[allAfrica.com]  [US-Africa_Business_Summit_Registration]


His Time is Up - Charles Taylor

Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
NEWS
June 8, 2003
Posted to the web June 8, 2003

By Andrew Donaldson
Johannesburg
HE can't run. He can't hide. Charles Taylor's controversial term as the
president of Liberia is drawing to a violent close.
On Wednesday he travelled to Ghana for peace talks with rebels opposed to his
presidency. Yesterday those rebels were in Liberia's capital Monrovia, fighting
street battles with government troops, and demanding Taylor's head.
The man who once rebuffed suggestions that some people thought him little
better than a murderer with an indignant bellow, "Jesus Christ was accused of
being a murderer in his time!", is now trapped in the city, a fugitive from
justice, indicted for crimes against humanity by the United Nations Special War
Crimes Court for Sierra Leone, where the rebels he armed in exchange for
diamonds committed widespread atrocities for more than a decade.
According to reports yesterday afternoon, the fighting has resulted in
thousands of citizens fleeing for whatever shelter they could find as troops
tried to break the rebels' foothold in the city.
Taylor, a former warlord accused of fanning nearly 14 years of regional
violence, is used to fighting his way out of a corner, but not against such
odds - two rebel factions are closing in, a possible coup attempt was thwarted
this week, and the US has urged him to stand down.
Brokered by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, the Ghana
talks were hailed as a breakthrough in efforts to end Liberia's four-year civil
war, which has spilt across West Africa.
Instead, the talks were thrown into disarray; on the eve of the proceedings,
the UN special court prosecutor, David Crane, announced that Taylor was being
indicted for war crimes. The timing of the announcement was deliberate.
According to Crane, Taylor's indictment had been approved on March 7, but was
revealed to coincide with the Liberian president's visit.
"It is imperative that the attendees know they are dealing with an indicted war
criminal," Crane said. "These negotiations can still move forward, but they
must do so without the involvement of this indictee."
A visibly tense Taylor arrived in Accra minutes after the announcement and
briefly addressed the conference hall, speaking of himself in the third person.
"If President Taylor is seen as a problem," he said, "then I will remove
myself. I'm doing this because I'm tired of the people dying. I can no longer
see this genocide in Liberia.
"It has become apparent that some people believe that Taylor is the problem.
President Taylor wants to say that he intends to remove himself from the
process."
Given his role in that killing and genocide, Taylor's presence at the talks
struck many human rights observers, according to the Washington Post, as
"ludicrous". But his remarks nevertheless drew loud applause from dignitaries,
including South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria's President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
The UN's prosecutors had hoped that Ghana would arrest Taylor. Instead, the
country flew him home. Ghanaian officials were reportedly furious at the timing
of the indictment, which they said had put them in a tight spot.
Ghana's Attorney-General, Papa Owusu Ankomah, said authorities had not received
the indictment and, once they did, would need time to study it - all of which
gave Taylor enough time to return home .
Decrying the failure to arrest him, former US ambassador David Scheffer, now a
member of the UN's Sierra Leone court, said: "Now that he's on a plane back to
Liberia, he's an indicted head of state and an indicted fugitive.
"Among the bad guys in the world today, Charles Taylor is in the top five and
there is simply no plausible argument for him to remain at liberty."
Taylor may have escaped arrest. But for how long? He is virtually a prisoner in
Monrovia. He and his ministers have been banned from international travel, and
his rebel opponents control 12 of the country's 15 states.
The uprising, which began two years after a seven-year civil war that killed
about 250 000 people, has forced about 300 000 Liberians to flee to
neighbouring countries.

   

  =============================================================================
 Copyright © 2003 Sunday Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
                         Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  =============================================================================