Former Liberian President Appears at War Crimes Court

Copyright © 2009 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

A former president of Liberia and infamous warlord appears today before a special U.N. tribunal in Sierra Leone. Charles Taylor is facing 11 counts of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in that country's brutal civil war. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports.

OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON reporting:

Charles Taylor, who once escaped from a Massachusetts prison, is being carefully guarded in this detention center at the U.N. war crimes tribunal here in Sierra Leone. A U.N. helicopter delivered him handcuffed on Wednesday night after Taylor was captured trying to flee exile in Nigeria after pressure from the U.S. and others to have him arrested.

Mr. DESMOND DE SILVA, QC (Chief Prosecutor, Special Court for Sierra Leone): We have taken a significant step forward on the road to international justice.

QUIST-ARCTON: Desmond de Silva is the Chief Prosecutor of the Sierra Leone Special Court which has indicted Taylor as a war criminal.

Mr. DE SILVA: International justice depends upon bringing wanted men to (unintelligible), bringing war criminals to court so that they can be brought to account for the crimes they have committed.

QUIST-ARCTON: Charles Taylor is accused of exporting the brutal civil war in Liberia, across the border here into Sierra Leone, where his alleged rebel allies maimed thousands of civilians, chopping off their limbs.

Rose Cole(ph), a banker, and her 12-year-old daughter Elizabeth, still bear the scars of war. They have shrapnel wounds. Speaking in busy downtown Freetown, the seaside capital, Cole agrees that Charles Taylor bore the greatest responsibility for the war in Sierra Leone.

(Soundbite of busy street)

Ms. ROSE COLE (Resident, Sierra Leone): I feel good that the man responsible for so many lives, for so many family so lost their friends (unintelligible) their family, for that man to be brought to Sierra Leone for trial.

QUIST-ARCTON: And like many Liberians and Sierra Leoneans, an anxious Rose Cole is relieved that the court has asked for Taylor's case to be transferred to the international criminal court in the Hague for fear his presence in the region may trigger unrest and threaten peace and security here in west Africa. Chief prosecutor Desmond de Silva again:

Mr. DE SILVA: We have a situation here where Charles Taylor has been a regional warlord. We have a situation where he has been at the epicenter of the destabilization of the whole region and so he, among all the defendants, is a man with serious international connections in the region.

QUIST-ARCTON: But Charles Taylor's family is outraged by the proceedings. His elder sister, Louise Edna Taylor Carter, says she, family members and lawyers her brother requested, have been denied access to Taylor, which she says proves he can't have a fair trial.

Ms. LOUISE EDNA TAYLOR CARTER (Sister of Charles Taylor): I just think that he's in a hostile environment and that he will never get a free trial here.

QUIST-ARCTON: Charles Taylor has repeatedly declared his innocence. Nevertheless, he remains the first former African president to be charged with crimes against humanity. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Copyright ©2009 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.