A United Nation’s (UN) backed war crimes court’s chief prosecutor pledged on Wednesday that the court would bring indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor to trial — but called on the international community to make it happen.
”We are going to get Charles Taylor, I assure you,” prosecutor David Crane, an American, declared.
Crane spoke to reporters in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, a nation emerging from a 10-year terror campaign waged by rebels
allegedly backed by Taylor.
Next door, in neighbouring Liberia, Taylor’s forces were fighting on Wednesday to hold their own capital against rebels pressing home a
three year insurrection to oust Taylor.
A former warlord, Taylor has made an array of enemies in 14 years of gun and diamond trafficking in west Africa, in dealings that fuelled the region’s roiling conflicts and massive refugee crises.
The UN-Sierra Leone court, created to try those holding major
responsibility for war crimes in Sierra Leone’s vicious war, announced June 4 it had indicted Taylor — charging him formally with supporting Sierra Leone’s vicious Revolutionary United Front rebel movement.
”We are here because of the 500 000 people who have been murdered, raped, maimed, and properties looted, as a result of the years of armed conflict,” Crane said.
Asked how the court would get Taylor, Crane said, ”It is the responsibility of the international community to make sure that Charles Taylor is turned over to us alive — and let the story be told.”
Taylor has insisted that Liberia will never know peace as long as the indictment against him stands — and hinted on Friday that his fighters would never agree to disarm as long as he were indicted.
Crane also repeated accusations on Wednesday that Taylor had two
other indicted Sierra Leone rebels killed, rather than have them possibly testify against him.
The two are former rebel leaders Johnny Paul Koroma and notorious battlefield commander Sam ”Mosquito” Bockarie.
Of Bockarie in particular, Crane said, ”Not only did Charles Taylor murder Sam Bockarie, but also his wife, mother and children in Monrovia. We have strong reasons to believe that.”
Sierra Leone’s rebels killed tens of thousands of civilians and mutilated thousands more in their unsuccessful campaign to win control of the country and its diamond fields.
Massive military intervention by former colonial ruler Britain, neighbouring Guinea, and the UN finally crushed the rebels by January 2002.
The rebels’ leader, Foday Sankoh, was captured and arrested.
Sankoh has been reported to be reported seriously ill. Crane said Sankoh was now ”a vegetable” and suggested he might not be fit to stand trial.
”We can and will prosecute the remaining nine in our custody, as some of them have done terrible things,” Crane said. Prosecutors also still were investigating other cases, he said. – Sapa-AP