Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Wednesday she was optimistic that a European Union country would offer to jail her predecessor if he is convicted of war crimes.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is awaiting trial before a United Nations-backed war-crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone for allegedly funding rebels that hacked off people’s limbs and burned villages during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
The Sierra Leone court, however, has asked The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court to host the trial, fearing his trial in African territory might revive regional instability. The Netherlands has agreed — on condition a third country agrees to jail Taylor if he is convicted. So far, Denmark, Austria and Sweden have rejected requests to jail Taylor, and the search for a country that will appears to have stalled.
”I think a country will rise to the challenge to get the proceedings underway,” Johnson-Sirleaf said when asked whether she thought an EU country would come forward to jail him.
Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa’s history, is on an official three-day visit to Britain.
She took office in January to lead one of the world’s poorest countries, battered by back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003 that left 200 000 people dead. — Sapa-AP