Radio Workshop

A torturous past (Transcript)

by Carla Sapsford

AMBI/Congregation Singing

2 seconds

NARRATION

The congregation at Locasha Evangelical Lutheran church come to raise their voices in song. These sixty parishioners seem like any evangelical congregation - they laugh, sing, and pray with equal energy. Here, they call each other sisters and brothers and consider themselves a transplanted village. But this is a village of men and women in recovery from torture. And their leader is pastor Garswa Yarmeto, who has led his people into spiritual and emotional healing for over a decade.

TAPE/Garswa

I came on July 11. When I heard firecrackers, I would drop to the bed.

NARRATION

Garswa was imprisoned and tortured for being an outspoken critic of the government. In his previous life he was a radio broadcaster, an avid soccer player and big man about town in Monrovia. But after his torture, he had to get counseling himself before he was well enough to start his own ministry. He sees many in his ministry turn to alcohol and pills, to dull the nightmares and the flashbacks. All Liberians have have paid the price of growing up in fear - they arrive here programmed to react to violence.

TAPE/Garswa

We have counseled here pretty close to 6, 7, 800 individuals from different walks of life since 9/11. Especially Liberians and those closest to the Liberian war. The mere fact that they watched those planes go into those buildings threw them right back into the war in Liberia. When they saw those people walking and over that bridge, Liberians went right back mentally to disarray.

NARRATION

Disarray is a way of life for torture survivors, according to mental health professionals. And in traditional Liberian culture, seeking counseling means that you are crazy. Yarmeto has been working hard to change that belief. So when Liberians migrate to New England, they often look to Yarmeto for what the U.S. government is unable to provide them. Emotional support. Some of his parishioners travel for four hours to come to his church, to talk to people who understand them. One of Yarmeto's partners in his healing efforts is Dr. Gene Packer, a psychologist. Packer is Associate Director of the New Jersey Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims.

TAPE/Packer

Garswa was himself a torture survivor. He has a fairly unique understanding of torture survivors. he can recognize the signs.

NARRATION

Packer has seen a steady increase in the number of West African torture survivors since 1992, and they now comprise one third of the survivors he treats. The stories here are guarded, but they are full of wounds difficult to measure. One man, Abbacus Dokie, was on the run in the Ivory Coast for years.

TAPE/Dokie

My brother was associate leader for Taylor, one of the rebel leaders for Charles Taylor. He defected from Taylor to the interim government. After the elections, Taylor arrested and killed him. That made me and family leave to other countries...In the transition, the church was very helpful to me.

NARRATION

Yarmeto's church understands their pastor as well as he seems to understand him. His credibility as a torture survivor and dissident has gained him instant standing.

TAPE/Packer

Charles Taylor issued a death list. Yarmeto is on that list. Any of those people return to Liberia, they are dead...What Garswa does, is provide a community center, a village for Liberians to gather...it is home.

NARRATION

Home can be hard to come by. Joyce Phipps is an immigration lawyer who has worked with Liberians for over a decade and has documented the changes in Yarmeto's congregation.

TAPE/Phipps

They just start out as shells. You can see the difference after just a few weeks. There was a Liberian woman who was brutally raped. She felt so dirty and contaminated. She wouldn't talk to a Liberian man. He was able to help her get past to that. And she later was talking to people.

NARRATION

Talk therapy is what Phipps sees as Yarmeto's strong suit. She compares him to a passage in the book of Isaiah.

TAPE/Phipps

It talks how the wounded will heal others. And that is exaclty his theory, the wounded healer is the most effective healer. And it is true. I think that is what makes people like Garswa so effective. Because he really understands.

NARRATION

Yarmeto is not the only immigrant serving his community. But with torture on the rise all over West Africa, demand for his unique services will continue to be high.

TAPE/Phipps

Garswa has given back to the world. They have all given back. That testifies to the human spirit and what it really means to be human. And that is what is important, in the end.

NARRATION

And in the end, these Africans await the day when their opposition leaders such as Yarmeto can return to their country and their children will have no more bad dreams. But for now, leaders such as Yarmeto ARE a haven. Carla Sapsford for Columbia Radio News.