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Foot-dragging on the
Taylor Issue is Incomprehensible
Monday, May 16,
2005
By
Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
Just
when we think he's completely out of our lives and breathing
happily in exile, we are again reminded of Charles Taylor in
Nigeria, meddling in our business.
Mr.
Taylor has meddled in Liberia's internal matters through his
countless surrogates from the day he left the country, and
enjoyed running things by remote control, even though his
host has repeatedly warned him to stop doing what he's doing
or else ....
The
strong warning from his host, President Olusegun Obasanjo
meant for Charles Taylor to behave and refrain from
undermining governments, especially the Liberian government
and its politics from his soil. And that if Mr. Taylor ever
violated that portion of his exile status, he would be
booted out of the country and turned over to those who want
his head.
Charles McArthur Taylor
President Olusegun Obasanjo
Well,
from my understanding, Mr. Taylor is not a choir boy living
quietly by the rules set up by his host in Nigeria. He has
reportedly broken his side of the agreement almost two years
since his forced and unceremonious departure from Liberia.
Charles
Taylor, the stealth president is still the man to beat; a
guy who, despite the heinous crimes he committed against
humanity continues to dominate Liberian politics his way
through his ever-present sycophants wandering around the
country.
Mr.
Taylor reportedly has interfered in the politics of Liberia,
undermined the interim National Transitional Assembly and
the October elections by agitating turmoil, and has even
attempted to assassinate President Lansana Conte of
neighboring Guinea in January, for Conte’s earlier support
of the LURD rebel faction in Liberia.
President Obasanjo still isn’t convinced that Mr. Taylor has
violated his asylum status in Nigeria, and is not about to
give him up, even though Taylor is wanted on an
international warrant for his crimes against humanity. What
can we say or do to get the ears of Obasanjo, because we
have done almost everything legally possible to get his
urgent attention to this matter, but to no avail.
When
the Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo, who has shielded
Charles Taylor from the United Nations war crimes tribunal
in Sierra Leone since 2003, was pressed harder recently
during a U.S. visit about his administration’s moral
obligation to turn Taylor over to face trial, Mr. Obasanjo
vaguely implied that he and U.S. President George W. Bush
would work out whatever needed to be worked out to bring Mr.
Taylor to justice.
Other
than paying lip service to Liberia and the Taylor issue,
President Bush who has made combating terrorism a
center-piece of his administration, and has championed human
rights issues in selected countries, for some unknown
reasons have not pressed the Nigerian government harder
enough to turn Taylor over to the United Nations war crimes
tribunal to face justice.
Because
we all know very well that if the Bush administration had
taken up the Taylor issue seriously, with laser-like speed
and place it on the top of the list, the issue would be over
right now, as he George Bush has done in other crisis,
and justice would be swiftly served on this dangerous man.
President Obasanjo even went further by implying that if a
constitutional government in Liberia ever asked him to turn
Charles Taylor over; he would abide by that request. So with
Liberia still in disarray and in the process of finding that
constitutional government, the prospect of Mr. Obasanjo ever
turning over Taylor is bleak, isn’t it?
The
Nigerian leader who once showed leadership by his quick and
decisive actions during the heyday of the crisis, when he
found a home for Charles Taylor, and single-handedly halted
more carnage in Liberia at that time through his actions,
unfortunately, is on the other side of the debate, and is
not listening to the painful cries of ordinary Liberians and
Sierra Leonean, whose relatives and friends were brutally
murdered or their limbs amputated through Mr. Taylor’s
selfish acts.
Liberians
everywhere are grateful to President Olusegun Obasanjo and
the Nigerian people for coming to the rescue of the Liberian
nation and its people at a time when they really had no hope
and nowhere to turn for help. We are anxiously awaiting the
day Obasanjo will give this dangerous man up to be
prosecuted.
The
stubbornness on the part of Mr. Obasanjo on the Taylor issue
now, almost two years later is insensitive, incomprehensible
and indeed troubling.
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