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CNN Live Saturday

Mothers of Liberia

Aired July 05, 2003 - 18:32   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.


KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: Years of bloody fighting in Liberia have forced many people to flee their home just to survive. One group of the exiles here in the U.S. calls itself The Mothers of Liberia. In the safety of American cities, they meet and plan how they can help those they've left behind. Here is CNN's Liz Neisloss in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIZ NEISLOSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protesters against Liberian President Charles Taylor on the streets of Liberia's capital.

More than 4.000 miles away, they are images on a television screen in a New York City apartment. These women watching call themselves Mothers of Liberia. Etta Roberts fears for her children in Liberia, a country ravaged by a 14-year civil war, that has seen an estimated 200,000 dead. She sees Charles Taylor and thinks of her son, killed, she says, by his soldiers in 1996. And in May, one of her daughters died for lack of medical care because of the war.

ETTA ROBERTS, MOTHERS OF LIBERIA: Today, we don't have no hospital, and what made me come here is because of no hospital, my 42- year-old daughter died from fever.

NEISLOSS: Somewhere in Liberia, she still has two children, and many more grandchildren.

ROBERTS: Right now, I don't know where my children are. I know (ph) they are in the bushes. I don't know where my children are.

NEISLOSS: Year of chaos in Liberia forced Etta and many others to leave as refugees. Felicia Lamptey came to the U.S. to get a teaching degree. She had planned to return to Liberia,

FELICIA LAMPTEY, MOTHERS OF LIBERIA: And I was all packed, you know, ready to go home. And then I called the minister of education at the time, and he said to me, don't come. Because the country is in such a chaos. This is all the way back in 1989.

NEISLOSS: Lamptey says her father died (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fighting. Her brother was killed by rebels. Like several other groups around the U.S., the Mothers of Liberia gather weekly in New York City, to talk and plan. They say they've shipped food and medicine over the years back to Liberia, and to neighboring refugee camps.

EUNICE DAVID, MOTHERS OF LIBERIA: I think of the entire country, and every mother that I (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NEISLOSS: The women are eager to see the U.S. troops in Liberia, but have a tall order for the U.S. president.

LAMPTEY: If America as Bush has been saying, is ready now to take initiative after all these years, we see, as the people see the light at the end of the tunnel, then he should help us set up a structure. A lasting structure for democracy in Liberia.

NEISLOSS: The misery of Liberians make hope seem far away. The Mothers of Liberia console themselves as they try to help. They cannot turn away.

DAVID: I suffer along with them, it is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) one mother suffer, every mother suffer. Because you would understand when another mother is in tears.

NEISLOSS: Liz Neisloss, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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






Aired July 5, 2003 - 18:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: Years of bloody fighting in Liberia have forced many people to flee their home just to survive. One group of the exiles here in the U.S. calls itself The Mothers of Liberia. In the safety of American cities, they meet and plan how they can help those they've left behind. Here is CNN's Liz Neisloss in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIZ NEISLOSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protesters against Liberian President Charles Taylor on the streets of Liberia's capital.

More than 4.000 miles away, they are images on a television screen in a New York City apartment. These women watching call themselves Mothers of Liberia. Etta Roberts fears for her children in Liberia, a country ravaged by a 14-year civil war, that has seen an estimated 200,000 dead. She sees Charles Taylor and thinks of her son, killed, she says, by his soldiers in 1996. And in May, one of her daughters died for lack of medical care because of the war.

ETTA ROBERTS, MOTHERS OF LIBERIA: Today, we don't have no hospital, and what made me come here is because of no hospital, my 42- year-old daughter died from fever.

NEISLOSS: Somewhere in Liberia, she still has two children, and many more grandchildren.

ROBERTS: Right now, I don't know where my children are. I know (ph) they are in the bushes. I don't know where my children are.

NEISLOSS: Year of chaos in Liberia forced Etta and many others to leave as refugees. Felicia Lamptey came to the U.S. to get a teaching degree. She had planned to return to Liberia,

FELICIA LAMPTEY, MOTHERS OF LIBERIA: And I was all packed, you know, ready to go home. And then I called the minister of education at the time, and he said to me, don't come. Because the country is in such a chaos. This is all the way back in 1989.

NEISLOSS: Lamptey says her father died (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fighting. Her brother was killed by rebels. Like several other groups around the U.S., the Mothers of Liberia gather weekly in New York City, to talk and plan. They say they've shipped food and medicine over the years back to Liberia, and to neighboring refugee camps.

EUNICE DAVID, MOTHERS OF LIBERIA: I think of the entire country, and every mother that I (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NEISLOSS: The women are eager to see the U.S. troops in Liberia, but have a tall order for the U.S. president.

LAMPTEY: If America as Bush has been saying, is ready now to take initiative after all these years, we see, as the people see the light at the end of the tunnel, then he should help us set up a structure. A lasting structure for democracy in Liberia.

NEISLOSS: The misery of Liberians make hope seem far away. The Mothers of Liberia console themselves as they try to help. They cannot turn away.

DAVID: I suffer along with them, it is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) one mother suffer, every mother suffer. Because you would understand when another mother is in tears.

NEISLOSS: Liz Neisloss, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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