As a warlord, Taylor commanded rebel forces who raped, tortured, and killed indiscriminately on their march to power. And as president of Liberia, he aided, abetted, and traded (guns for diamonds) with warlords in Sierra Leone whose rebel forces did there what his did in Liberia…
So here’s to the fate that awaits Charles Taylor (think Slobodan, not Saddam). And let’s hope that his capture puts all despots (like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe) on notice that their day of reckoning is drawing nigh. Because Taylor today, Kony tomorrow? Who knows for whom the bell will toll in due course?
(“Good News: Charles Taylor captured,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 31, 2006)
Last month the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Taylor on 11 counts of aiding and abetting all manner of crimes against humanity.
But, as the quote above attests, in predicting his conviction I also noted that his fate would be dying in obscurity in a prison cell in The Hague (just like the late President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia).
Well, the court affirmed his fate yesterday by sentencing the 64-year-old Taylor to prison for 50 years.
May he rot in peace….
Related commentaries:
Taylor convicted…
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