Liberia's Charles Taylor goes on trial

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, accused of orchestrating unspeakable atrocities during neighboring Sierra Leone's bloody civil war, goes on trial Monday — the first African leader to face justice at an international tribunal.

Prosecutors allege that, in return for diamonds illegally mined in Sierra Leone, Taylor armed, funded and controlled rebels who murdered, raped and mutilated civilians before looting and torching their villages in a campaign of terror aimed at destabilizing the government in Freetown.

Taylor, 59, who has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. His trial is expected to last 18 months.

The atrocities in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war are well-documented: Fighters — often children drugged and turned into merciless killers at brutal rebel training camps — killed thousands of men, women and children and mutilated more by hacking off hands and limbs with axes and machetes. Women were raped and abducted to become sex slaves.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_on_re_af/war_crimes_taylor;_

[Blue_Tires]

1. he was also buddy-buddy with pat robertson, iirc

[maddezmom]

2. you have a good memory- Pat Robertson and His Business Buddies

Pat Robertson and His Business Buddies

By Colbert I. King
Saturday, November 10, 2001; Page A27

Joseph Mathews is Pat Robertson's point man in a Liberian mining venture called Freedom Gold Limited. Mathews doesn't much care for what has appeared in this column about his boss's business dealings in Liberia, so he's trying to put a little distance between the televangelist and that West African nation's strongman, Charles Taylor.

Wrote Mathews in a fax sent from Freedom Gold's headquarters in Virginia Beach last week: "Dr. Robertson has no more of a relationship with President Taylor than any foreign business investor in the United States can be said to have with President Bush."

Oh really?

Let's see. Has President Bush -- or any American president, for that matter -- personally signed an agreement with a foreign mining company that gives his administration a 10 percent equity interest in the investment with a right to purchase at least 15 percent of the shares after the exploration period? Have I missed something?

This much is known, however, based primarily on information obtained from Freedom Gold Limited. Pat Robertson did learn about the gold mining investment opportunity from a visiting Liberian delegation. Robertson did subsequently create the for-profit Freedom Gold Limited in the Cayman Islands in December 1998 in which he was listed as the president and the company's sole director. He did conclude a mining agreement signed personally by him, Charles Taylor and key members of Taylor's cabinet on May 18, 1999. And the deal does give the Taylor regime a cut of the action.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A5339-2001Nov9

[tabasco]

7. So Pat Robertson signed a contract with this murderer and then lied about it.

What an exemplary Christian!

[Solly Mack]

3. I'm watching it now

they are reading the charges ...the prosecution (Stephen Rapp)

listing (Rapp) how the diamond market played into it

opening remarks


Taylor isn't there (at the trial) and has asked that his lawyers be removed from the case...his lead lawyer walked out during opening statements

claims of Taylor not being able to get a fair trial in that court...

Taylor wants to represent himself (cue Twain)

[maddezmom]

4. Liberia's Taylor boycotts war crimes trial

Liberia's Taylor boycotts war crimes trial
04 Jun 2007 09:29:52 GMT
By Alexandra Hudson

THE HAGUE, June 4 (Reuters) - Liberia's former President Charles Taylor boycotted the opening of his trial in The Hague for war crimes in Sierra Leone on Monday, saying he had lost faith in the U.N.-backed court.

"I cannot participate in a charade that does no justice to the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone," the Liberian warlord said in a letter read by a defence lawyer, who said Taylor now wanted to represent himself.

"I choose not to be a figleaf of legitimacy for this court," Taylor said in the letter.

Taylor, 59, faces charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation and the recruitment of child soldiers in the 1991-2002 civil war that left 50,000 dead.

more;http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L044608.htm

[Javaman]

5. Check out the movie "lord of war", the African dictator is loosely based on

taylor. he's a real sweetheart. :eyes:

[gratuitous]

6. Why do I get the feeling . . . ?

For some reason, I get the feeling that this tribunal in The Hague is garnering more interest from certain quarters in the White House than the imminent G8 meeting. And I smile, if only a little bit.