You just know what’s going to happen to you in prison if you’re accused of committing crimes in the developing world… especially if it’s believed to be against the state. The pattern of how the accused is dealt with in the developing world is quite different from that in the west… well, maybe not if you are accused of being a terrorist or if you’re in Camp X-ray, Guantanamo Bay. In the developed world you are innocent until proven guilty, whereas in the developing world, you are guilty until proved otherwise. So, torture, rapes, starvation, beatings and threats to you and close associates form the basis of the investigations. Somehow though, I was really happy after having made Cry Freetown with Insight News, which was about the war in my native Sierra Leone, when I was offered the opportunity by Western media to tackle the sorts of issues that have helped cripple my continent.

I was already in my thirties and my African political consciousness was well-formed. I was hungry, angry and desperate to deal with our problems head on. With no disrespect meant to fellow Africans who’ve been risking their lives trying to tell these very stories, I felt this was our time because this was CNN – the world’s biggest stage. I felt this was the time to open our wounds, examine them properly and hope to find some of the answers to our problems. But having lived within such a system for the most part of my life I knew exactly the risks that lay ahead. So, when in the middle of our filming we were arrested, thrown in prison and charged with espionage in Liberia, I personally was not in any way surprised at all. My real worry and concern were for my other three colleagues and the millions of Liberians whose desperate story needed to be told. What was in actual fact surprising to me was how deeply the British and Americans quickly became involved. Here we were facing the death penalty in the hands of a president who is known to have tortured and killed journalists and innocent people in the past, amidst all condemnation by human rights and international bodies. This is the ruthless President Charles Taylor we’re talking about. The moment we were taken to his torture chamber (the NSA – National Security Agency), thrown in separate cells and his men began torturing us – I knew our end was nigh.

I am a Sierra Leonean, not an American. In fact, there were no Americans amongst us, but in no time this whole show was taken over by the Americans. They cared not because we shared their nationality but I think because we shared their values. The American Embassy in Liberia, former president Bill Clinton and some White House officials were all over the place to try and secure our release. The Reverend Jesse Jackson insisted he should talk to me just to make sure we were okay. He prayed for me over the ‘phone and assured me of our release. They used all available means to get us out of Charles Taylor’s clutches – apart from their military, which by strange coincidence had a heavy presence off the coast at the time.

Within a week, bully-boy Charles Taylor succumbed to almighty American pressure and this is why I love the Americans. They probably saved us a lot of suffering, maybe even saved our lives. I was frankly impressed with this nation, these people that not only represents our values but also respects our freedom and human rights. They clearly showed me they are the good guys who care about our world. But, knowing well now how caring, how good – intentioned the Americans are when it comes to helping the voiceless, the defenceless and the innocent; it makes me wonder why on earth they are always portrayed as the ‘bad guys’ by the very poor people they try and help. Where have they been going wrong? Most of the people I spoke to in Somalia while we were out there filming were quick to point out that Americans not only failed to capture the man they decided was ‘the bad guy’ (Aideed) but that their intervention turned them into monsters, gangsters and left them more divided than they were in the beginning. In short, they believe that America’s intention to help was harmful not only to the fighting factions but to the poor oppressed people – a view shared by the fighters as well as the innocent civilians.

As for the Sudanese, they believe that the Al-shifa bombing was not only a crime against the weak but an action that was not intended to help their situation in any way whatsoever. Mr Clinton said the bombing was to destroy a chemical weapons factory, but whatever it produced, Al-shifa was also the main manufacturer of affordable and essential drugs for humans and animals in Sudan. I don’t want to believe how many people died because of these bombs. Some of them told me that actions like these not only create conditions to prompt them to flee to the safer western countries, but also make some people ready-made students for terrorist networks. The response I got from the Afghans confirmed my thinking. They argued that the Americans’ decision to eliminate the food convoys that were providing much needed food to millions of starving people who were also victims of the Taliban, meant that the Americans just didn’t give a toss about the innocent. They said America was simply on a revenge mission not caring about who get caught in the middle. Interestingly, some of them even asked me what would have happened if some other power had tried to starve millions of Americans? I wasn’t sure about the answer, but having listened to their arguments against American intervention, I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened had it been American soldiers who were held hostage by the West Side Boys in my country, Sierra Leone in 2000.

I know every case is different, but it was interesting to see that though the British had their stick and their voice, they only used their stick and voice against the bad guys, making them loved and respected more by the poor people of Sierra Leone. Another case I would want to look at is the IRA in Britain. I just wonder had it been the Americans how would they have dealt with it. The British did not bomb areas where the IRA lived. So, for all America’s good intentions, for all their political authority and power, one just can’t help but wonder what exactly it is that they keep getting so wrong that the British and others have managed to get so right.

Twelve years on, thousands are still paying the price for the American led Gulf war. Millions are starving and tens of thousands are dying from Sanctions, while thousands are now waiting, waiting to die and hating Americans and their foreign policy everyday. There is no doubt that every civilised man and woman would want to see these evil shadowy networks – these men and women of terror who are threatening our freedoms, our peace and our values – stopped in their tracks and brought to justice. But, I wonder whether in the desperation to try and win this war against terrorism itself, the defenders of freedom: the ‘Big Daddy’ of all democracies, America, is now making the same mistake like the “peace-keepers” in my country. By becoming repressive, they end up threatening our freedom like the terrorists themselves. And finally, I wonder why Mr Bush and Mr Blair are so positive about war and so uninterested in the road to peace? I just wonder what is so dangerous about listening to the real people, the millions of poor ordinary powerless citizens of this One World who are whispering now to the high and the mighty: “Peace”. Shall we wait again until we hear them scream?