Washington, DC — The United States government is taking steps to increase pressure on high-level individuals who are suspected of fueling conflict in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the last decade, a senior House Republican and Treasury Department official said Wednesday.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Treasury Department are targeting the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, as well as Victor Bout, a businessman accused of arms trafficking in Africa, Rep. Ed Royce (R-California) and Assistant Treasury Secretary Juan Zarate said during a joint briefing at Treasury headquarters.
The revelation came a day after the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had identified 30 companies and four people linked to Bout. Their assets will be frozen and it is now illegal for U.S. citizens to do business with them.
Bout owns a network of air cargo companies and has been accused of using his airplanes to deliver shipments of guns and ammunition to countries in conflict - often in violation of UN arms embargos.
Taylor was singled out in a resolution introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives April 12 calling for Nigeria's government to extradite him to the Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges of war crimes.
Taylor and Bout are said to have worked together during the conflict in Sierra Leone, where diamonds provided a substantial incentive for illegal arms trade. Liberia, which Taylor controlled at the time, provided the conduit for arms to enter Sierra Leone and diamonds to exit.
The resolution - which has been referred to the House Committee on International Relations - was sponsored by Royce and four colleagues, and calls upon the Nigerian government "to transfer Charles Ghankay Taylor, former President of the Republic of Liberia, to the Special Court for Sierra Leone to be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law."
Royce added that Taylor, who currently lives in Nigeria as part of a U.S.-brokered deal that ended Liberia's civil war in 2003, has been reluctant to comply with the terms of his peaceful ouster agreement, under which he was offered exile on condition that he refrain from further involvement in Liberian affairs. Taylor "continues to interfere," Royce said.
Taylor has been charged with seventeen counts of "war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of international humanitarian law" for his role in fueling the crisis in Sierra Leone by giving the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) arms, supplies and logistical support.
Royce said prosecutors have assembled enough evidence to convince Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to extradite Taylor.
"With mounting evidence, it'll be easier to convince Nigeria," he said. "The evidence is there, and will be presented to President Obasanjo. There's a clear blueprint of those who worked for Taylor, and these people are willing to cooperate."
Taylor violated the terms of his asylum agreement with Nigeria by traveling to Burkina Faso in February to meet with a political ally, Francis Galawulo, who recently announced his candidacy for Liberia's presidency, according to documents from the Special Court for Sierra Leone obtained by the Financial Times. Taylor also masterminded the January assassination attempt on Guinean President Lansana Conté, said David Crane, chief prosecutor of the Special Court.
Assistant Secretary Zarate said that although the U.S. government does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed in Liberia, it has obligations as a member of the UN Security Council, "and we take these obligations very seriously."
Action by the Treasury Department was prompted by Executive Order 13448, issued in July 2004, in which President George W. Bush declared the Liberian crisis a "national emergency" for the United States, Zarate said.
Officials say the announcement proves the effectiveness of coordination between government agencies to track the finances of complicated criminal networks. Victor Bout's business empire comprises airline companies located in several African countries, including Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and the Gambia. Royce said these companies serve as "facilitators" in Bout's illegal activities.
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Zarate said arrest warrants for Bout have already been issued by Belgium and the Central African Republic. He also said that the United States is confident that "a strong cooperation with the UN and our partners abroad" is forthcoming.
Royce added that Bout, a long-time supplier of UNITA during the conflict in Angola, is a "chief sanction-buster" whose illegal activities have already been denounced by the UN.
Because of Bout's abilities to operate under the radar, Zarate said it is difficult to know all of the countries where he has traded arms. He has been linked to two airlines in Côte d'Ivoire and Uganda, although officials have no proof that his arms have fueled conflicts there. "It is fair to assume that he might be implicated in these conflicts as well," Zarate said.
