Taylor’s 50-year sentence proof wheel of justice turning in Africa

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, accused of arming Sierra Leone's rebels who paid him in "blood diamonds," listens on May 30, 2012 to the judge at the opening of the sentencing judgement hearing at the court in Leidschendam, near The Hague. The judges sentenced Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison. Photo/AFP

The 50-year jail sentence imposed on former Liberian president Charles Taylor at The Hague will be a milestone that may significantly change the way the exercise of power is perceived in Africa.

Presumably Africa, a continent in which impunity still thrives, will henceforth take the ICC more seriously and will no doubt more readily sit up and listen to the court’s pronouncements.

African countries will also, hopefully, from now on review their own capacities to mete out justice.

Considering the aspersions frequently cast on African jurisdictions and the already sullied reputations of African judicial systems, pervasive doubts about their real independence are not surprising.

Further, it is not surprising that they should be tagged as sterile and mercenary, and as largely having proved to be appendages of the corrupt regimes that appoint them in the first place, and to which they are consequently beholden for their sheer survival.

African courts

Given that scenario, The Hague sentencing last Wednesday may just put paid to arguments that judicial processes similar to the Taylor one could have been carried out better by African courts.

Instead, the proceedings at The Hague can be expected to drive home the fact that the likes of Taylor can ultimately be brought to heel after years of riding rough-shod over the very people whose fundamental human rights they are supposed to safeguard.

Being the first conviction on war crime charges of a former head of state by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II, the Taylor verdict was particularly poignant.

It was therefore not surprising that UN human rights chief Navi Pillay referred to it as “immensely significant,” saying it sent out a message that even the most powerful are not above the law.

“This is undoubtedly a historic moment in the development of international justice,” she said soon after the long-awaited verdict was delivered.

In a world thirsty for justice, the Taylor case evoked the earlier one against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was tried by an international tribunal but died before a judgment was issued.

In the meantime, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal recently announced that the genocide and war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratco Mladic will resume on June 25.

Legal technicalities

The trial of the so-called “Butcher of Bosnia” had been adjourned indefinitely, due to some legal technicalities, a day after it opened at The Hague on May 16.

Mladic, 70, has been charged with 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.

As far as Africa is concerned, recent developments in the Taylor saga also appear to be signals of things to come, particularly considering that the ICC has already charged former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo with crimes against humanity.

The ICC also has a warrant out for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who, so far, has been able to elude arrest.

As for the likes of Uganda’s Joseph Kony and DRC’s General Bosco Ntaganda, the elusive warlords continue to spread terror in their respective territories while for all intents and purposes thumbing their noses at ICC prosecutors out to get them.

However, doubts about whether the much-derided ICC has teeth to bite have probably already begun to evaporate as the significance of the Taylor sentence gradually sinks in.

As for Taylor, he is entitled to an appeal, but if it fails he is expected to serve out his sentence in a British jail.

His eventual and irrevocable fate after the conclusion of a lengthy trial is expected to prove the eternal truism that however much the dogs may bark, the caravan of international justice will move on.

The ICC indeed showed its determination to continue with its mission when even before the Taylor sentence it announced that the trial of four Kenyan post-election violence accused will, like the Mladic case, proceed in June.

In the meantime, after the Wednesday sentence relating specifically to Taylor’s contributions to the atrocities in Sierra Leone, new questions will arise about the prospects of ensuring justice for victims of the civil wars that raged under his watch in Liberia, the former president’s own country.

There should be even greater focus on the fate of Taylor’s conspirators during the horrendous anarchy that raged inside Liberia during the Taylor days, and which resulted in atrocities much worse than those that occurred in Sierra Leone.

Alarmingly and unbeknownst to many, some of the most notorious actors in the Liberian civil war years went on to become major actors in the country’s politics, and continue to hold public office to this day.

Darkest hours

Many of those included in the list of known terrorist warlords during the country’s darkest hours who have remained free – including people like Taylor’s erstwhile comrade, the notorious Prince Johnson – are often pointed out as the ultimate proof that impunity is alive and well in Africa.

That such people not only survived but even thrived in post-Taylor Liberia remains one of the great ironies of modern times.

That simple and intriguing reality is indeed a harrowing and stark reminder that Liberia’s victims of organised terror may not be as lucky as their Sierra Leonean counterparts as far as the pursuit of some modicum of justice is concerned.

As for Taylor, the 50-year sentence and his fate after the post-appeal conclusion of a lengthy trial will be viewed as major victory in the war against impunity in Africa and elsewhere.