Taylor case shows impunity can be beaten
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Editorial
Finally the victims of Charles Taylor, the “butcher of Liberia”, can get a measure of satisfaction that one of Africa’s most ruthless warlords and dictators will probably die in jail.
The Special Court of Sierra Leone cannot hand down a life sentence, but the 50 years it slapped on ex-President Taylor, 64, is the highest within its mandate.
Given his advanced years, the sentence invariably means Taylor’s chances of leaving jail alive are pretty slim, and so his defence is bound to appeal the sentence on grounds that the court exceeded its mandate. Undoubtedly, such an appeal’s chances of success are virtually zero.
It is instructive that Taylor, a man who hid his psychopathic streak behind a pleasant and decidedly English demeanor, showed no remorse before his sentencing for the grisly crimes for which he was convicted last month.
false hopes
Defiant to the end, he still hoped to convince the court and the world that the mountain of irrevocable evidence, including first-hand eyewitness accounts, was part of a conspiracy by his former allies in the West.
But it does not matter how long the defence drags out its appeal on the sentence, or even if it succeeds in scoring a pyrrhic victory by having it reduced.
The fact is that a former head of state, who operated like the rule of law did not apply to him, and who, on more than one occasion thumbed his nose up at the world when it expressed horror at his degradation of human dignity has been tried, convicted and sentenced.
It is a chilling warning to Africa’s rulers, elected and imposed, that justice has now gone global and no matter how long it takes, it will catch up with you.
It matters not whether you brand an international court an organ of neo-colonialism or puppet of a conspiracy by your political rivals.
Wednesday’s sentencing is a major victory against the forces of political impunity that straddle Africa, a continent that inspires both hope and utter despair in the same breath.
It is a continent whose sportsmen and women, entrepreneurs and students has excelled and continues to excel internationally.
Unfortunately, it is also the continent that gave the world the likes of Ida Amin Dada, Samuel Doe, self-styled Emperor of the Central African Empire Jean- Bédel Bokassa, Augustin Bizimungu, Muammar Gaddafi, Thomas Lubanga, Joseph Kony...the list is endless!
These names have become synonymous with torture and assassination, genocide, cannibalism and other crimes that still make the world cringe with their sheer level of brutality.
For instance, during his rule Bokassa, who died in 1996, personally oversaw the slaughter of 100 schoolchildren.
As the judge read out Taylor’s sentence to a hushed courtroom, one news channel split the screen to show heartrending images of some of Taylor’s victims, and others of his glory days in the bush.
cannibalism
Many of his victims who survived are amputees and beggars, having been robbed of their limbs by a man whose generals even forced captured people to kill, cook and eat family members.
It is an unbroken chain of savagery that has stalked our continent since we began shaking off the shackles of colonialism, and various independent states emerged to take charge of their destiny.
The message is that impunity has become expensive and no man or woman is too big for the world to deal with.
It is a reminder that when we fail or are unable to clamp down on gross human rights abuses by the political class, we have only ourselves to blame when the international community steps in to do the job.
Taylor cannot complain. Unlike many of his opponents who were killed after verdicts handed down in kangaroo courts in the bush, he was given the best legal advice and a chance to argue his defence in court.
The biggest fear of many Liberians was that this man, whose party slogan once was, “he killed my mama and papa but I’ll still vote for him” could still return, participate in elections and return to power through the ballot
box.
Will his incarceration bring full closure to an ugly chapter in what was at one point in history one of Africa’s most promising democracies? The answer is probably no, as the atrocities he visited on his people transcended several generations.
But we can say with a certainty that there is now hope those who believe in and practice political impunity will from on Wednesday be looking over their shoulders.
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