*Several African journalists are speaking out about Brittney Griner’s release in a prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known for fueling the Liberian civil war.
“It’s a big issue for us,” Rodney D. Sieh, editor-in-chief and publisher of Liberian investigative outlet FrontPageAfrica, told Journal-isms.
Griner’s release from a Russian penal colony was announced on Dec. 8, as part of a trade with Bout, dubbed the ‘Merchant of Death’. The Biden Administration attempted to secure her release along with former American marine Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russia for four years. President Biden noted that Russia declined to release him as officials are handling his case differently.
Bout, who spent over 14 years behind bars in the U.S., is famously known for providing weapons for some of the worst conflicts throughout the world and Africa.
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“The release of notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in a US/Russia prisoner swap is a big blow to international cooperation. Viktor Bout is a dangerous Russian former intelligence officer,” said Sam Gaye, a retired Supervisory Special Agent with both the U.S. Dept of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration, who reportedly played a key role in the tracking and arrest of Bout.
As reported by Journalisms, Gaye told FrontPageAfrica that “The release of notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in a US/Russia prisoner swap is a big blow to international cooperation. Viktor Bout is a dangerous Russian former intelligence officer.”
Gaye added, “He was responsible for supplying Charles Taylor with sophisticated weapons in violation of UN embargo during the Liberian civil war. Bout was on US intelligence radar as [an] illegal arms dealer who will supply anyone in need of high-tech weaponry.”
Massa Washington, a Liberian journalist who covered the Liberian civil war in the 1990s, appeared Monday on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and unpacked the issue. Washington said, “Bout’s role in the civil war in Liberia has left devastating impact for the people of Liberia, including myself.”
“As a result of that war, Liberia has an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 people that died in the Liberian civil war,” Washington explained. “And more than 20,000 child soldiers were forcibly conscripted and thrown into killing machines. Most of them were killed. And the vast majority of them are now — what? — street children. Well, they’re men and women now, but what we call zogos. So they are now the outcasts of society,” she said.
“So we are worried. And we are concerned now that he’s been released. And our concern is that Liberia is a porous country in terms of governance. There’s been no accountability for war crimes that took place in Liberia. And most of the warlords and rebel generals who fought the war in Liberia, they are in position of trust. They’ve rebranded themselves. . . . . Some of them are in the legislature and the senate. Some of them are in mainstream government. Some of them are now businessmen. They are millionaires,” she continued.
Washington noted that Blout previously had close ties with many of these individuals who remain in power so there is growing concern that he could reestablish his links with them.
“Most of the victims of the civil war are feeling betrayed by the US for allowing Bout to walk, especially at a time when advocates are pushing for the establishment of a war crimes court which the Liberian government is dragging its feet on,” said Sieh.
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