NARRATOR:
Frontline and ProPublica
came to Liberia, West Africa,
in the summer of 2014.
We were investigating crimes
committed during the country's
brutal civil war,
the 14-year bloodbath
that began when the warlord
Charles Taylor invaded in 1989.
Hundreds of thousands died
in the war,
but one case in particular
caught our attention:
the killing of five
American nuns,
their deaths still
an unsolved mystery.
We wanted to know:
who would kill these women?
Why had nobody been held
responsible?
And how could this case have
gone unresolved for so long?
It was 1992.
The war was heating up.
(gunshots)
And the five sisters
were on the front lines,
tending to the sick and
distributing medical supplies.
The sisters from the Adorers
of the Blood of Christ
had lived for years
in this convent
just outside the capital.
Sister Shirley Kolmer
filmed this home video.
- Up beyond is the highway.
NARRATOR:
Sister Barbara Ann Muttra
was the best known of the group.
She'd come to Liberia
20 years before
after a posting in Vietnam
during the war.
(music playing)
She worked not far from this
church in rural Bomi County.
One of her closest friends
was Father Garry Jenkins.
- Barbara could adapt
to any situation.
She was a strong will,
strong mind
and sense of purpose.
Whenever I'd go
to complain to her,
she'd always say,
"Look, Garry,
there are no problems
in this world, only challenges."
And I've never forgotten that,
especially during the war.
NARRATOR:
Sister Barbara was well known
for her work
with young children.
- So every day,
you give her this much.
NARRATOR:
Even after the war began,
she would often venture out,
facing down rebel fighters
and talking her way
through checkpoints
on the way to see her patients.
But Sister Barbara began
to find herself in harm's way.
- So this is a letter
that Barbara wrote
August the 21st, 1992.
"Dear Garry, something happened.
"They jumped in the car and
told me to get out of the car.
"It was raining so hard,
"and I was trying
to get back in the car,
but the soldiers
pushed me away."
So she suffered, you see?
She suffered,
a lady by herself like that,
a 70-year-old at midnight, still
trying to get that car back.
NARRATOR: Two months later,
Sister Barbara and her four
colleagues were dead.
What exactly happened
to the nuns remains in dispute.
But 20 years on, some
of the basic facts are known.
The sisters were killed
in two separate incidents.
First, Sister Barbara
and Sister Joel Kolmer
died in their car,
victims of a rocket attack
just a few miles up the road
from the convent.
The site's still marked
by a shrine.
There's another shrine here
at the convent itself,
where the other three
were gunned down.
Sister Kathleen McGuire
at the gate,
Sister Shirley Kolmer
and Sister Agnes Mueller
outside the wall
of the compound,
their bodies
then hacked to pieces.
- It was probably
close to two months
before we were able to retrieve
the first remains.
NARRATOR:
Gerald Rose has spent years
urging American authorities
to take action on the case.
- Why?
Why did this bother you so much?
- Because it happened
on my watch,
and there is a responsibility
for those of us who serve.
I have a responsibility,
and that responsibility
is unfulfilled.
NARRATOR: Rose helped repatriate
the sisters' bodies.
Embassy staff made a catalogue
of their personal effects:
Shirley's rosary beads,
Barbara's family photographs,
Kathleen's white handkerchief
with lace.
- There are reports
that we can't confirm
that they were killed
by the NPFL troops.
That's Charles Taylor's group.
Expatriates
in the NPFL territory
we know have regularly
faced dangers
from undisciplined NPFL troops.
NARRATOR:
Suspicion for the killings
fell immediately
on the NPFL rebels.
But with the war raging,
a thorough investigation
didn't come until years later.
Finally, in 2002, the Liberian
Roman Catholic Church
tried to get to the bottom
of what happened.
- I got to hear about it
from the archbishop,
who in fact was distressed.
And I think before his death,
the archbishop knew exactly
who the people were
because they had done
their homework well enough.
But that was an atrocity
committed by the NPFL
and its operatives.
NARRATOR:
The Church produced a report.
It concluded, based on the
testimony of ten eyewitnesses,
that two of the sisters
at the convent were killed
by an NPFL fighter.
The third was killed by his
commander, "C.O. Mosquito."
- He was one of Taylor's
operatives.
He's been linked
to a number of atrocities.
General Mosquito's name
is notorious around here.
- They call you,
it's General Mosquito, is it?
NARRATOR: At the time, Mosquito,
born Christopher Vambo,
was Taylor's top general
in the area.
- General or Colonel?
- General.
- General, okay,
can you tell me,
what is your unit doing
out here in Barnersville?
NARRATOR: Here he is,
talking to reporters
just about a month
after the sisters died.
NARRATOR:
We wanted to know,
was this the man responsible
for the murder of the nuns?
And what had become of him?
We found Christopher Vambo
working as a security guard
in the capital.
- Are you General Mosquito?
- I'm T. Christian Miller.
NARRATOR: He was nervous
and reluctant to meet,
but he agreed to talk in a back
room at a downtown restaurant.
NARRATOR:
He said that his troops
had mistaken Sister Barbara's
car for the enemy
and fired at it
with a rocket-propelled grenade.
- Right.
NARRATOR: Then we showed him
the church report
and asked him about the murders
at the convent.
- "Sister Kathleen
went toward the gates.
As she did, C.O. Mosquito"--
now, that's you--
"shot her in the arms.
"She fell, and then he shot her
fatally in the neck.
"He then announced he was going
to kill all the white people
and promptly killed Mr. Nasser,"
who's their driver.
- That's a lie.
NARRATOR: General Mosquito
said he arrived
at the convent that day
to find the women already dead.
- So when you got there,
there was a contingent
of NPFL soldiers there.
- And they call you and said,
"Sir, these people were killed
before we arrived."
- Yeah.
NARRATOR: His version conflicts
with the accounts
of at least three witnesses,
all of whom put him
at the scene.
NARRATOR: General Mosquito has
never faced any criminal charges
related to the killing
of the sisters.
Without a trial,
we are left with the accusations
and his denials.
But that's not uncommon.
To date, Liberia has held
no one to account
for the crimes committed
during the war.
Rebel leader Charles Taylor
is in prison,
but for his role in the war
in neighboring Sierra Leone,
not in Liberia.
- Tango, tango!
NARRATOR: Even the most
notorious acts
have gone unpunished.
This is probably the most
famous video in Liberia.
It's hard to find anyone
who hasn't seen it.
It shows the torture of
Liberia's president, Samuel Doe.
The man with the Budweiser
is the warlord Prince Johnson.
- I went to see him
in this bungalow he lived in.
And we were chatting away
about this and that.
And he said,
"Do you want to see my film?"
And we all sat down,
and the screen flickered
into life.
And this was the film of
the killing of Doe, essentially.
NARRATOR: Prince Johnson and his
men tortured Doe for hours,
even cutting off his ears.
- Doe, naked
but for his underpants,
lying on the floor of the room
next to the one
we were sitting in.
- (screaming)
- The cruelty of it,
the horror of it,
I've never been so speechless
actually, you know?
But I didn't feel
that I could...
I didn't say anything
to Prince Johnson after that.
Just nothing at all.
NARRATOR:
Doe finally bled to death.
We went looking
for Prince Johnson.
We found him at this church.
(women singing inside church)
He is now a preacher.
He's also a senator.
- God, as promised, has always
kept my hope alive.
When you work for God,
he's there to intervene on your
behalf in every circumstance.
I have no fear.
Where do we go from here?
We go to heaven.
Where do we go from here?
We go to hell.
It depends on the choices
you make.
(applause)
NARRATOR:
After the service,
we were invited
up to his office to talk.
We asked him about the killing
of Samuel Doe.
- You don't understand.
Confession
has already been made.
I could never be a minister of
God if I don't confess to God.
- I understand.
- I don't confess to you
because I got no business
confessing to you.
- That's not accountability.
- Well, if I'm in court,
then we account.
If you prove a case against me,
that "you did this
and did that,"
you gotta prove it.
The burden of proof lies
with the accuser.
- So you would go to a court
if there was a court
here in Liberia?
- Who's gonna take me to court?
Anybody, I'm ready to go.
- So if you're in Liberia
and you get accused
by a Liberian court...
- A Liberian court
would never accuse me
because I did nothing wrong
to be accused.
- You've done nothing wrong?
Are you denying the video
of you killing Doe exists?
- The thing is, what do I deny?
You have the video.
Why do you dwell on an issue
that is past?
- Because I'm not hearing
from you
that you thought that was wrong.
- I don't even need to say
wrong or right.
I am just telling you, in wars,
many things happen.
- And this was just something
that happened?
- It happened!
And I'm telling you,
you are hurting our peace.
NARRATOR: After the war,
Liberia went through a truth
and reconciliation process
with thousands of victims
and witnesses giving testimony.
The final report recommended
more than 100 names
for prosecution,
with Prince Johnson and General
Mosquito both on the list.
But Liberian authorities
haven't tried a single case.
Late in our trip,
we had an interview lined up
with the president of Liberia,
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
We asked her if Liberia
had done enough
to reckon with its history.
- If something comes
directly to us
as a complaint, as a charge,
and someone wants justice
because they felt that
their rights were infringed upon
during any regime,
Taylor or otherwise,
then we have an obligation
as a government
to be able to respond to that
and to deal with it.
But in the absence of that,
if we were to go fishing
for everything that happened
before this government,
all of our time
would be spent doing that
and not moving
the country forward.
NARRATOR:
And so the many crimes
of Liberia's long war
have gone unresolved,
including the case
of the five American nuns.
But the United States
did go back
and try to find out who was
responsible for the deaths.
In 2002, the FBI sent a team
of agents to Liberia
and reportedly zeroed in
on a suspect.
- And we know who did it?
- I don't know,
but I know the Federal Bureau
of Investigation has that name.
They presented a case
to the U.S. attorney,
the District of Columbia,
and the U.S. attorney
for the District of Columbia
declined to prosecute.
Those of us who were on duty
in the embassy in Monrovia
when this happened
still believe that it's
a miscarriage of justice.
NARRATOR:
The U.S. attorney's office
declined interview requests.
In a written statement,
they said that despite
"intense efforts,
"the statute of limitations
had expired
for the potential offenses,"
so "no charges were able
to be filed."
Frontline and ProPublica
also asked the FBI
to answer questions
about the case.
They declined.
The results of their
investigation
have never been made public.
