Taylor ...
I mean, people just couldn't believe
that this was happening.
We were in touch with people who had worked on this campaign
in Freetown, and people just reported that
there was cheering from the rooftops
as he was flown in on a helicopter into Freetown,
cheering from the rooftops.
Just such excitement that, wow, this could really happen.
(upbeat music)