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Posted April 17, 2006
Ghankay Taylor, Hero and Time Bomb
Why Countries Wouldn’t Keep Him?
By Thomas Kai Toteh
It wouldn’t be a smart thing for someone not to figure out why those
countries so technologically advanced are refusing to host Charles Taylor.
These countries are afraid, point blank. In the first place those countries
that are being pressed on to host Taylor after his trial, aware that this
man once broke jail and subsequently disappeared from the US. They wonder
why the country that he fled from not can take him back.
He was finally arrested and turned over to the UN-backed
Special War Crime Tribunal in Sierra Leone. His arrest and subsequent turn
over was preceded by successive mysteries, chaos, conspiracies, and
deception. Still, the war crimes suspect behind bars seems to be the world’s
most worrisome prisoner. The world’s most powerful and influential nations,
United States and Britain are the most worried about where to send Charles
Taylor after his verdict.
On the
issue of changing Taylor’s trial venue, for security reasons, The
Netherlands has agreed to host it; on condition that assurances needed that
he will be transferred out of the country once a verdict is reached. Earlier
Austria and Sweden both turned down requests to take him.
Right now
Britain’s UN Ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry is suggesting that the council
approve the transfer and later UN will figure out where to send him was he
to be found guilty.
According
to Associated Press recent report the United States and Britain said that
finding a country where to send Charles Taylor after a verdict is proven
difficult.
Leaders of West Africa, the
UN-backed War Crime Court, and world leaders, including Britain and the US
are not comfortable with the trial and detention of Charles Taylor in Sierra
Leone for fear of instability in the region. On the other hand, victims of
Charles Taylor’s atrocities want him tried in Sierra Leone.
But the questions many
people are today asking are: why the whole world is afraid of Charles
Taylor? Why nations of great prison walls don’t want to take him in custody?
The answers to these questions may be varied and for various reasons.
Charles Taylor has proven over the years he is a force to reckon with.
Charles Taylor fled
Liberia with approximately US$1m to the United States. The United States of
America failed to send him back to face charges of embezzlement after
Liberian government’s plea. Instead, he was sent to the Plymouth County
House of Correction in Boston. He allegedly broke jail and escaped the US
mysteriously.
The United States
government did not issue his re-arrest until he jumped in the bush in
Liberia to stage his armed struggle. He was actually both Liberian and
American fugitive, but still ruled Liberia and Sierra Leone with impunity
for 14 years.
Charles Taylor ruled
Liberia for 14 years amid cries, blood, and tears. The UN-backed War Crime
Tribunal was not able to arrest him despite his arrest warrant. But
ironically as LURD and MODEL rebels besieged him in an attempt to capture
him, the world, including the US where he should have been wanted as a
fugitive, facilitated his ceremonial departure to Nigeria.
Charles Taylor again
proved to the world he can not be taken for granted when the day before his
turn over to the Liberian government, got on the run, and headed to the
Nigerian border with Cameroon. His plan was to travel all the way to Chad
where there presently are serious rebel’s activities. Charles Taylor
although concerned people are still figuring out how he left his exile home,
would have made it again had it not been for the outburst of massive outcry
from almost every sector of the world.
It wouldn’t
be a smart thing for someone not to figure out why those countries so
technologically advanced are refusing to host Charles Taylor. These
countries are afraid, point blank. In the first place those countries being
prevailed on to host Taylor after his trial are aware that this man once
broke jail and subsequently disappeared from the US. They would wonder why
the country that he fled from not takes him back.
About the author: Thomas Kai Toteh is a free lance
journalist and author of African Child: From Wizard to Refugee. He is
journalism major and minor in creative writing at the Old Dominion
University in Norfolk, VA. Prior to the civil war in, Toteh was a student
activist in Liberia. He can be contacted at
free3siblings@yahoo.com
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