LIBERIA: PRESIDENT SIRLEAF TESTIFIES AT TRC

UNCLAS MONROVIA 000125 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.0.12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL LI SUBJECT: LIBERIA: PRESIDENT SIRLEAF TESTIFIES AT TRC ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: After postponing several times, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf testified behind closed doors to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on February 12. Her testimony was subsequently broadcast on local radio stations. Sirleaf admitted being an early sympathizer of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and of visiting Taylor's rebel headquarters in Gborplay, Nimba County during the conflict. She acknowledged she was a founding member of the Association of Constitutional Democracy in Liberia (ACDL),which raised $10,000 to provide relief for people in NPFL-held territory, but denied ever being a member of the NPFL or dressing in fatigues to support Taylor. She hoped her testimony to the TRC would be a step toward reconciliation in Liberia. Public reaction was positive, but we have yet to see if Sirleaf's testimony encourages others to step forward. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) During her unannounced but long-awaited testimony before the TRC on February 12, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf admitted participating in a student activist movement against President Tolbert's government in 1969, but said she left Liberia shortly afterwards to study at Harvard University. She returned in 1971, was hired at the Ministry of Finance, and became Minister in 1979, but said she was never a member of Tolbert's True Whig Party. (Note: She was openly critical of Taylor several times during that period. End note.) Sirleaf was spared by Doe's supporters in the April 12, 1980 coup when 13 of her Cabinet colleagues were publicly executed, and she denied any prior knowledge of the plot. ¶3. (SBU) The record shows that Sirleaf was even more critical of Doe than she had been of Tolbert. She delivered a speech in the United States in 1985 to the Union of Liberians in the Americas (ULAA) in which she said, "Liberia is governed by Doe and a bunch of idiots." She was arrested upon her return to Liberia and spent two months in jail before she was pardoned by Doe. She was arrested again in the aftermath of the November 12, 1985 coup for being an alleged member of the rebellion but escaped from prison and fled Liberia for the United States in 1986. Sirleaf said she met Charles Taylor for the first time in Paris in 1987, and that she was a founding member of the Association of Constitutional Democracy in Liberia (ACDL),a group that believed an armed rebellion against Samuel Doe's government was necessary. She admitted contributing to ACDL's $10,000 fundraiser, led by her friend Harry Greaves, (currently Managing Director of Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation),and believed the funds were to provide relief for people in Taylor's NPFL-held territory. (Comment: Sirleaf testified she was supporting relief to people in NPFL-held territory; NPFL was, at the time, buying weapons and we do not know if ACDL's money was diverted to buy weapons. End comment.) ¶4. (SBU) Sirleaf said she met Taylor again in early 1990 in Abidjan and he approved her subsequent visit to his headquarters at Gborplay to see the progress of the war. Sirleaf testified she was "not impressed" with what she saw at Gborplay, noting there seemed to be many Lebanese nationals there. (Comment: Liberians interpret this to mean Taylor was starting to collude with commercial interests instead of acting in the national interest. End note.) Sirleaf said she finally decided to disengage from Taylor completely by July 1990 after he murdered her good friend Moses Duopu, a founding member of the ACDL and the NPFL. ¶5. (SBU) President Sirleaf testified that she lived in exile in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire from 1992 to 1997 and did not want to be involved in Liberian politics because of her work with the UN. She said she was never part of any warring faction and did not financially support any rebel group after her initial donation to ACDL, and denied ever wearing a military uniform behind Taylor's lines, as had been alleged by other TRC witnesses. She said that she had known nothing about Taylor's imprisonment in the United States, downplayed any direct relationship with Taylor, and claimed she always had to work through Taylor's Defense Minister Tom Woiweyou, the overall mediator between the ACDL and the NPFL. ¶6. (SBU) Sirleaf concluded her testimony by saying that her actions against the government of President Samuel Doe were done in consultation with other opposition political leaders and were not unilateral. She said she did not realize Taylor's rebellion would be as bloody as it was, and apologized to the Liberian people for "being fooled by Taylor." She hoped her testimony to the TRC would be a step toward reconciliation in Liberia. ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: Although postponed many times because of constitutional concerns about a President testifying while still in office, Sirleaf's appearance before the TRC was intended to make the Commission's inquiry more credible and transparent, and to foster reconciliation. Calls to radio talk shows this morning indicate the public appreciated her candid testimony and has, on the whole, accepted her confirmation that although she supported Taylor's war efforts initially, she backed away as it became apparent he was a showman and not a true revolutionary. It is not clear if her testimony will encourage other high profile witnesses who have thus far avoided the TRC to come forward. END COMMENT. THOMAS-GREENFIELD