Charles Taylor Pays Gadaffi for War Efforts
The Perspective <http://www.theperspective.org/> (Smyrna, Georgia)
July 11, 2000
Atlanta - Liberia is making periodic payments from a monitored bank account to
Libya for that country's financing of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front
of Liberia (NPFL) war that led to the killing of 250,000 people and the
destruction of most economic entities, the British newspaper The Financial Times
reports.
"A western intelligence official said Liberian bank accounts under observation
showed payments from Liberia to Libya", The Financial Times revealed this week
Few months ago, Mr. Taylor demanded $26 million from state coffers as debt
incurred by his rebel group, one of the most ruthless in Africa, for its war
expenses.
Meanwhile, the Liberian President remains adamant in controlling Sierra Leone's
diamonds fields since all foreign exchange entities, such as iron ore and rubber
companies were looted or destroyed by his forces during the war.
"One explanation for Taylor's determination to control Sierra Leone's diamond
trade could be his need to pay for arms bought from Libya. In 1989, with the
support of Muammar Gadaffi, Libyan leader, Taylor unleashed a civil war in
Liberia that culminated in his election as president in 1997".
The link between Sierra Leone's ruthless now detained rebel leader Foday Sankoh
and the Liberian president, which dates back to their training years in Libya as
rebels and Sankoh's active participation in the Liberian war as a precondition
for launching his own, has led to persistent calls by Taylor for immediate
peace. "Taylor is an integral part of the RUF," said a western intelligence
official. "There is no interest in stability in Sierra Leone," The Financial
Times quotes one Western intelligence official. It adds that:
"Two school exercise books emblazoned with the slogan "Peace. God bless the
teacher" were recovered from Mr. Sankoh's villa in Freetown, the Sierra Leone
capital, and obtained by the Financial Times. They record the scale of the RUF
operation in the diamond pits at Kono, one of many controlled by the rebels.
The book entry shows that 220 diamonds worth about Dollars 2.5m locally were
mined in a single day on 9 January 1999 at Kono. Between October 30 1998 and
January 1 2000, the RUF sold 10,137 Kono diamonds through the murky channels of
the world's illicit diamond market.
Government officials in Freetown think the documents prove a long-held suspicion
that Sankoh's rebels sold illicit gems to buy guns - and that they were helped
by neighboring Liberia whose ruler, Charles Taylor, is a longstanding supporter
of the RUF.
They are part of a global network extending from the desert air strips of the
United Arab Emirates to the armaments factories of Bulgaria and Ukraine; from
the presidential palaces of Liberia, Burkina Faso and Togo to the offices of
diamond dealers in Antwerp, Bombay, Monrovia, Johannesburg and Tel Aviv".
Liberia itself remains without water, electricity and basic social services
despite Taylor's electoral promises of "I spoilt, I'll fix it." Schools remain
in shambles, and students find themselves sitting on floors, taught by unpaid
and unqualified teachers. At the state only university, students are compelled
to carry wooden benches and many of the pre-war professors and lecturers have
left. Civil servants have not been paid for months. Only the elite presidential
bodyguards, the Anti-Terrorist Unit, frequently deployed at diplomatic quarters
for intimidation purposes, receive regular pay. Large parts of the country are
isolated due to impassable roads that have not been maintained for years.
Liberia's Information Minister has however blamed Washington for the current
state of affairs, saying that if American wants Liberia to have water and
electricity, only "a push of the button" will provide the facilities. Taylor
himself owns large and luxurious villas in France and Italy, and rides fleets of
luxurious vehicles, including Rolls Royces and armored-plated Mercedes,
according to Western reports.
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