The international community is determined to move former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial to The Netherlands, and will even ensure that his defence witnesses will be able to appear there, a United Nations official said.
At his first court appearance on Monday before the UN-backed war crimes court, Taylor had asked through his lawyer that his case remain in Sierra Leone, where he is accused of backing notoriously brutal rebels during a 1991-2002 civil war.
Taylor, who entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday, argued that defence witnesses would find it difficult to travel to Europe.
No date for the start of his trial has been set. Taylor still is talking to numerous lawyers but has not decided on a defence team, which it could take months to prepare.
The question of where the trial will be held also must be resolved, and a sticking point may be that Taylor has become an international pariah, welcome in no country.
Court officials have asked that the trial be moved to The Hague in The Netherlands, because of fears the 58-year-old Taylor, once among the most feared warlords in the region, could still spark unrest in West Africa.
The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution that Dutch officials had requested before agreeing to the transfer. The trial would remain under the auspices of the independent, international Special Court sitting in Sierra Leone, with the International Criminal Court providing only the courtroom.
The Dutch are insisting that a third country agree to imprison Taylor if he is convicted. But several diplomats at the United Nations told The Associated Press on Tuesday that no country wants to have Taylor for 20 or 30 years — either in jail or in exile.
J Victor Angelo, the top UN official in Sierra Leone, said the draft resolution, which he said could be adopted in the next few days, includes a clause ”which means the witnesses and experts and anybody else required for a fair trial will be given all the facilities to be able to appear before the trial court”.
Angelo did not say who would pay for travel to the court or address whether those subject to UN travel bans would be accommodated. Several of Taylor’s relatives and close associates are under a UN travel ban.
”The international community and the Security Council seem to be very clear as far as the message is concerned that Mr Charles Taylor should be tried in The Netherlands,” Angelo said at a news conference. ”The point here … is what would be the impact on security and stability in the sub-region if Mr Charles Taylor is kept in Freetown?”
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has expressed fear that Taylor’s supporters could use a trial in the region as an excuse to mount another insurgency in her country, one that could, like the war Taylor launched in Liberia in 1989, spill across the region.
Taylor is accused of backing the Sierra Leonean rebels in exchange for a share of Sierra Leone’s diamond wealth, which he used to fund his ambitions in Liberia.
He pleaded not guilty on Monday to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including cutting off of limbs and other body parts; rape, abduction and sexual slavery; pillaging; and conscription of boys and girls.
Taylor’s appearance — three years after he was indicted and a week after he tried to escape being handed over to the court — forced him ”to face the people of Sierra Leone, against whom he is accused of committing heinous atrocities”, the court’s chief prosecutor, Desmond de Silva, said in a statement on Monday.
De Silva added a precedent had been set: ”Those who commit atrocities and violate international humanitarian law will be held accountable, no matter how rich, powerful or feared people may be — no one is above the law.”
Security was tight. Taylor — and court officials who have received death threats — were protected by bulletproof glass and by dozens of UN peacekeepers from Mongolia and Ireland. ‒ Sapa-AP