|
|
Liberia: Taylor Should Look His Victims in the Eye
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Financial Gazette (Harare)
OPINION
20 March 2008
Posted to the web 20 March 2008
Mavis Makuni
Harare
ITALIAN journalist Riccardo Orizio's curiosity to discover what evil lurks in the hearts of dictators who commit terrible atrocities against their people, resulted in the writing of his book, Talk of the Devil.
The book was based on interviews he conducted with seven deposed dictators including Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier of Haiti, Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, Uganda's former strongman Idi Amin and Jean-Bedel Bokassa the former self-styled Emperor of the short-lived Central African Empire (now Central African Republic).
Orizio also interviewed Mira Markovic, wife of Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia who died in 2005 while being prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in The Hague.
Wojciech Jaruzeleski of Poland and Nexhmje Hoxha of Albania were also subjects of Orizio's curiosity.
The journalist was driven by an obsession to find answers to the questions: "How does a one-time dictator, whom the history books describe as ruthless, immoral and power-crazed, grow old? What does he tell his children and grandchildren about himself? What does he tell himself?"
Orizio writes that when Amin fled Uganda in 1979, "the decapitated heads of some of his adversaries were discovered in the fridges of the presidential residence".
Bokassa was accused of cannibalism.
Similar details about such unfathomable cruelty and perversity are emerging during the trial of former Liberian head of state and warlord, Charles Taylor, who is being prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in The Hague. Testifying in Taylor's trial, Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah, a former death squad leader said the former Liberian leader used to instruct his fighters to eat even United Nations peacekeepers so as to "set an example for the people to be afraid".
Taylor is being prosecuted for backing rebels in Sierra Leone in a decade-long war in which thousands perished.
Marzah, who described himself as Taylor's former chief of operations and commander of death squads in Sierra Leone and Liberia, said the former warlord ordered militias to eat the flesh of enemies including African and United Nations peacekeepers.
Taylor's trial at the UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone was moved to The Hague in Netherlands because of fears that it could spark fresh civil strife in West Africa,
Taylor is reported to have denied all 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity levelled against him.
However, for justice to be seen to be done, it now appears the best venue for Taylor's trial should have been Sierra Leone so that the surviving victims of his brutality such as those who had limbs amputated and those who lost loved ones during the sustained campaign of terror waged by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) would have a chance to see him answering to the charges.
Taylor should be looking these victims, the youths who were forced to serve as child soldiers and the young girls who were raped after being forced to become "bush wives" for the insurgents, in the eye.
When Taylor was first taken to the Hague in 2006, the director of the International Justice Programme of Human Rights Watch said: "Now that Taylor is in The Hague, there is a real risk that his trial will feel distant and less meaningful to the people most affected by the crimes.
The court will need to ensure the trial is accessible to the people in Sierra Leone and across West Africa."
Taylor is the first African head of state to be prosecuted for crimes and abuses perpetrated while he was in office and his trial should represent a break with the past when violators of human rights and international law could commit the most dreadful atrocities with impunity.
Holding his trial on African soil would have sent a powerful warning to other abusers that they too would be brought to justice. It would also have been empowering to ordinary people to see concrete proof that everyone is equal before the law.
|
In 1998, African leaders mooted the idea of setting up the African Court on Human and People's Rights because of their anxiety to identify African solutions to deal with cases such as that of Hissene Habre, the former president of Chad who has been accused of human rights abuses, mass killings and torture.
Another former head of state who is yet to be brought to justice despite having been tried and convicted in absentia for genocide is Ethiopia's Mengistu Haile Mariam who has lived in exile in Zimbabwe for many years.
Like the Italian journalist referred to above, African communities that have suffered at the hands of powerful despots are searching for answers, not only as a way to achieve carthasis and closure but to ensure that no one is allowed to get away with such brutality again. This will not be an event but a process. What is important is that a start must be made.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Financial Gazette. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
