This is ridiculous!!!
Is it doing the right thing at the wrong time or just an issue of square
pegs in round holes or simply lack of respect and knowledge about Africa and
Africans. Under which international law will the Ghanaian authorities arrest
the sitting President of a Sovereign Nation.
I wish an indictment had been issued to Jacque Chirac to arrest George Bush
and Tony Blair at the G8 conference on the killings of innocent Iraqis under
the pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction.
Proper things should be done properly and at the right time.
Joe
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U.N.-Backed Court Indicts Liberia Leader
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY
Associated Press Writer
June 4, 2003, 10:14 AM EDT
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- A U.N.-backed war crimes court indicted Liberian
President Charles Taylor on Wednesday, accusing him of "the greatest
responsibility" in the vicious 10-year civil war in neighboring Sierra
Leone.
Prosecutors at the Sierra Leone court issued an arrest warrant for Taylor in
Ghana, where he was making a rare trip out of his own country to attend
peace talks with Liberian rebels.
Ghana authorities said they had not yet received the arrest warrant. Minutes
after the indictment was made public, Taylor appeared at the talks' opening
ceremony in Accra, Ghana's capital.
Looking tense, Taylor stepped away from his motorcade and walked slowly into
the conference hall with other west African officials. He made no comment to
reporters.
The indictment, and arrest warrant, set up a potential showdown between
prosecutors of the U.N.-endorsed court and Taylor.
West African mediators were expected to be reluctant to see Taylor taken
into custody after they had invited him to Ghana for peace talks.
The indictment accused Taylor of "bearing the greatest responsibility for
war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international
humanitarian law" during Sierra Leone's civil war.
Taylor, Liberia's warlord-turned-president, is widely accused of backing
Revolutionary United Front insurgents as they fought their 10-year campaign
for control of Sierra Leone's diamond fields and government.
The Sierra Leone rebels killed, maimed, raped and kidnapped tens of
thousands of civilians. Rebels made a trademark of lopping off the hands,
feet, lips and ears of their victims.
Military intervention by the United Nations, the west African nation of
Guinea and former Sierra Leone colonial ruler Britain ended the war in
January 2002.
Americans and Britons are serving as prosecutors for the Sierra Leone war
crimes court, which earlier indicted rebel leader Foday Sankoh, already in
custody.
Taylor is fighting a 3-year rebel campaign in his own country. Rebels have
left Taylor in control of only about 40 percent of his country, including
the capital, Monrovia.
Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal differs from those of Rwanda and
Yugoslavia in that its proceedings will be held in the country and include a
mix of local and international prosecutors and judges. The court was created
by an agreement between the United Nations and Sierra Leone.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
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A follow up.
www.ghanaweb.com: General News of Wednesday, 04 June 2003
Charles Taylor Slips Out Of Ghana
Liberian President Charles Taylor left Ghana after attending the opening of
peace talks for his war-ravaged country, heading for home only hours after a
UN prosecutor in Sierra Leone indicted him for crimes against humanity.
Taylor was seen off by the Ghanaian Foreign Minister Addo Akufo-Addo and
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the secretary general of a west African grouping
organising the Liberian peace talks along with a UN-backed group.
The Liberian leader took a Ghana Airways flight to his capital Monrovia,
accompanied by his 52-member entourage.
Earlier Wednesday, a special court probing excesses during a brutal civil
war in Sierra Leone indicted Taylor for "bearing the greatest responsibility
for war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violation of
international humanitarian law in Sierra Leone until November 13, 1996."
The Liberian president was already under UN sanctions for allegedly backing
Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, notorious for
recruiting child soldiers and hacking off people's limbs in the brutal war,
which raged from 1991 until January last year and claimed up to 200,000
lives.
Ghana's foreign minister told AFP he had not received the indictment.
"It was drawn up three months ago, the timing is unfortunate. It is an
embarrassment for us and could destabilise the talks," he said.
The peace talks were the first time that the Liberian belligerents were to
sit face to face.
The opening ceremony of the parleys was attended by the rebels from the
Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group but
boycotted by the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), a new insurgent
movement holding more than half of Liberia.
Taylor's forces now control only three of Liberia's 15 counties.
Liberia's 18 registered political parties and civil society groups will also
take part in the talks, set to be brokered by former Nigerian president
Abdulsalami Abubakar, and which the parley's Ghanaian hosts said could go on
for two weeks.
Taylor, a warlord in Liberia's civil war that raged throughout the early
1990s, came to power after winning elections in 1997, the year that the
seven-year conflict ended.
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