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CNN Live Today

Interview With Samuel Jackson, Advisor to Liberia's President

Aired July 04, 2003 - 10:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Our next guest may be able to shed some light on the inner workings of this decision. Samuel P. Jackson is a Liberian cabinet minister and an advisor to President Taylor, and he joins us from London.
Good to see you. Thanks very much for joining us. You have been...

SAMUEL P. JACKSON, ADVISOR TO LIBERIAN PRES. CHARLES TAYLOR: Good afternoon -- good morning, Fredericka. How are you?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing great. Well, you've been quoted as saying that for Taylor to step down with a gun at his head is ridiculous. Symbolically, though, isn't that what has happened?

JACKSON: Well, that will be tantamount to surrender, and I think what any independent observer, any reasoned person would like to see would be an orderly transfer of power.

Now, look, let's look at the construct. You have a rebel organization with no legitimacy knocking at the gates of Monrovia. The commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Liberia is Charles Taylor. Charles Taylor is not a choir boy. There may have been some transgressions. But these transgressions are not egregious enough for a rebel force to be standing at the gates of Monrovia and raining rockets and mortar on the people of Liberia, innocent bystanders. Now, Taylor said...

WHITFIELD: Well, let me interject with this, Mr. Jackson, if I could. If President Taylor is saying on tape that he is willing to step down and, as you say, as long as there is some sort of orderly transition, what does that mean exactly? Does that mean that he is opening the door to these U.S. peacekeepers or others to coming in and helping with the transitional government? Or are we saying that President Taylor would like to handpick what he believes would be an orderly transitional government?

JACKSON: Well, Taylor is a democrat. He doesn't believe in handpicking a successor. That is the reason why we agreed to go to a peace conference in Accra. Here is the sequence of events. There was a peace conference taking place in Accra on June 4 when the President Charles Taylor said he would step down. Two days later, there was an attack on the city of Monrovia by these rebels trying to take the capital by force.

President Taylor still insists he will step down. There is nothing earth-shattering about the recent statement President Taylor will step down. We need to discuss the details of an orderly transition, and that's what is taking place in Accra. Secondly...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Well, Mr. Jackson, are you able to give us a timeline on this about a timeline?

JACKSON: I cannot give you a timeline, because the Liberian people will decide a timeline when a transitional government comes into place, when forces arrive on the ground. These are constructs. Mr. Taylor leaving from power now will be tantamount to an unceremonious departure. Everything is going to cave in. There will be a Rwanda-style genocide in Liberia. I'm sure Mr. Bush wouldn't want to see that. That is the reason why we are now discussing at the highest possible level an orderly transition to put all of the pieces in place for our government to make an exit in some manner.

And, No. 2, we have to make an exit. But what comes after that? A transitional government. What is the character, and what is the form of that government? That must be clearly understood.

WHITFIELD: Well, Mr. Jackson, you're talking about this being a democracy, that there have been a number of people, thousands of people, who are demonstrating -- Liberians demonstrating outside the U.S. embassy there, asking for U.S. assistance, imploring that the U.S. peacekeepers make their way to that region soon. If U.S. peacekeepers would come there as early as this weekend, would that be enough to encourage the president to step down during this weekend to help impose what could be the road to a transitional government?

JACKSON: Well, first of all, I'm here to say thousands of people gathering in front of the U.S. embassy, that's not even possible. It was a rented crowd of no more than 400 people. These were politically-motivated. But on the other side of town, there were some pro-Taylor demonstrators. We don't even need to speak to that.

But what is important to understand is that from a military standpoint it is not possible to deploy enough forces on the ground to actually separate the warring sides. So, we still have a few more time left for this orderly transition to take place. What is this rush? I mean, why do people need to rush to remove Mr. Taylor from power when he is the legitimate president?

WHITFIELD: Well, there have been various government leaders, international government leaders, who said the rush is the humanitarian aid, that there are people in great need, there are hundreds who are being massacred. Is that not reason enough?

JACKSON: But they are not being massacred by Taylor forces. As a matter of fact, the displaced people, millions of them, are gravitating toward the city of Monrovia, the seat of government. They are running away from these thugs and these terrorists, who are raining havoc on them. So, I think the international community should be in a rush to stop the terrorist attacks on the city of Monrovia. To me, that should be the moral imperative and that needs to take place now.

WHITFIELD: Would you and the other government leaders welcome U.S. peacekeepers, or simply international peacekeepers nonspecific to American peacekeepers?

JACKSON: We think the United States government troops will bring added credibility to an ECOWAS force, the multinational flavor. We've been calling for that for more than a year. This government's legitimacy must be used by the U.S. government to bring in some American peacekeeping forces to separate the warring sides, so we can have a recent discussion on how Mr. Taylor takes an exit.

WHITFIELD: OK.

JACKSON: Now, the problem has been that some people have been -- go ahead. I'm sorry, go ahead.

WHITFIELD: All right, I'm just going to have to cut you off, because we're losing our satellite time. But I appreciate it, Samuel P. Jackson, for joining us, Liberian minister of State for Economic Affairs and advisor to the president, for joining us from London. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





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Aired July 4, 2003 - 10:22   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Our next guest may be able to shed some light on the inner workings of this decision. Samuel P. Jackson is a Liberian cabinet minister and an advisor to President Taylor, and he joins us from London.
Good to see you. Thanks very much for joining us. You have been...

SAMUEL P. JACKSON, ADVISOR TO LIBERIAN PRES. CHARLES TAYLOR: Good afternoon -- good morning, Fredericka. How are you?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing great. Well, you've been quoted as saying that for Taylor to step down with a gun at his head is ridiculous. Symbolically, though, isn't that what has happened?

JACKSON: Well, that will be tantamount to surrender, and I think what any independent observer, any reasoned person would like to see would be an orderly transfer of power.

Now, look, let's look at the construct. You have a rebel organization with no legitimacy knocking at the gates of Monrovia. The commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Liberia is Charles Taylor. Charles Taylor is not a choir boy. There may have been some transgressions. But these transgressions are not egregious enough for a rebel force to be standing at the gates of Monrovia and raining rockets and mortar on the people of Liberia, innocent bystanders. Now, Taylor said...

WHITFIELD: Well, let me interject with this, Mr. Jackson, if I could. If President Taylor is saying on tape that he is willing to step down and, as you say, as long as there is some sort of orderly transition, what does that mean exactly? Does that mean that he is opening the door to these U.S. peacekeepers or others to coming in and helping with the transitional government? Or are we saying that President Taylor would like to handpick what he believes would be an orderly transitional government?

JACKSON: Well, Taylor is a democrat. He doesn't believe in handpicking a successor. That is the reason why we agreed to go to a peace conference in Accra. Here is the sequence of events. There was a peace conference taking place in Accra on June 4 when the President Charles Taylor said he would step down. Two days later, there was an attack on the city of Monrovia by these rebels trying to take the capital by force.

President Taylor still insists he will step down. There is nothing earth-shattering about the recent statement President Taylor will step down. We need to discuss the details of an orderly transition, and that's what is taking place in Accra. Secondly...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Well, Mr. Jackson, are you able to give us a timeline on this about a timeline?

JACKSON: I cannot give you a timeline, because the Liberian people will decide a timeline when a transitional government comes into place, when forces arrive on the ground. These are constructs. Mr. Taylor leaving from power now will be tantamount to an unceremonious departure. Everything is going to cave in. There will be a Rwanda-style genocide in Liberia. I'm sure Mr. Bush wouldn't want to see that. That is the reason why we are now discussing at the highest possible level an orderly transition to put all of the pieces in place for our government to make an exit in some manner.

And, No. 2, we have to make an exit. But what comes after that? A transitional government. What is the character, and what is the form of that government? That must be clearly understood.

WHITFIELD: Well, Mr. Jackson, you're talking about this being a democracy, that there have been a number of people, thousands of people, who are demonstrating -- Liberians demonstrating outside the U.S. embassy there, asking for U.S. assistance, imploring that the U.S. peacekeepers make their way to that region soon. If U.S. peacekeepers would come there as early as this weekend, would that be enough to encourage the president to step down during this weekend to help impose what could be the road to a transitional government?

JACKSON: Well, first of all, I'm here to say thousands of people gathering in front of the U.S. embassy, that's not even possible. It was a rented crowd of no more than 400 people. These were politically-motivated. But on the other side of town, there were some pro-Taylor demonstrators. We don't even need to speak to that.

But what is important to understand is that from a military standpoint it is not possible to deploy enough forces on the ground to actually separate the warring sides. So, we still have a few more time left for this orderly transition to take place. What is this rush? I mean, why do people need to rush to remove Mr. Taylor from power when he is the legitimate president?

WHITFIELD: Well, there have been various government leaders, international government leaders, who said the rush is the humanitarian aid, that there are people in great need, there are hundreds who are being massacred. Is that not reason enough?

JACKSON: But they are not being massacred by Taylor forces. As a matter of fact, the displaced people, millions of them, are gravitating toward the city of Monrovia, the seat of government. They are running away from these thugs and these terrorists, who are raining havoc on them. So, I think the international community should be in a rush to stop the terrorist attacks on the city of Monrovia. To me, that should be the moral imperative and that needs to take place now.

WHITFIELD: Would you and the other government leaders welcome U.S. peacekeepers, or simply international peacekeepers nonspecific to American peacekeepers?

JACKSON: We think the United States government troops will bring added credibility to an ECOWAS force, the multinational flavor. We've been calling for that for more than a year. This government's legitimacy must be used by the U.S. government to bring in some American peacekeeping forces to separate the warring sides, so we can have a recent discussion on how Mr. Taylor takes an exit.

WHITFIELD: OK.

JACKSON: Now, the problem has been that some people have been -- go ahead. I'm sorry, go ahead.

WHITFIELD: All right, I'm just going to have to cut you off, because we're losing our satellite time. But I appreciate it, Samuel P. Jackson, for joining us, Liberian minister of State for Economic Affairs and advisor to the president, for joining us from London. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





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