Johannesburg — Twenty-four hours after the United Nations-backed Sierra Leone Special Court indicted President Charles Taylor on war crimes, the Liberian leader announced that his government had foiled a coup attempt, sponsored by foreign powers.
Taylor was speaking in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, after he flew home Wednesday evening from Accra, Ghana, where he attended the opening ceremony of peace talks with rebels who are determined to oust him.
The Sierra Leone Special Court announced that it had sent a warrant to the Ghanaian authorities for Taylor's arrest on war-related charges including crimes against humanity, murder, rape and sexual slavery. But he was not arrested.
Indeed, the Liberian president left Accra aboard a Ghanaian aircraft a few hours after the warrant was issued, following his participation at the opening session of the peace conference alongside several of his West African counterparts and South African President Thabo Mbeki, the current chairman of the African Union (AU).
During the brief visit to Accra, Taylor made a conciliatory gesture in an address to the peace conference, declaring to a surprised audience that he might not stand for re-election when his first term as president ends in January next year. "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," he said, adding: "If President Taylor removes himself for the Liberians, will that bring peace? If so, I will remove myself."'
In Monrovia on Thursday, Taylor summoned journalists to hear about what he called a failed coup bid, with foreign links, that occurred while he was away in Ghana. He also revealed plans to establish a national unity government and said he would be instructing his ministers to prepare to step down next week to ''open the road'' for a consensus cabinet.
Taylor linked his vice president, Moses Blah, with the alleged plot to seize control and told state radio that ''contacts were made by certain embassies near the capital to senior armed forces of Liberia personnel".
"Some succumbed," he said, but the coup effort ended in failure. "The attempt was foiled because the generals of the army refused," he said. "As a result, we have received and we have accepted the resignation of the vice president. And I'm sure he'll have an apology for the Liberian people." Blah was reported to have been picked up by security agents and questioned Thursday morning, and he could not be reached on his mobile phone later in the day.
Journalists said Taylor appeared confident and upbeat as he told them: "We are going to remain on course, not for me, but for the Liberian people. We want to continue to ask for your prayers".
Meanwhile, there were reports of renewed rebel attacks in Liberia and speculation that anti-government forces would mount a concerted drive towards the capital. "As I'm talking to you, there's massive fighting going on with units trying to enter Monrovia," Taylor told journalists at midday Thursday.
In Accra, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which is spearheading the Liberian negotiations between the government and rebels in Ghana, said: "Naturally, all the mediators are concerned about any escalation in fighting as an opportunity has been offered here for a peaceful settlement. We hope the guns will be silenced."
Following the opening session in Accra, with heads-of-state in attendance, the venue of the Liberia talks shifts to the eastern Ghanaian town of Akosombo, where the next meeting is scheduled for Friday. But news of Taylor's indictment left a question mark hovering over the discussions. It also plunged an expectant Monrovia into panic, as troops patrolled the streets, civilians rushed home and shops, banks and businesses hurriedly closed for business on Wednesday.
War-weary Liberians, who were cautiously anticipating an agreement to end the conflict and restore at least a measure of stability to their country, now appear fearful that more fighting lies ahead. After a brutal seven-year civil war begun by Taylor in 1989, fresh fighting flared three years ago when the group known as Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) launched its own revolt to end Taylor's rule. The Liberian army has been battling the rebels since that time.
Taylor, who is 56, won a controversial election in 1997. But now he stands accused of colluding with, and backing, rebels across the border in Sierra Leone, who are said to have been responsible for atrocities against civilians and gross human rights' violations during their 10-year civil war. He has been charged with supplying weapons to his Sierra Leonean allies in return for 'blood' diamonds, which he also used to fund his war machine in Liberia.
While many Liberians hold Taylor responsible for their current plight, some have been telling local and international radio stations that the war crimes' tribunal in Sierra Leone chose the wrong moment to serve their president with an indictment, just as peace talks were beginning.
That view seems to be mirrored by the authorities in Ghana and by other African leaders who were in Accra for the formal launch of the Liberian negotiations on Wednesday. Taylor himself denounced the indictment Thursday, saying: "To call the president of Liberia a war criminal? God himself will not permit it...".
Observers say the move by the Special Court may have backfired, because it put Ghana in a difficult and embarrassing position of having to arrest a guest and visiting head of state. They also note that the indictment may have jeopardized the peace talks - the first time both sides would have met across the negotiating table - just when there were hopes they had a chance to succeed.
But the court's chief prosecutor, David Crane, defended his action when he spoke to reporters on Thursday, expressing regret and disappointment that Ghanaian officials failed to have Taylor arrested while he was on their soil. "We either stand up to impunity or we don't," said Crane, who is a former U.S. Defense Department official.
Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in the 1847 and has longstanding links with the United States. Washington has had a chequered association with Monrovia and relations with the Taylor government are strained. Taylor himself studied in America and escaped from a New England jail as he awaited extradition during the era of President Samuel Kanyon Doe, the former military leader under whom he served. Doe was killed by a rival rebel leader to Taylor in 1990, nine months after he launched the 1989 Christmas Eve revolt.
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Crane told the BBC that the Special Court made public Taylor's indictment on Wednesday while he was in Ghana, three months after charges were secretly agreed, so that he could be captured while he was out of Liberia." The timing of this announcement was carefully considered in the light of the important peace process begun this week. It is imperative that the attendees know they are dealing with an indicted war criminal."
Crane described Taylor as an 'international fugitive' and said "all states are on notice that they cannot provide him with safe harbour."
The BBC reported Wednesday that Ghana's interior and foreign ministers said officially they had not been asked by the Special Court to arrest Taylor. On Thursday, Crane refuted that claim. He said the Ghanaian authorities had acknowledged receipt of correspondence from the Special Court" and they should have in fact, at a minimum, held Charles Taylor because they did have an obligation to do so. They chose not to, that is their choice. This is no fault of the court".
The chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone Special Court was clearly unhappy that the Liberian president had been allowed to slip away and rejected claims that the indictment could disrupt the peace talks. "The Ghanaian authorities need to stop their rhetoric and providing excuses which appear to be rather hollow," Crane told the BBC. Taylor's indictment was a positive development, he said. "Justice will bring peace to this region, not political compromise to the extent that we allow an indicted war criminal to move about the world community."
