Both Kate Thomas and Glenna Gordon have recent articles about apathy toward the Charles Taylor’s trial. I’ve argued the apathy can partly be explained by the fact that the trial is being held so far away from West Africa, and that Taylor’s responsibility for local crimes is more distant than the responsibility of the guy who actually killed or tortured someone.
Glenna has noticed a third possible reason: People think Taylor has already been found guilty by the West.
From Glenna’s article:
[Dauda A.] Sessay [a Sierra Leonean] has his own theory as to why more people don’t come to hear the testimony [on a video screen in Freetown]: They think there’s no way anyone would ever let Taylor off free, so they don’t come to watch the blow-by-blow.
Both Kate and Glenna find evidence supporting the idea that the apathy has to do with the trial taking place in The Hague:
From Kate’s article:
“I’ve been reading about the trial on the web,” said Komba Naneh, a student in Freetown, the Liberian capital, who said the trial was for the West, not West Africa. “If it was happening in Sierra Leone, everybody would be talking about it, but the moment Charles Taylor left West Africa, he also left the mind of lots of people.”
From Glenna’s article:
“When Charles Taylor was here,” Peter Andersen, the head of public affairs in the court, told me, “you couldn’t have kept people away with a stick. There were lines of people down the sidewalk. People came to the court with their kids. Your couldn’t get a seat.” [I imagine Andersen is referring to the day when Taylor was transported to The Hague via Freetown.]
People in Liberia are very interested in the trial. The government has tried to keep the populace uninformed as much as possible. The Defense team requested that the trial be streamed into a viewing area like is being done in Freetown. The government turned down this request.
Dear Aki,
I would like to highlight some of your comments in my blog posts, but I would need to know who you are before I do this. If you like, email me at shelbygrossman@gmail.com.
Best,
Shelby