President vows not to ‘sacrifice justice’ for Charles Taylor

Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf told the United States Congress that she would not sacrifice justice on the matter of exiled former president Charles Taylor who has been indicted for war crimes by a UN-backed special court. Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president, addressed the Joint Session of the US Congress on Wednesday and said: “But while we seek national unity and reconciliation, we must not sacrifice justice….Liberia has little option but to see that justice is done in accordance with the requirements of the United Nations and the broad international community.” Sirleaf also thanked Nigeria for giving Taylor exile - a move that enabled the signing of a 2003 peace deal and the end of 14 years of on-off fighting - and US President George Bush for leading international pressure that forced Taylor to step down. "I respect the life-saving role that our West African neighbours, particularly Nigeria, played at no small cost to them in accepting to host Mr Charles Taylor," Sirleaf said. "Thanks also to President Bush, whose strong resolve and public condemnation and appropriate action forced a tyrant into exile.” Taylor’s government was accused of supplying rebel forces in neighbouring Sierra Leone with support and arms. As part of Sierra Leone’s return to peace, a UN-backed court has indicted those considered most responsible for war crimes during the country’s ten year civil war, among them Charles Taylor. Nigeria has always maintained that it would hand Taylor over to the Special Court on the request of a Liberian elected government. But Sirleaf, inaugurated as president in mid-January, previously said the massive job of rebuilding war-battered Liberia, which has no electricity or running water, came first. Also on Wednesday the New York-based international rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the US to back the Liberian government in seeking Taylor’s surrender for trial. “The Bush administration has played a positive role in pressing for Taylor to face trial at the Sierra Leone war crimes court,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Programme at HRW. “Now the administration needs to see this through by giving Liberia’s new president strong backing to request Taylor’s surrender. She should not be expected to shoulder this burden alone.” And the bid to bring Taylor to justice appears to be moving. This week Sirleaf’s government said that it has asked Nigeria to begin consultations with the African Union and regional economic group ECOWAS on the Charles Taylor issue. “The Governments of Nigeria and Liberia are determined and committed to arrive at a solution during these consultations that will be acceptable to the international community and the United Nations, and at the same time guarantee the rights of Mr Taylor under international laws,” said a statement issued by the Liberian government. But members of the former ruling National Patriotic Party, which Taylor used to head, said in the Liberian capital Monrovia that it was untimely to decide the fate of their former leader.