PHOTO: Adama Dempster, Civil Society Advocacy Platform SG
By William Selmah, wselmah@gmail.com
A key advocate for war crimes court in Liberia says their intelligence has alerted them of a “watch list” or hit list within state security apparatus targeting some rights advocates.
The Secretary General of the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform Adama Dempster told www.newspublictrust.com over the weekend that the list is now in national security circles and contains the names of key individuals targeted for elimination including him.
But the Spokesman of the Liberia National Police (LNP), Moses Carter has rubbished this claim.
In an interview with this news outlet Saturday evening, August 8, 2020, Mr. Carter said that the LNP was not aware of any hit list to get at rights advocates or prodemocracy groups or individuals.
Mr. Dempster insisted that the rights community’s intelligence disclosing a watch list came down hard on him and that he is still struggling to mentally process it.
“I no longer sleep at my residence and have been advised to conduct myself in a manner that I stay on the safe side. This is not about Adama Dempster trying to make up his own story. Our source is credible,” he said.
Although he has not reported the matter to the police, Mr. Dempster said they have reported the threats to their partners including international human rights institutions, the UN Special Repertoire on Human Rights Defenders as well as foreign missions accredited near Monrovia.
“Though I do not have access to the list, our intelligence continues to warn us to keep on the safe side”, the human rights campaigner hinted.
He has meanwhile emphatically stated that no amount of threats will intimidate him or force him into abandoning their campaign.
“We came out of back-to-back civil wars following which atrocities committed during that period were recorded. We did not write the TRC report. Government constituted the TRC to document the atrocities committed and we are simply following up on the TRC recommendations,” Mr. Dempster noted.
Commenting on claims by former President Charles Taylor’s ex-wife Agnes Reeves Taylor that allegations of war crimes against her were malicious and diabolical lies, Dempster said that’s exactly what one would expect her to say.
“You don’t expect her to have returned and admitted that she participated in the civil war. She has to present herself as one with clean hands. But given the history of the Liberia civil war, the name Agnes Taylor is no strange name”, he said.
He added that Madam Taylor’s case was never heard in court and that had it been adjudicated, probably she would not have been in Liberia at the moment.
The human rights activist said that’s why they have been advocating for some justice system for people like Madam Taylor to appear either voluntarily or through other judicial processes to clear their names.
It can be recalled that International Human Rights organizations during the week highlighted what see they as credible threats against key human rights defenders in Liberia.
The threats are directed at the Global Justice Research Project (GJRP) as well as to witnesses of alleged crimes by a defendant of a war crimes unit in the United Kingdom.
“Credible threats have also been made against the Secretary General of the Civil Society Advocacy Human Rights Platform Adama K. Dempster in connection to his human rights work advocacy for a war crimes court.
Organizations that flagged the threats include Human Rights Watch, center for Justice and Accountability, Center for Civil and Political Rights and Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform.
Others are Civitas Maxima, Independent Human Rights Investigators, and Advocates for human rights defenders.
The rights groups in their joint statement last week said that the Government of Liberia has an obligation to protect human rights defenders.
The groups also said certain statements made by Reeves Taylor about Bility raises concern.
The human rights institutions have at the same time reminded Liberia of the UN Human Rights Committee’s Concluding Observation issued in 2018, which requires that Liberia makes certain that “all alleged perpetrators of human rights violations and war crimes are impartially prosecuted and if convicted, punished in accordance with the gravity of the acts committed”.
The Human Rights Committee’s Observation requires among others that “Liberia reports by July 27, 2020 on the implementation of the recommendations regarding accountability for past crimes. Liberia is yet to meet that deadline.