“Liberia’s ex-President Charles Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in jail by a UN-backed war crimes court”

The UN backed court for   Sierra Leone in Haque found the former Liberian President guilty for aiding and abetting the crimes against Humanity in Sierra Leone between 1991-2001.

Although Charles Taylor insists that he is innocent, on the ground that he never directly committed the crimes mentioned above, he is personally responsible for fueling the war in Sierra Leone by buying the blood diamonds in exchange for arms and ammunitions to the former rebel leader Fody Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front Party that caused carnage and havoc to the Sierra Leonean people.

“The 50-year sentence which was pronounced a few days ago is effectively a life sentence for someone that age – the rules of the court prohibit expressly the imposition of a life sentence,” defence counsel Morris Anyah told the BBC’s News hour programme. Although Charles Taylor has a right of appeal against the sentence, the process takes snail process and it could last up to six months, the BBC’s Anna Holligan in The Hague reported. The judge argued that Charles Taylors’ foot prints of the heinous crimes against the Sierra Leonean people are still fresh and in the memory of those who lost their limbs and relatives and of course the ghosts of those killed in the conflict are hovering around Sierra Leone.

Is there any lesson if any other leaders of Africa can learn from their former colleague?  

Anna Holligan BBC News, in The Hague seems to have the answer for this question she said that; Sentencing the 64-year-old former president to 50 years effectively means Charles Taylor will spend the rest of his life locked up in jail.

His defense team were hoping judges would take into account the fact that Taylor has a family; he is a father of 14 children and an educated man. But the judges decided his role in aiding and abetting the RUF rebels in Sierra Leone was serious enough to warrant 50 years.

It is a sentence that human rights groups say will set a precedent and send a message out to other world leaders – that if they commit crimes against humanity they will be forced to face the consequences, regardless of how powerful they are”.

Indeed, the judge said that Taylor should be served in the same cup that he gave to the people of Sierra Leone. Judge Lussick said in return for a constant flow of diamonds, Taylor provided arms and both logistical and moral support to the Revolutionary United Front rebels – prolonging the conflict and the suffering of the people of Sierra Leone.

 

Interestingly as the whole world has been reporting since 1996 that the people of Congo are subjected to the same suffering by one man (Paul Kagame),  The same international community does not use the same legal basis to indict or stop this man from killing innocent people of Congo. Indeed, his proxy officers Tomas Lubanga, Bosco Ntaganda have been either indicted or sentenced in the same court. When the Hyena is trapped, the lion should not be roaring in the jungle.

Whereas many people will agree including me that Mr. Taylor deserved the sentence because of the above mentioned crimes against humanity, many will disagree on the approach of the ICC. Selective justice is no justice and that’s why I will disagree with the Anna Holligan(BBC) who concurs with some human rights groups when they say that Charles’ sentence sends a clear message that the business is not as usual and impunity will no longer be tolerated. On the contrary I will argue that the dictators in Africa and beyond know very well who controls ICC, who funds the real existence of this court and holds the life line of the judges with good pay and other benefits and will always play hide and seek with the ICC. Always the dog that is well fed by its master will always be loyal.

It is therefore convincing to some people who either do not know how ICC operates or deliberately closes their eyes on this matter. President Kagame and other leaders on the continent have been consistently accused by Human Rights, Amnesty International, UN and other agencies that they don’t only aid, abet, supply or assist rebels in Congo, but rather they have invaded and participated in the destruction of another country in a broad day light, killed people, tortured them, and the international community and its court ICC have consistently kept quite. The ICC has never investigated the concerns of the USA Ambassador to UN Susan Rice when she came to Rwanda in November 2011, and she said that people in Rwanda receive anonymous calls, people disappear or killed.

This is how ambassador Rice’s speech got report by Reuters:

Rice also slapped Kagame on the wrist, saying that his country’s political culture is being stifled, that freedom of the press is minimal and that activists, journalists, political opponents don’t have the ability to organize peacefully.
“Some have simply disappeared,” she said, referring to highly suspicious deaths of political opponents. For those who still think that the Taylors sentence has any precedent should hold their water in the glass. A dog will seldom bite, but when its master orders it to do so, it will bite with all its force. It is in this context that, I argue that ICC will bite any one indicted by its paymaster not the one who is necessary guilty of crimes against humanity.

Confused beyond reasonable doubt:

The ICC set free Calixte Mbarushimana because the prosecution failed to convince the court beyond what they call reasonable doubt. I’m not a lawyer, neither an authority on ICC and how it operates. But to a lay man (common man) the court is confused beyond reasonable doubt, it is witnessing  many former commanders in the Rwandan government with all their ranks, here I mean Rwarakabije and all his comrades, confusingly  Martin Ngoga the Rwandan persecutor(prosecutor) interestingly and shameless playing political games in the name of pursuing justice.  Is he aware that we are not kids who will be given sweets and close eyes. For the readers of this article I’m not saying that this man is innocent but I will neither say he is guilty, just remember that, the funders of ICC have no interest in trying and convicting Calixte Mbarushimana. That’s why I’m saying that they are confused beyond reasonable doubt.

It is not only the international community and ICC but also many Rwandans have been indoctrinated with lies, to put this in context; one has read what one of the powerful women (Inyumba Aloysia) in the RPF hierarchy once said,

“ordinary citizens are like babies that need to be completely educated before we can talk about democracy”. By “educate” she means sending ordinary Rwandans to (ingando indoctrination) camps for an amateur brainwashing program.  She might be a woman, but she is nonetheless an operative of a heinous dictatorship!

For those who don’t know the background of Mr. Taylor should be reminded that he was a darling of US, who was sent to spy on Col. Mummer Khadafy the former Libyan leader in the name of a rebel group against the former Liberian Leader SAMUEL DOE, like Osama Bin laden both guys have paid a heavy price, therefore when a cat plays with the rat, the rat should not be complacent.  My readers don’t be confused beyond reasonable doubt.

 

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.

 

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