WASHINGTON, 14 August 2003 — Charles Taylor’s resignation from the presidency of Liberia and his departure into exile Monday removes the architect of West Africa’s instability from office but may not end his broad regional influence.
While Taylor and his family flew to exile in Nigeria and most of his senior aides either went with him or disappeared from the capital, the warlord-turned-president left behind a group of thousands of heavily armed fighters who have been loyal to him for years. Taylor’s replacement, Vice President Moses Blah, is also part of Taylor’s original army that trained in Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s camps in the 1980s. In 1989 they jointly launched the insurrection that ultimately brought Taylor to power. While Blah has occasionally feuded with Taylor, he has been part of Taylor’s inner circle for almost 20 years.
This relationship raises fears that Blah will do Taylor’s bidding, and enable Taylor’s confidantes to exercise influence and perhaps postpone the move to a transitional government, scheduled for October.
The concerns were fed by Taylor’s own statements that he did not view his exile as permanent. In his farewell address, he said, “God willing, I will be back.’’
At least for the moment, Taylor has escaped what he most feared — standing trial for crimes against humanity. In March a special UN-backed court investigating the atrocities in neighboring Sierra Leone indicted Taylor for his role in that conflict. The charges against him include mass murder, rape, kidnapping and the forced recruitment of child soldiers.
While Taylor fought in Liberia, he helped create the Revolutionary United Front — the brutal rebel force that fought in Sierra Leone — and in return reaped millions of dollars in profits from the diamond fields controlled by the rebels.
Human rights groups have argued that the precedent set by allowing Taylor to escape prosecution would give encouragement to dictators everywhere.
State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker Monday said that Taylor’s indictment was something “for Charles Taylor to work out with the special court in Sierra Leone. This is something he has to answer to, and it’s for him to address with the international court.’’
Reeker said that the United States welcomed Taylor’s departure because he had been “a catalyst to violence throughout the region for his years there on the stage.’’
Taylor’s “ability and willingness to exploit natural resources, particularly diamonds,’’ made him a regional rather than simply a national threat, said Gayle Smith, the National Security Council’s head of African affairs during the last years of the Clinton administration. “What enabled him was diamonds.’’
Another thing that set Taylor apart from other African dictators such as Idi Amin, who rode off into quiet retirement after years of brutal rule, are the numerous international and regional ties that the Liberian leader maintained, going back to his training days in Libya.
There, he met and worked with leaders who emerged across the region, such as Blaise Compaore in Burkina Faso, Idriss Deby in Chad, senior members of the security forces in Ghana and recently disarmed rebels in Sierra Leone.
These friendships, forged by years of fighting together and mutual business dealings, coupled with the diamond wealth, helped broaden Taylor’s reach far beyond the borders of his tiny, shattered nation. Over the years he has used those ties and money to import tons of weapons and wage proxy wars not just in Sierra Leone, but in Ivory Coast and Guinea. He has also helped prop up friendly regimes, such as that of Compaore in Burkina Faso.
Even as Taylor was losing ground in this last round of fighting, he was seeking support from his old friends in Chad, Libya and Ghana. The willingness of those leaders to take his calls and even ship him weapons in the last week of his presidency shows that Taylor has not lost all his influence.
“We believe most of those ties are weaker than they were, but they still mean something to these people,’’ said one administration official. “So many people are partners in crime with Taylor, and he has so many chips that he can call in, that it means he can make mischief for a long time if he wants to.’’
