Civil war in Liberia: “There is not an ethnic group that has escaped the massacre”

RFI: In your book, you write ” In civil war liberia: “there not new Liberia, we killed with casualness and detachment ». In addition, How was this civil war different from the others?

Patrick Robert : civil war liberia: “there not The first big difference is that it was a total war. committed with the good conscience. Nevertheless, of people who do something with the feeling that they must do it. Meanwhile, The characteristic of a civil war is that it is a war of amateurs. Similarly, These are people in the bush who, overnight, are militiamen, combatants, a weapon in hand. Moreover, And obviously, standards are obviously very far from ours.

And it was a villager’s war against city dwellers?

Not only. Therefore, It was a total civil war, of ethnicity against ethnicity, in fact.

You tell how a militiaman coldly kills a civilian before your eyes. However, then realizes that you are there with your camera and tells you, all smiles ” civil war liberia: “there not new Hey take my picture ! » (Take my photo). For example, How do you explain such an casualness?

Because these simple people felt like these work to civil war liberia: “there not do their mission. However, This is the tragic of history. Me, I don’t think there have been crimes for the pleasure of killing … Yes, under these conditions, there are always. But I don’t think the Order of politicians was to do so. I think that the military leaders. whether Charles Taylor or the others, were no more moved than that of the death of their fellow citizens. But I also don’t think that they encouraged their militiamen to blindly kill everyone. I think it is a country where people were delivered to themselves with a non-existent discipline. You should also know that Charles Taylor had no means of communication with his troops. He had a satellite phone civil war liberia: “there not new that Félix Houphouët-Boigny had given him. but he had no way to contact his soldiers on the front. There was no cell phone at the time and he had no radio. Charles civil war liberia: “there not Taylor did not know what was going on on the forehead. He was not going to himself. He was not a courageous warlord. Additionally, He was not a good warlord. His political movement, the NPFL, was good as long as he had Prince Johnson with him. But in fact, it was Prince Johnson who scored the points on the field. As Johnson seceded. left in his corner. dropped Taylor, Taylor has never advanced seriously on the ground and therefore, because the situation degenerated, it became an ethnic war. Each ethnic group had its armed group with its war chief who opposed others.

So. you say that each fighter was doing their job. but civil war liberia: “there not new when you shoot a woman and her children, it’s not a job like any other, right?

No, I’m not saying he was doing his job, I say he was doing what he thought was his work. civil war liberia: “there not I think the militiaman thought that his mission was to kill enemies. whatever they were, men, women, children. You know. in an ethnic warfare, we are guilty of being part of the opposing ethnicity, whatever his age or his sex. Children, as long as they can carry a weapon, they are in front of you, so they are fighters. Women, they give birth to future fighters who will one day be in front of your children. And so everyone is a legitimate target from this point of view of the ethnic war. This is what is appalling.

How is it that, since 2003, there has never been a trial civil war liberia: “there not new of war criminals in Liberia?

I think the Liberians admitted their collective responsibility. They admitted that everyone had lost their heads. And so there is not an ethnic group that has escaped the massacre committed by their against another ethnic group. civil war liberia: “there not So there is a kind of leveling by horror. by crime, which makes everyone has been guilty of reprehensible things before the law. I think they have been so many. in all camps. to commit crimes that maybe they don’t really want to question it and tell themselves that we will have to put two thirds of the country in prison. But I think that today, Liberians have evolved a lot. There is a democratic system that has been set up. And indeed, I think they should not be very proud of what their predecessors did during this civil war.

And if in 2027. civil war liberia: “there not new therefore in two years. a court on the crimes of the civil war opens in Monrovia, will you be ready to testify?

If I am asked. yes, as a context of context to explain my experience, it may even be a duty since I lived it.

civil war liberia: “there not

And when you testified to the trial of Kutunta Camara. it was so last year in Paris, did you meet his gaze?

He was very fleeing, he looked completely absent. But criminals like him, there are thousands of them in Liberia.

The banality of death?

Yes, the banality of death. This is something that surprised me a lot in Liberia. as in Sierra Leone, because at that time, death was something daily. We killed people easily without it posing ethical, moral problems. This banality in the face of death is perhaps a survival instinct too, otherwise nobody would get civil war liberia: “there not new out.