A true monster goes on trail - Political Forum

africanhope · 06-04-2007, 02:10 AM

Taylor, has I see it, is one of the worst 'leaders' this continent, and indeed this world, brought forward. Not only did he destroy his own country, where thousands died, but also in neighbouring countries did his destruction cause chaos. It is a fine day now that he is going to trail, I am actually quite intersted to hear his defence for his horrible acts.

I hope this is the sign that Africa is now finally cleaning it's act, and getting rid of it's dictators. I also hope Bobby Mugabe sits up and take notice!

Quote:

Taylor's trial set to start
04/06/2007 07:14 - (SA)

The Hague - The war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, accused of controlling rebel groups in neighbouring Sierra Leone that went on a blood diamond-financed rampage of rape and mutilation, starts on Monday.

The first African head of state to go on trial for war crimes before an international tribunal, Taylor will be tried by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Taylor, 59, faces 11 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the 1991-2001 civil war in Sierra Leone, considered one of the most brutal in modern history. Up to 200 000 people were killed in the fighting and rebels mutilated thousands more, cutting off arms or legs, ears or noses.

According to the charges against him Taylor armed, trained and controlled Sierra Leone's notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF), responsible for many of the mutilations, in exchange for still-unknown amounts of so-called blood diamonds. Taylor has denied all the charges.

In Sierra Leone relief prevailed that Taylor was finally going on trial nearly four years after he was indicted.

"It has taken so long in coming that our memories were beginning to fade," war victim Ansumana Turay, whose hands were hacked off during the civil war, told AFP in Freetown.

"There can be no peace without justice and that is what this case stands for," said Stephen Rapp, the prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).

In footsteps of Milosevic trial

With his war crimes trial in The Hague, Taylor follows in the footsteps of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who was the first ever head of state to go on trial for war crimes before an international court.

Milosevic died on March 11, 2006 - in the same prison in The Hague where Taylor is now being held - while his trial was still underway before the UN court for the former Yugoslavia.

In the run-up to the trial, Taylor's defence lawyer Karim Khan repeatedly complained that he did not have enough time or resources to properly prepare for the trial.

He also protested the change of venue, saying it affected the former president's right to a fair trial.

Sierra Leonean authorities had requested the trial be held in The Hague as they feared holding it in Freetown could cause unrest as Taylor is believed to still have many supporters.

Some human rights organisations and victims have also complained about the trial's move to The Hague saying it would be better for the victims in Sierra Leone to see him judged there.

"My only regret is that he is not going to be tried here. I would have liked to see him physically in the dock," Sam Tobias, another war victim from Sierra Leone who was starved of food and water for several days and forced to dig for diamonds, said.

Trial will adjourn for three weeks

On Monday the prosecution will present its opening statement, expected to last some four hours, outlining the evidence it intends to present. Then the court will adjourn until June 25, when the first witness will take the stand.

The trial is expected to finish within 18 months, before Christmas 2008.

If convicted, the statute of the Sierra Leone tribunal states that Taylor must be sentenced to "imprisonment for a specified number of years" without giving a maximum.

Under the deal to relocate the trial to the Netherlands, it was agreed that if convicted Taylor will serve his sentence in a British jail.

AH

Brother Oz · 06-04-2007, 07:07 AM

I'm a bit worried about this, that he might get off on a technicality, or form the looks of it, extend the trial over years. Although he'd still be held while on trial, so it's not that big an issue.
This is a pretty big event considering that this is the first time someone like this has been brought to trial. I hope many other warlords and tyrants are convicted in the same way.

His charges include 5 seperate war crimes, 5 seperate crimes against humanity, and a violation of international humanitarian law. I don't think they had that many different charges even at Nuremberg.

cornnfedd · 06-04-2007, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brother Oz

I'm a bit worried about this, that he might get off on a technicality, or form the looks of it, extend the trial over years. Although he'd still be held while on trial, so it's not that big an issue.
This is a pretty big event considering that this is the first time someone like this has been brought to trial. I hope many other warlords and tyrants are convicted in the same way.

His charges include 5 seperate war crimes, 5 seperate crimes against humanity, and a violation of international humanitarian law. I don't think they had that many different charges even at Nuremberg.

agreed.

Abraxas · 06-05-2007, 12:00 PM

Hi, folks!

Does the good Baptist Pastor, Charles Taylor, really need to be tried at all, before being summarily executed for his own good?

Does anyone need any further proof that, like most despots, tyrants, and predatory autocrats across Africa, Charles Taylor is the product of the whims, caprices, and brainwaves of a cabal of buccaneers in the Pentagon, including some 160 years of deliberate post-colonial emotional distancing by the very former colonial sole administrator of the human and natural resources of Liberia, the United States of America?

Would anyone have insisted on proofs, or evidence of allegations of crimes he committed against humanity, including concerns for a fair trial for Adolf Hitler? Are the armless children, maimed adults, gang-raped women of Liberia not sufficient enough proof of the several crimes of Baptist Pastor Charles Taylor?

How about his fellow African heads of state that aided and abetted his well known acts of state-sponsored terrorism, and his deep involvement, between 1990 and 2003, with the "blood diamond" mafias of the ECOWAS subregion, in joint venture with most members of the military elite of West Africa, particularly Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Olusegun Aremu Matiyu Obasanjo, the immediate past former military despot, turned democratically imposed president of Nigeria.

The so-called "militants of Monrovia city" of the late-1990s and early-21st century, constitute the benchmark for similar "state-sponsored" terrorist groups, themselves, fashioned on the prototype of the Haitian Tonton Macoutes, now also manifest in the swamps of the Niger Delta, like they were in the mangrove forests of Monrovia and south eastern Sierra Leone for the better part of the 1990s.

Maybe, the world needs to be "sensitized" by being shown more of those gory photos of one armed babies, infants and under-aged soldiers, to effectively jump-start Charles Taylor's trial. And by the way, why can the trial not hold in Africa, or even in Nigeria, whose immediate past president even went as far as providing safe refuge for a hardened criminal like the good Baptist pastor, Charles Taylor?

Well ... that's the way of the world....

Cheerio. Obrigado.

Don Juan-Carlos ABRAXAS (III)

africanhope · 06-05-2007, 12:25 PM

Yes, he needs to go on trail, and it needs to be a fair and just trail, for two reasons:

1. So that the people of his country can see that their country was not taken over by other powers, but that their 'leader' was indeed an evil man. (he stil has supporters, strange as it may sound). This will go a long way in helping the wonderfull president now leading the nation to be accepted.

2. By not giving him a free and fair trail, we become just like him, by denying justice to people. It is times like these that the freedom loving people of the world should show why the ideals we believe in are so important, and so good. WE can not deny him justice, for the very fact that he denied justice to others.

A trail is the only way

AH

Abraxas · 06-05-2007, 12:34 PM

Hi, folks!

By the way, Liberia and Haiti are very good examples of monsters created in far away Washington DC, that manifest in very strong head aches elsewhere!

Obrigado, mis amigos.

Don Juan-Carlos ABRAXAS (III)

africanhope · 06-05-2007, 12:40 PM

And they are not the only ones. Africa was in the 80's and early 90's litered my these despots kept in place in the name of the Cold War.

AH

Scribbler1 · 06-05-2007, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brother Oz

I'm a bit worried about this, that he might get off on a technicality, or form the looks of it, extend the trial over years. Although he'd still be held while on trial, so it's not that big an issue.
This is a pretty big event considering that this is the first time someone like this has been brought to trial. I hope many other warlords and tyrants are convicted in the same way.

His charges include 5 seperate war crimes, 5 seperate crimes against humanity, and a violation of international humanitarian law. I don't think they had that many different charges even at Nuremberg.

It's too bad they can't try him in Iraq with the same judges and prosecutors who dealt with saddam Hussein.

Abraxas · 06-05-2007, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scribbler1

It's too bad they can't try him in Iraq with the same judges and prosecutors who dealt with saddam Hussein.

Hi, folks!

Why wasn't former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein also tried in The Hague? Conversely, why did Charles Taylor have to be tried outside of Liberia, or West Africa, or Africa, before he can be brought to justice?

{...Don't go away .... I'll be back!}

Don Juan-Carlos ABRAXAS (III)