On her ageing shoulders rests the hopes of Indian hostages

“I can understand General Jetley’s concern and the anxiety of the Indian contingent. And contrary to what sceptics may say, Liberian President Charles G. Taylor and I are doing our best to secure the release of the UNAMSIL peacekeepers,” she says in an interview with The Indian Express. “I empathise with the families of the soldiers. My late husband retired as a major general in the Liberian army and I was myself held as a hostage twice during the civil strife in Liberia,” she says, driving through Freetown in her Mercedes Benz car. She knows the Indian contingent has its hopes pinned on her efforts.

“President Taylor has committed (himself) and will make all efforts to secure the release of the hostages,” she says. Despite her age, Cooper is willing to go into the rebel-dominated territory in east Sierra Leone and negotiate for the peacekeepers’ release directly. “But President Taylor has advised me against it for the time being since the situation is tense. I wanted to go across the border (from Liberia) and meet the RUF. This hostage crisis is unfortunate and I regret it happened,” she says.

Later at her sister’s house on the outskirts of the town, Cooper is more relaxed. Stroking her four-year-old niece Fatima’s hair, she says she just cannot understand why Indians were taken hostage. “The Indians have built roads and bridges, opened hospitals and even treated RUF soldiers. They have gone out of their way to have a non-confrontationist relationship. A letter from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is there for President Taylor. I am sure after that something positive will certainly come out,” she adds.

Dressed in a long flowing gown with a matching headgear, Cooper appears confident of a breakthrough. Only she refuses to say how soon. Respected all over west Africa for being a foreign policy expert, Cooper knows RUF commanders personally. “I had helped negotiate the Lome agreement in Togo in July 1999,” she says. Cooper also brought RUF commander Foday Sankoh and former Sierra Leone army officer Major Johny Paul Koroma back into Leone after they were ousted. As President Taylor’s envoy to Sierra Leone, she has tried to bring about peace and stability in the region but concedes the task is far from complete.

Daughter of a businessman-turned-politician, Cooper born in 1930 in Arthington, Liberia, comes from a family of politicians. Her grandmother too was a politician there. She started her career as a school teacher but soon went to the US to pursue higher education. Once back she began to devise an education pattern for schools and was also the education minister.

“But because of my foreign assignments and interaction with several foreign countries I was asked to negotiate for peace during unrest in Liberia,” she says. Cooper married an army officer and had eight children. She was one of the founding members of the National Patriotic Party and under President Taylor was made Foreign Minister.

Now as special representative of President Taylor, Cooper says she’s not sparing any efforts but finally God’s will will prevail.