Ellen Sirleaf Interview (page: 2 / 8) Nobel Prize for Peace	Print Interview

It sounds like you had a good job as Vice President of Citicorp in Kenya, where you were relatively safe. Why did you return to Liberia in the mid '80s?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Well, general elections were called for 1985, and I was persuaded to join in the organizing of a new political party. I went back to help get the party organized and get it registered, and that led to other things that got me in trouble. I made a speech in the U.S. and said some things.

You spoke out against Doe's regime while you were in the U.S.?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: There was a Liberian Independence Day celebration in 1985, July 26. I spoke in Philadelphia on behalf of the Association of Liberia in the United States. I was a keynote speaker at that celebration, and I said a few things about the government. I had been home trying to register the party, and I left and came to Philadelphia to make the statement, and then went back with the intent of just forgetting it, since the party was not registered, and going back to Nairobi. That's when I was put under house arrest and subsequently was jailed.

[ Key to Success ] Courage

You were actually sentenced to ten years in prison, weren't you?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Yes. I went before a military tribunal and they found me guilty, sentenced me to ten years. But I did not serve, because there was a protest, first by Liberian women, and there were protests in the U.S. The U.S. Congress also did a resolution threatening to cut off aid if political prisoners, which I was one of, were not released.

Do you think it was the pressure from the U.S. government that made Doe relent?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: The U.S. government was one aspect, but you also had a lot of pressure from international organizations and people all over the world.

You ran for the Liberian Senate in 1985, didn't you?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: That's when I was in prison. When the party finally was registered and they couldn't get a deal, so they ran me as a Senator and in the elections we won. We won handily. But we took a decision not to accept those seats because the elections were fraudulent.

That must have been a difficult decision, wasn't it?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: It is perceived to be difficult, but when you're trying to send a strong message that you're not going to participate in fraud, it's not that difficult to make.

Doesn't this sound like recent (2008) events in Zimbabwe?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Indeed it does. I suppose that's why Morgan Tsvangirai decided not to participate in the runoff.

After you were released, did you go back to the U.S.? To Washington D.C.?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Yes. Obviously, I had to leave the Citibank job. I came back to Washington, D.C. and was associated with a bank called Equator Bank, part of the Hong Kong Bank Group, and I worked with them until '92.

Looking at your career, one constant is your always returning to Liberia. You were a successful banker in the United States, but you felt that pull to return.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: I had already been a part of, if you may, a part of the "politics."

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When you have colleagues who are shot on the beach, when you've gone back, and you're working in the government, and you form a political party, and you've gone through a tribunal and all of that, you've already invested a lot in political life, so it's not something you walk away from. Particularly if, as I feel, you feel the country deserved more, and you feel that with the right leadership that that country could be successful and its potential could be realized. So that was always part of the motivation.

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