Why I Escaped Taylor's Justice
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The Perspective (Smyrna, Georgia)
August 29, 2000
James D. Torh
Atlanta
The author is a human rights activist who was arrested for criticizing President
Charles Taylor's Government, and was charged with treason. He subsequently
escaped from the country and now lives in exile.
It was on Thursday evening the 23rd of March 2000 at about 8:10 p.m. when I
received this startling and frightful information. "My man, the Papay (President
Taylor) wants to get rid of you. You are my friend and I can't let you perish
for the sake of foolishness. There is US$10,000.00 (ten thousands United State
dollars) available for your head."
This revelation from a colleague at the University of Liberia serving in
Taylor's security brought to me that evening to my hiding place convinced me
that death was inevitable once I was caught. Oh thank God for my University
connections. It is less likely that I would have received such a warning. Many
others without such benefits have perished in the country. The expression on my
face was difficult to define. After all what expression does one put on when
death is at your doorsteps?
My host told me to be calm. The host hurriedly mobilized three gentlemen to help
me get out of my hiding place into exile, like many other lucky Liberians since
Taylor became President. Indeed, the escape arrangement worked. My rescuers took
me out of Monrovia on that fateful Friday, the 24th of March, 2000. The
depression and hunger of the five days journey itself into the jungle, the
uncertainty ahead, was to me an odyssey worth writing about.
On several occasions, I had complained about intimidation, security threats and
subsequent visitations of his marauding bands of blood- sucking fighters
(security men) in the vicinity of my home at night. I had written the so-called
Justice Minister Eddington Varmah on the 29th of January 2000 about the security
threats and requested for his prompt intervention. But this was of no use
because the whole affair against me was a coordinated scheme to have me killed
in a mysterious manner, and up to the time I escaped the minister failed to
respond to my letter.
Scenes of previous encounters with Taylor's thugs told me not to expect an easy
life once I was his suspect for daring to question the essence and substance of
his leadership. I can vividly remember when the ex-fighters(security men) came
to arrest me on the 15th of December 1999. The ringleader holding walkie-talkie
busy communicating "your try and bring reinforcement, we got the subject". He
stared at me hard and told me in the face, "we will skin you to death". I was
violently brought down stairs, whisked away to the Police Headquarters. There, I
was stripped naked, beaten severely and thrown into the cells. At about 2:00
a.m., the CID boss ordered me out of the cells and instructed his subordinate
that I sit in the corridors for reason best known to him. Oh God! I was there
alone with my thoughts, trying to figure out the stages of my crusade.
Prior to this ordeal, I had become a target for the President and his band of
loyalists. There was the US$10,000,000.00 lawsuit against my organization,
FOCUS, and the Justice and Peace Commission for the publication of Forced
Labor/Captivity reports. Embarrassed by the report, the Government had launched
an unsuccessful rebuttal. Their anger was manifested in several ways. One of
Taylor's most notorious Generals, Isaac Musa, accused of several abuses
including arbitrary executions violently attacked my vehicle on one occasion.
His entourage comprising some of the most feared fighters now serving in the
security forces of the infamous Special Security Unit, attacked my driver and
sliced off the man's ear for attempting to protect me.
A Senator and member of Taylor's National Patriotic Party, the offshoot of the
rebel National Patriotic Front, Peter Fineboy, ordered the public flogging of
human rights activists for questioning several issues, including the campaign
calling for the demolition of Gbatala base, a notorious military camp where
torture, forced sodomy and other inhumane treatments were being carried out,
based on our information. Then there was the call for the setting up of the
Truth Commission with the aim of dwelling on the true accounts of atrocities
committed during the seven years brutal civil war and many more. Aligning with
these campaigns meant I was the President's enemy, and I have finally realized
the fearful dimension of falling into their trap. The hour has come. I was
convinced that Taylor and his disciples were determined to set an example on me
and that they would not spare me come what may. "We will teach that little boy a
lesson - calling our government a boy scout. We will set example on him".
These guys will not spare me. But I was mistaken, the hour has not come. God was
still on my side, for I meant no evil. The next day I was charged with SEDITION
and transferred to the Monrovia Central Prison.
Taylor's Party chiefs, amongst them Cyril Allen, Lewis Brown and other top brass
of Taylor's NPP were shouting in protests at my activities and holding series of
meetings for harmless creature like me. That they could react at the description
of the government as boy scout was astonishing because it was so obvious. The
government indeed is a boy scout. Everybody is referred to the scoutmaster
(Taylor), including inquires on routine and daily matters. All things are placed
on the President's chest and there is no such thing like assigning
responsibility and duties to underlings. In financial matters, the President
made all the decisions, personally allocated funds since all banking
institutions and other productive sectors have collapsed.
The Court Room Drama: My day in court convinced me of how corrupt and dependent
the Judicial system on the whims of the President. The threat to the
effectiveness of the judicial system is the fact that His Excellency is the
author and principal architect of court rulings in cases of his interest.
Verdicts and sentences are determined by Taylor before trials can even begin.
Convinced of my innocence, my determination was to test the system, to remain in
Liberia and to see the color of justice. But the initial signals from the trial
convinced of my useless dream. The Judiciary in Liberia is under the effective
control and supervision of Taylor. I was soon disappointed and frustrated when I
observed how Joseph Andrews, the trial judge, was deliberately refusing to
ensure transparency and his obvious aim of preserving his job by addressing the
wishes of Taylor, in this case by convicting me. And the signals that the trial
was a farce, as all political trials in Liberia, were soon evident. On the 21st
of February, the first day of court, the Judge was honest enough to declare, in
the presence of international observers, that "what happens in the Western World
will not be permitted here in Liberia. Anybody who castigates our President of
this Republic will not go free".
Before the trial started, we received reports that the Judge was invited at the
Presidential palace, the Executive Mansion, where he was instructed to find me
guilty, and for doing so, he would be rewarded US$25,000.00(twenty thousands
United Stated dollars).
Oh God! That was an advertisement of his negligence of duty, incompetence and
cowardice to the noble legal profession. Following my escape, the Judge showed
an immense interest in re-arresting me because without me to convict, I was
certain the $25,000 was breeze. He shouted and shouted for me to be captured.
But it was late. I was already out.
Another point worth mentioning is the denial of the Writ of Certiorari filed by
my lawyers to the Supreme Court. Though, the Justice in Chambers, Justice
Wright, one of Taylor's cousins, acknowledged the constitutionality of my
statement, he chose to twist justice and subsequently sending the matter down to
the lower court for continuation. How under heavens can we trust the judicial
system that is in the midst of influence and manipulation?
To me, escape was my only choice if I had to live. Without confidence in the
judicial system and the integrity of its practitioners, and with a President who
has become the LAW, Liberia is doomed. My thanks to all those still in Liberia,
including many within Taylor's security establishment, who made me to live to
fight another battle.
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