Liberia president, Charles Taylor, bears the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law. He has maintains an iron grip on power through a brutal armed guard and a small coterie of egregiously corrupt partners. He’s also accused of inciting wars in neighboring countries. He sent troops to seize Sierra Leone’s diamond fields, he sent Liberian soldiers to back rebel forces in Guinea and Ivory Coast as well. In fact, Taylor has been indicted in Sierra Leone for war crimes, an accusation he may never have to face because Nigeria doesn’t have an extradition treaty with that country. Charles Taylor is a war crimes criminal due to his many relations for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.
It has become especially bloody under the reign of current President Charles Taylor. Taylor is accused of supporting rebel movements in neighboring countries including Sierra Leone, causing instability in the region. Within Liberia itself, a handful of rebel groups have been fighting Taylor’s government in attempts to wrestle it from power. The largest of these are the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy – or Lord – and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model).
These two groups control most of Liberia’s landmass and have severed the government’s access to much of the country’s natural resources and revenue sources. Driven from their homes by fighting between army and rebel forces, entire families have moved into the stadium, building shelters of bamboo and leaving under bleachers, laying clothes to dry on the running track, living here on cold bare floors and camping out in locker rooms and offices.
The Essay on The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal
In early October 1945, the four powers victorious after the Second World War issued an indictment against 24 men and six organizations. Fifty years ago the Prosecution?s opening statement was read by Associate United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. Just eight months prior to that reading, the very building in which the historical trial took place was "an enemy fortress in the hands ...
Others have sought refuge in schools and churches. Some 33, 000 people are camped out at the Samuel Doe Stadium. In the stadium’s underground levels, a rabbit warren of bare concrete rooms teemed with people. Orange embers from charcoal fires and slits of sunlight from the occasional window provided the only light.
The refugees waited in long lines, carrying away heavy sacks on their heads and retreating into the shadows of the stadium to cook meals on open fires. Many refugees have been living in the stadium for the past month, when fighting intensified. Both the United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan and West African leaders have urged the US to lead a peacekeeping force. But Bush has said that any US involvement will be small and of a short duration and is waiting for an assessment from a US military team which has gone to Liberia before deciding exactly what form any US involvement may take. Charles Taylor has said he is ready to resign – and take up an offer of asylum in Nigeria – but that peacekeepers must arrive first, or chaos will ensue. Also Nigeria has offered him “safe exile” but the details of this have not been made public.
Stability in Liberia is vital to its neighbors, not least to Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, which have also found them caught up in the fighting in recent years. The departure of Charles Taylor will lead to greater peace and prosperity in the sub-region and thus allow the whole of West Africa to get back to concentrating on economic development rather than solving conflicts. However, a rebel takeover in Monrovia would not necessarily end the fighting, which Liberians have endured for so many years. It could just be another step in a long civil war.
