This Day (Lagos)
Kayode Komolafe
29 March 2006
opinion
Lagos — The story of former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, has been replete with contradictions all along. And the confusion that heightened yesterday about his possible arraignment before the war crime tribunal in Sierra-Leone is consistent with this contradictory nature of his political career. Like everything concerning Taylor, the matter is not as straight forward as some interested quarters would wish. No rational appreciation of the development should ignore the complex nature of the issues at stake.
When he launched his rebellion in the Lofa county on Christmas eve in 1989, Taylor cut the image of a revolutionary poised to undo the reaction that Samuel Doe had come to symbolise in the Liberian national life. His links with Libya only fuelled this image of a liberator. By the time he was accompanied in his journey from Monrovia to asylum in Nigeria by three African Heads of State in August 2003, Taylor had become the obstacle between on the Liberian road to peace. Not a few observers saw the former warlord as a villain.
In fact, when he arrived in Nigeria with President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Thabo Mebeki of South Africa and President John Kuffour of Ghana, Taylor's exit was a huge relief. The continental representation at the Monrovia ceremony where Taylor neatly handed over power to an interim government and the flight to Abuja was all to demonstrate the cold diplomatic calculation that culminated in Taylor's exit. Until that afternoon when Obasanjo, Mbeki and Kuffour came to Abuja with Taylor, the question still remained if Taylor would leave for Liberia to have peace. This was simply because he had become a regional problem to be solved diplomatically and not militarily.
The atrocities of the Foday Sankoh bandits who Taylor is accused of supporting in neighbouring Sierra-Leone were heinous. These monsters amputated babies and raped their mothers!
Yes, America and others asked that he should quit power. But for the regional solution which Obasanjo and others worked out the peace process in Liberia could have been truncated.
In retrospect, both Obasanjo and President George Bush of the United States were in unison in asking for the implementation of the June 10, 2003 ceasefire negotiated by Liberian warlords themselves at a forum overseen by former Head of State General Abdusalami Abubakar. The ceasefire provided that within 30 days of its coming into force there should be a peace agreement to cover, among other things, the "formation of a transitional government, which will not include the current President in accordance with his June 4, 2003 declaration in Accra, made at the inauguration of the ECOWAS Peace Talks".
The contradictions in the yet unfolding Taylor story have manifested themselves in the responses of Liberia, Nigeria and the United States in the matter. The three nations have different answers to the simple proposition: what to do with Taylor.
However, Taylor's politics, both in the bush and in the city, in the last two decades or so have prepared the grounds for this confusion. When the news broke yesterday that he had escaped from Calabar where he had been on asylum, many must have remembered that Taylor escaped from an American penitentiary in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1980s only to begin a war in Liberia.
So the question is pertinent: will the termination of Taylor's asylum become another obstacle on Liberia's path to restoration? Nothing in Taylor' antecedents could allay such fears.
In many respects, Taylor had the historical opportunity to be a reconciliation leader, but he simply refused to do so. An Americo-Liberian, he did nothing to reverse the alienation of the indigenous groups such as the Mandingoes and Khrans from the power centre. On assuming power he became authoritarian and extremely intolerant of opposition. Human rights of citizens were routinely abused. Hardly could any of the candidates who contested against him in the 1997 presidential election stay back in Liberia to participate in the political process. The socio-economic climate could not be brightened for the people. He showed that he was only a power monger. After years of guerrilla warfare, he got power and did nothing to make a difference in the lives of his people. Instead, he was busy fomenting trouble in Sierra-Leone. He complicated issues for the Mano River Union with the domino effect of the Liberian civil war.
Meanwhile, the nation's resources were plundered with reckless abandon. In June 2003, six of Taylor' accounts in Swiss banks were frozen.
Beside the endless woes which Taylor and other warlords imposed on their people, the larger world was concerned about the role of Liberia as a factor of instability in the sub-region. And the destabilsation plan had material motives. Taylor has been accused of profiting massively from the backing he gave rebels operating in diamond mining areas in Sierra-Leone. Hence, his influence diminished partly with return of peace to Sierra-Leone; one of his main revenue sources has dried up. While he was busy fighting for blood diamond across the border in Sierra-Leone, former enemies from the earlier civil war regrouped to do battle with him.
The current drama could be better understood in the context of Taylor's politico-military itinerary in this sub-region all these years.
Despite Taylor's awful records, Nigeria has a point in keeping to the terms of his asylum. To be fair to Obasanjo, he said it loud and clear that he would not want to be harassed if he accepted the custody of Taylor as an element of the multilaterally brokered peace process. You cannot fault Obasanjo when he says that his word should be his bond. He agreed to host Taylor as a condition for the process in Liberia to be consummated. Despite his misrule, Taylor was not chased out of Liberia. Regional leaders came to negotiate his exit. The trip of Obasanjo, Mbeki and Kuffour to Abuja was more than a diplomatic posturing. It was to make a point about Taylor's eventual departure from the Liberian scene. However, that does not excuse Nigeria from the national embarrassment it would suffer if indeed Taylor has escaped from Calabar as the conflicting reports suggested yesterday. If it took three Heads of State to bring in Taylor, it would be inexplicable that the man should just walk away as one report put yesterday. Nigeria would be gambling with its reputation in Africa and indeed the world if the impression is given that she is playing games with a man accused of war crimes.
Another aspect of the contradiction is the hypocritical role of America in the whole episode. When the Liberian war broke, America literally abandoned the country whose capital city was named after one of American former Presidents, Monroe. America sent jets to rescue a handful of her citizens caught in the war. It was the lot of Nigeria to carry the cans. Hundreds of Nigerian soldiers and civilians were killed in the war. The victims included two of Nigeria's brightest journalists-Krees Imodibe of The Guardian and Tayo Awotunsin of the Champion. They were killed by Taylor's bandits. Taylor whipped up so much sentiments against Nigeria to resist the intervention of the government of President Ibrahim Babangida. Yet, contrary to conventional wisdom, it was the Babangida intervention using the instrumentality of ECOMOG that moderated the carnage and saved Liberia from itself in the first instance. This is apart from billions of dollars spent on ECOMOG.
Meanwhile, America that is mounting pressure on the fledgling Liberian government to take Taylor to Sierra-Leone is not even a subscriber to the International Criminal Court (ICC). No American soldier can be brought to answer charges before the court. Those who are dehumanising the Iraqis in various prisons cannot be brought before the court. But it is easy to harass African leaders to bring an alleged war criminals before the court.
The greatest gamble, however, is the one being taken by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia. She needs American dollars to restore Liberia; but she should not allow herself to be stampeded into provoking another convulsion in Liberia with the Taylor issue. She should tell the Americans that Liberia needs some respite.
Yes, Taylor should face justice for what happened in Sierra-Leone; but that should not be on the dictation of the Americans who have no respect for international laws. Those who refused to sign the ICC convention have no moral right to stampede other nations to bring their citizens to justice before the court. This hypocrisy should stop.
The Taylor problem is still subject to an African solution.
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