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Turn Taylor Over Chorus

The Analyst (Monrovia)
EDITORIAL
December 5, 2005
Posted to the web December 5, 2005

SHORTLY AFTER THE run-off presidential elections in the country, the European
Union Elections Observer Mission was the first to announce that the surrender
of Taylor by the incoming government was a necessary precondition for post-war
Liberia to gain Europe's developmental assistance. The statement by the head of
EU Elections Observer team, Max Van der Berg, was met with mixed reactions by
local actors and external stakeholders.
ONE REACTION TO this statement came from the chief facilitator of the Liberian
Peace process, Rtd. Gen.
Abdulsalami Abubakar, who said that the observer team had overstepped its
elections observation mission to comment on Liberian domestic politics. Besides
the view of the chief facilitator, internal reactions from public officials,
private sources, and media commentaries and editorials have been mixed at best.
But there is a chord with which everyone accepts and this is "any pressure for
the surrender of Taylor, especially with an input from the tender Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf administration is likely to seriously jeopardize the peace
process."
BUT THE RANCOR over the European Union's demand was simply waning down, when
last week ushered in both a moment of joy and trepidation. It was the day when
word came from Uncle Sam: President George W. Bush of the United States of
America had phoned to congratulate the President-elect, Johnson-Sirleaf for her
victory at the polls and underlined the sentiment with demand that Taylor be
sent to the Special Court in Sierra Leone. This congratulatory and assignment
message from the most powerful office on earth, has quashed all previous
protestations, making the Taylor surrender issue a major hurdle to the much
expected massive inflow of reconstruction assistance. It is no longer only a
European Union demand but a worldwide requirement, seeing that the United
Nations Security Council has passed a resolution requiring that UNMIL
peacekeepers arrest the indicted war criminal upon his arrival in the country.
HOWEVER THE INCOMING leadership handles the Taylor surrender issue will
significantly demonstrate how robust is its international contact grip or how
regionally compliant it becomes nurturing a fragile security environment. No
doubt the Taylor issue is the Achilles' heels for the incoming administration.
In other words, it is the issue meant to disgrace the Liberian people, who
overwhelmingly voted for the candidate as a product of her external contact as
one giant reservoir to tap in accelerating reconstruction.
This particular 'Turn over the Bandit' demand is increasing uneasiness among
citizens because almost always it seems local judgment of the geopolitics at
play just do not match the card of the powerful West.
MANY JUSTIFICATIONS ARE given for this seeming perspective of gloom. First and
foremost is the fact that Taylor's purported 75% landslide win in the 1997
elections was seen to have been preceded by the promise for developmental
assistance regardless of the victorious team. That promise did not come to
fruition mostly based on the victor's disposition to use power as an end in
itself. With the frustration of the Taylor scenario, followed by the imposition
of sanctions and a double barrel armed rebellion, the society had been a
dejected and distraught one until the onset of international intervention to
regularize the situation.
AFTER DEPLOYMENT OF the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the
implementation of disarmament and demobilization of the various militia
factions has been completed. However, the rehabilitation and reintegration of
nearly 100,000 ex-combatants outstrip the funding needs of the organization,
though reintegration and rehabilitation processes are ongoing. These aspects of
the peace process need to be deepened with consolidation of security sector
reforms beyond the formative stages. Many security experts continue to regard
Liberia's current peace as fragile in a West African realm that is both
volatile and fluid.
INDEED, THE NIGERIAN leader, Olusegun Obasanjo did vow that he would honor a
request from any constitutionally elected president of Liberia to release
Taylor. He said that once that were done, it could be up to Liberians to
determine the expeditious decision on his fate. But such plan of gradualism
must be seen alongside its workability. African leaders, especially Nigeria's
Obasanjo, continue to see obvious difficulties in Taylor's surrender while
securing a tenuous peace to which they have significantly contributed. Here is
the source of the impasse. How can Nigeria support a surrender that would only
cause a relapse of war to a country for which their nationals have bled and
died to foster peace after fourteen years of war? Moreover, they insist that
the agreement to take Taylor over for asylum was consummated with principal
actors in the very United Nations.
WE DO NOT imply in any way that impunity in the current case should be upheld.
What we are saying is that sufficient elbow-room is provided the incoming
government, since by all counts, the administration is a weakling requiring
everything be done for it. They are hemmed in by multiplicity of problems that
are inherited from an era of crises. It therefore seems too hard a burden to
expect the new administration solve a task that is far beyond its capacity. It
did not take part in any concession for the asylum and to expect these leaders
to perform a task that they may have to perform for the badly needed assistance
for reconstruction. We think that a comprehensive approach is needed where all
major players in the initial asylum agreement would discuss whatever amendment
that may be necessary to dispose of this situation.
BUT AS WE say this, we must register that addressing impunity in Sierra Leone
must also sharpen the world to reawaken in directing all of its voice and
resources to fighting impunity whereever it exists. It is well known
historically how protracted it has taken a blood-thirsty dictator like Augusto
Pinochet to even lose his parliamentary (presidential) immunity or appear
before a tribunal to answer for his crime. It must now be a point of graduating
from having a choice among leeches, whose only strength has been the sucking of
human blood. Let all vampires answer for their gross crimes against humanity.

   

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