The arrest in Nigeria of former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor, plus his arraignment Friday before a court in Sierra Leone on war crimes charges is a highly significant moment for Africa. In between these two events, Taylor was extradited to Liberia from Lagos and then handed over to UN authorities acting on behalf of the government of Sierra Leone. This was Africa acting to fix Africa’s problems.
Tomorrow the formal court proceedings will begin in the Liberian capital, Freetown. Later in the day, however, it is expected that the UN Security Council meeting in New York will approve a plan to have Taylor’s trial moved from Sierra Leone to The Hague. This is felt to be necessary because of fears that Taylor’s presence in the country would stir up trouble in neighboring Liberia among the fallen warlord’s supporters. This in turn could overflow into Sierra Leone and lead to fresh outbreaks of murderous violence.
Were it possible, it is undoubtedly best that this trial take place in West Africa where the savage butchery that Taylor is accused of instigating killed over 400,000 people and maimed many tens of thousands more. The government in Freetown is rightly very seriously concerned at the impact of the trial if it were held locally. It backs a move to The Hague where its own court will effectively sit under UN auspices. There will be considerable practical challenges with the movement of witnesses and inspections of atrocity sites. Key witnesses can undoubtedly be taken to The Hague and others can give their evidence by satellite. If the distant trial proceedings are also broadcast in West Africa, then locals will be able to see justice being done.
As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said following Taylor’s arrest when he tried to flee from Nigeria, the action does indeed send a strong signal to dictators and warlords everywhere that they will not escape being held to account for terrible crimes laid at their doors.
Neverthless unremarked so far by commentators is a less acceptable signal that Taylor’s arrest sends out. The Liberian ruler was persuaded to quit his wartorn country when he was offered political asylum in Nigeria. It was understood that he would never be handed over to any other country except his homeland. And even there, the process was expected to be argued in the Nigerian courts.
Taylor’s supporters — of whom there are still a significant number in Liberia — believe their man was tricked out of power and then betrayed by a country which had offered him sanctuary. The message coming from Taylor’s experience could therefore be one that encourages warlords to hang on to their power base come what may and not to believe international assurances that they will be safe. In the end of course, the purpose of giving an ever-longer arm to international law is not so much to punish today’s despots and war criminals as to discourage tomorrow’s leaders and generals from permitting or ordering such barbarities as Taylor is accused of.
