Accra — With reports circulating that Liberian President Charles Taylor had been indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal, the 55-year old former warlord made an unexpected offer to step down at the end of his term.
"If I am the problem and seem to stand in the way for Liberia to achieve peace, I will remove myself from the process to allow peace to come to our country," Taylor said during the opening session of the Liberian peace talks here on Wednesday. He also suggested he was open to the formation of a transitional government after his five-year tenure ends in January.
Although Taylor did not appear on the official program schedule, President John Kufuor, the host, asked Taylor to address the gathering.
Prior to the session, news of the indictment was confirmed in an announcement from Freetown by the court established to investigate war crimes during Sierra Leone's civil war. "My office was given an international mandate by the United Nations and the Republic of Sierra Leone to follow the evidence impartially wherever it leads. It has led us unequivocally to Taylor," David Crane, the Court's chief prosecutor, said in a statement.
The court decided to indict Taylor in March but waited until he arrived in Ghana to make the action public.
Taylor's remarks at the conference represented a major shift from his statement on arrival in Accra on Tuesday, when he said: "I was elected by 80 percent of Liberians and the other 20 percent took to the bush. Therefore, I would not entertain any thought or even the possibility of resigning as president." He added: "I am the President and I shall remain president."
The opening of the conference was delayed for an hour to await the arrival of delegates from the rebel movement known as Model on an airplane sent to Abidjan by Kufuor to collect them. The delay was further caused by what a protocol officer said was a special meeting among the African leaders in attendance, who included Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire and Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone.
When the leaders entered the meeting hall, Kufuor was joined on the podium by the co-chair of the conference, former Nigerian head-of-state General Abdulsalami Abubakar and Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), the regional grouping that is spearheading the peace effort.
In his opening speech, Kufuor spoke of the destabilizing nature of the Liberian crisis, which has become, he said, "a major problem not only for the subregion but the whole continent and the international community." He said every capital in the region carries the name of a Liberian peace accord and said that he hopes this would be the last. Presidents Mbeki and Obasanjo echoed these sentiments, as did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in a message to the meeting.
The declaration by Taylor took everyone by surprise. "Mr. Taylor did not say he was stepping down but rather that he would step down if he is the problem," said Charles Brumskine, a former senator and a potential presidential contender. Notwithstanding, he added, "if his intentions were to move away as he said, Liberians have a chance to put the country back together." Liberians have "enough political goodwill to push this process forward and put an end to the suffering of our people," he said.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former Liberian finance minister who heads the Unity Party and was Taylor's chief opponent in the 1997 election, said "we are surprised by this news and we need to meet and reflect on what it means for the peace process and where we go from here."
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Even Taylor 's own supporters seemed surprised by his pronouncement. Lewis Brown, minister of state for foreign affairs and leader of the government delegation, said that he could not make any comment because he was as surprised as anyone else.
While the positions of the African leaders remain unclear, none of them publicly shook hands with Taylor and nobody exchanged a single word with him during the meeting, even though they were speaking to each other and making jokes at the microphone. Late in the day, Taylor boarded a plane provided by the Ghanaians and flew back to Monrovia.
According to reports from the Liberian capital, news of the indictment spread fear through much of the population. According to the BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh, thousands of people fled the city and troops took to the streets. The notorious paramilitary Anti-Terrorist Unit was positioned around the presidential residence following Taylor's return.
