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Former
Liberian President Heads to The Hague for War Crimes Trial |
Posted:
06.26.06
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Ex-warlord and former Liberian President Charles Taylor will
appear in a United Nations-backed court to face charges that he
committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Printer-friendly version: PDF
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 Taylor
was flown last week from the African nation of Sierra Leone, where
he has been held since his arrest in March, to The Hague, Netherlands,
the home of the International Court of Justice.
Taylor, a former warlord who became president of Liberia, faces
11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, stemming
from his alleged involvement in Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbor
in West Africa.
Taylor is accused of triggering a 14-year civil war in his own
country and backing rebels who were fighting in Sierra Leone during
the 1990s.
Fueled by drugs and ethnic and tribal hatred, the rebels hacked
off the limbs of over 50,000 civilians -- many women and children.
Taylor allegedly received diamonds in return.
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The International
Criminal Court |
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Taylor becomes the first African leader to face charges of war
crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
His trial marks a potential milestone for prosecuting other African
leaders accused of war crimes.
"Allowing Charles Taylor to stand trial for war crimes sets
a very controversial precedent for African heads of state and
former heads of state because many of them ... have blood on their
hands," said Corinne Dufka of Human Rights Watch, Reuters
reported.
 Historically,
there have been other tribunals to address war crimes perpetrated
by the Nazis in World War II and those in the former Yugoslavia
and Rwanda in the early 1990s.
But the ICC is the first permanent court. The United Nations
created it in 1998 to "promote the rule of law and ensure
that the gravest crimes do not go unpunished."
Such crimes include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes
and the crime of aggression.
The United States has not endorsed the ICC, due to concerns that
it could be used politically against Americans. However, the United
States was instrumental in urging Nigeria to surrender Taylor
to Sierra Leone.
The trial had been postponed until a country volunteered to incarcerate
Taylor for the rest of his life if he is found guilty. Britain
agreed to do so earlier in June. The ICC does not accept the death
penalty as punishment.
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Taylor denies
the charges |
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 Taylor
denies the charges against him.
"Most definitely, your honor, I did not and could not have
committed those acts against the sister republic of Sierra Leone,"
he told a temporary tribunal, the Associate Press reported.
Although not a part of this trial, many Africans accuse Taylor
of inciting Liberia's civil war, which killed more than 200,000
in the 1990s, and of harboring the members of al-Qaida responsible
for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998
that killed 200.
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Why an international
court? |
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 U.N.
officials worked to find a country to hold Taylor, fearing that
his presence in Sierra Leone would destabilize that country, as
well as neighboring Liberia, where Taylor's supporters are still
active.
His trial will be a warning to other leaders who have seen other
African warlords live relatively comfortably in exile, including
Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and former Ugandan President Idi Amin.
--
Compiled by Chloe Rothstein for NewsHour Extra
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Joplin was able to rise from the ashes because of help from everyone. And I am eternally grateful to anyone who made that possible.
