Ex-Liberia leader Taylor found guilty

A United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, yesterday, convicted former Liberian President, Charles Taylor of war crimes, the first time a former African Head of State has been found guilty by an international tribunal.Taylor was charged with 11 counts of murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery during intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, during which more than 50,000 people were killed.“The accused is criminally responsible … for aiding and abetting in the crimes in counts one to eleven,” Presiding Judge Richard Lussick ruled.He was, however, absolved of some of the crimes.Lussick said the 64-year-old warlord-turned-president provided arms, ammunition, communications equipment and planning to rebels responsible for countless atrocities in the 1991-2002 Sierra Leone civil war. Taylor was accused of directing Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in a campaign of terror to plunder Sierra Leone’s diamond mines for profit and weapons trading.The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 16 and said it would be passed two weeks later. Taylor will serve his sentence in Britain.Taylor played an instrumental role in two civil wars in Liberia but the trial relates only to the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.Thousands were celebrating in Sierra Leone after learning of the verdict. Jusu Jarka, chairman of an association for amputees, lost both of his arms in 1999.He said he was happy that the court in Holland had found Taylor was “fully and solely responsible for the crimes committed against the people of Sierra Leone.”Rwandans react Sierra Leone’s history is not very far different from that of Rwanda. Central to this similarity is the decade long civil war that claimed thousands, though not on a similar magnitude as Rwanda. However, it had its own ugly portrayal of insanity with rogue militia amputating and maiming innocent civilians.The ringleaders of Sierra Leone’s inhuman acts, members of the RUF are locked up in Mpanga Prison, in Rwanda, from where they are serving their respective sentences.The ruling came just a few months after the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague convicted Thomas Lubanga of DR Congo of similar charges related to recruiting child soldiers.The ICC has also indicted four prominent Kenyan nationals, including a Deputy Prime Minister and former Finance Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, a former Higher Education Minister, William Ruto, an ex- head of the civil service, Francis Muthaura and radio presenter Joshua Arap Sang, on charges of crimes against humanity during post-election violence in 2007 and 2008.The Dean of Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda (NUR), Dr Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, said that, although the conviction of Taylor sends a positive signal to the world, it does not remove the fact that international courts are generally accused of double standards.His argument fits well in those of many other critics of the ICC who suggest that the courts focus on African countries.“The Taylor case is a good step towards protecting humanity but this doesn’t take away the fact that individual criticisms against international courts related to their double standards,” said Ugirasebuja.Experts say these double standards are essentially a bastion of ‘western imperialism’ in developing nations. Indeed, the empirical evidence seems to resonate in this school of thought international law experts also question if such an accusation has less to do with double standards and more to do with the courts judicial infancy.To some level, some suspected criminals have taken advantage of the courts, like ICC’s weakness to get a lifeline. Uganda’s Joseph Kony refused a peace deal until the ICC dropped indictments against him and his comrades.Indeed, the African Union, traditionally hostile to the court, in an ad hominem attack called the prosecutor egotistical and prejudiced against Africa.Justice Minister, Tharcisse Karugarama, was sometime back quoted as having said: “After this guy from Yugoslavia, the rest of the guys are Africans. I have not seen any top official from Europe being introduced before the court.”International law expert, Frank Twine, believes that Africa should continuously condemn the international courts to ensure that selective justice is eliminated.Currently, there are seven cases before the ICC. It is estimated that 60% of the ICC’s budget is funded by European countries. Since its establishment in 2002, the court has spent a staggering half a billion Euros which, some say, justifies why the ICC has not bothered much to indict western criminals.The 2006 dismissal of potential cases against US actions in Iraq and the apparent inaction by the ICC on situations in other hotspots outside Africa have also been cited by those accusing the court of applying selective justice.