Jaspreet Kindra Liberia’s ambassador to South Africa this week conceded that the arrest of the four journalists in Monrovia on charges of spying was the latest in the series of blows to the country’s credibility. Ambassador Llewellyn Witherspoon said the arrests “did not help the country’s image”. The four journalists, including South African cameraman Gugu Radebe and acclaimed documentary-maker Sorious Samura, were arrested by Liberian authorities on charges of spying and “criminal design”. Listing other incidents that had recently damaged his country’s reputation, Witherspoon discussed the rumours that Liberian President Charles Taylor had allegedly “masterminded the poisoning” of his vice-president, Enoch Dogolea.
Dogolea’s death was announced in June. He reportedly died in a hospital in neighbouring C”te d’Ivoire, where he was taken after suffering a stroke. Announcing his death, Taylor said there would be a full autopsy. Dogolea fought the seven-year civil war in Liberia with Taylor. He became vice-president when Taylor won the 1997 multiparty elections.
Witherspoon said “his [Dogolea’s] death was sudden. This [the arrests] doesn’t help our image. In this case, however, the government has said it has watertight evidence.” Witherspoon said the journalists were being represented by a “highly credible law firm”. The head of the legal team, Varney Sherman, was a Harvard graduate who had won cases against the government, he said. Espionage, the Liberian diplomat said, was not a bailable offence, but the judge had discretionary powers to grant bail. In the event, the journalists were denied bail this week, while the Liberian government dismissed claims that they were tortured. Witherspoon said that he had been, like others, “sitting on the edge of the seat” to hear the outcome of the bail hearings. The BBC has reported that there are indications that the journalists’ arrests may not be simply a case of a government protecting national security. It has said that Taylor has a reputation for being a ruthless political operator whose relationship both with his neighbours and with the West is “currently at a low ebb”. Witherspoon said his president was trying “within the confines of the government’s means to live up to the expectations of the international community”. Taylor has been accused of backing Sierra Leone’s notorious rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front, in return for diamonds – a topic that was reportedly the subject of the journalists’ investigations. As a result of these accusations, Liberian diamonds are now subject to an international boycott.
Taylor has threatened to sue The Times of London for quoting a book accusing him of being a cannibal. South Africa has dispatched its ambassador to the Organisation of African Unity, Kingsley Mamabolo, to Monrovia to establish a link between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Liberian authorities.