International Crisis Group

Liberia: Sirleaf Needs to Use Powers to the Fullest | allAfrica

By: Gilles Yabi

Liberia has come a long way from the bloody civil wars that raged from 1989 until former president Charles Taylor left office in 2003.

In less than a decade, two credible elections have been held, the last in November. But Taylor’s imprisonment for war crimes in Sierra Leone has done little to help with reconciliation. Indeed, Liberians remain divided, and by some of the problems that plunged the country into conflict.

Corruption, nepotism linked to oil contracts, impunity; a security sector in disarray; high youth unemployment; and flaws in the election laws have polarised society and corroded politics. Unless President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf uses her limited powers to the fullest to reconcile the nation more insecurity beckons.

FULL ARTICLE (allAfrica)

Photo: World Economic Forum/ Flickr

The Globe and Mail | Conviction of Charles Taylor deals blow to traditional impunity of dictators

International criminal court finds former Liberian president guilty of war crimes in Sierra Leone, but decision ignores victims inside Liberia itself. 

What it means for Africa

The conviction of Mr. Taylor reinforces a disturbing trend: the vast majority of international-court prosecutions have targeted African warlords and political leaders.

The trend has made it easy for African leaders to complain of bias against them. The legitimacy of the international courts will continue to be cast in doubt if they never prosecute any Western leaders or key Western allies in Asia or the Middle East.

The growing number of African defendants in the international courts, especially high-ranking politicians and heads of state, will at least put pressure on African autocrats to consider the personal risks of their human-rights abuses. But it could also encourage some to cling stubbornly to power, fearing jail if they step down.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and Kenyan deputy prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta are among the prominent African leaders to be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in recent years.

FULL ARTICLE (The Globe and Mail) 

TIME | Warlord Convicted: Liberia’s Charles Taylor Found Guilty of War Crimes

Once the commanding and charismatic warlord, Charles Taylor cut a distant, bewildered, even pathetic figure in the courtroom on Thursday as he listened to the verdict in his landmark trial by a U.N.-backed tribunal in The Hague. Taylor, the former Liberian president, was unanimously found guilty of sponsoring murderous rebel groups in neighboring Sierra Leone’s civil war and orchestrating a macabre catalogue of war crimes in the volatile West African region. As the chief justice at the Special Court for Sierra Leone delivered his verdict, the 64-year-old Taylor blinked nervously and seemed lost. He tried to speak afterwards, but his microphone was cut off and his appeals were ignored as the justices filed out of the courtroom.

FULL ARTICLE (TIME)