Friday, April 27, 2012
Charles Taylor - Guilty of Interfering in Another country While in Possession of Thick Lips and Curly Hair
The Euro/;American "International Criminal Court" has found Charles Taylor guilty of interfering in Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone by supporting one side in its dreadful civil war.
I am not going to say he was on the side of the good guys here because looking at that pointless 11 year gangsterism there doesn't seem to be antibody worth of that description. The closest is the Kamajors, a local militia who developed to defend villagers against both "soldiers" and "rebels" (sobels as they were called). Their leader failed to get on the "democratic" side fast enough and was also indicted by the Europeans,
The short wiki version of the war:
During the first year of the war, the RUF took control of large swathes of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone...precipitated a military coup d'état in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).[2] By the end of 1993, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) had succeeded in pushing the RUF rebels back to the Liberian border, but the RUF recovered and fighting continued. In March 1995, Executive Outcomes (EO), a South Africa-based private military company, was hired to repel the RUF. ...Under UN pressure, the government terminated its contract with EO before the accord could be implemented, and hostilities recommenced. In May 1997 a group of disgruntled SLA officers staged a coup and established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) as the new government of Sierra Leone.[5] The RUF joined with the AFRC to capture Freetown with little resistance. The new government, led by Johnny Paul Koroma, declared the war officially over. A wave of looting, rape, and murder followed the announcement.[6] Reflecting international dismay at the overturning of the civilian government, ECOMOG forces intervened and retook Freetown on behalf of the government, but they found the outlying regions more difficult to pacify.....The Lome Peace Accord, signed on 27 March 1999, was the result. Lome gave Foday Sankoh, the commander of the RUF, the vice presidency and control of Sierra Leone's diamond mines in return for a cessation of the fighting and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to monitor the disarmament process. RUF compliance with the disarmament process was inconsistent and sluggish, and by May 2000, the rebels were advancing again upon Freetown. The British intervened to save the failing UN mission and the weak government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. With help from a renewed UN mandate and Guinean air support, the British Operation Palliser finally defeated the RUF. On 18 January 2002, President Kabbah declared the Sierra Leone Civil War officially over.....Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who enjoys protection of the Russian state, supplied Charles Taylor with arms for use in Sierra Leone and had meetings with him about the operations. Charles Taylor worked for The United States' CIA, beginning in 1980s. The exact nature of this relationship is uncertain.....The initial rebellion could have easily been quelled in the first half of 1991. But the RUF – despite being both numerically inferior and extremely brutal against civilians – controlled two-thirds of Sierra Leone by the year’s end. The SLA’s equally poor behavior made this outcome possible....many SLA soldiers discovered that they could do better by joining with the rebels in looting civilians in the countryside instead of fighting against them.[6] The local civilians referred to these soldiers as ‘sobels’ or ‘soldiers by day, rebels by night’ because of their close ties to the RUF....A grassroots militia force, the Kamajors operated invisibly in familiar territory and was a significant impediment to marauding government and RUF troops.[41] For displaced and unprotected Sierra Leonans, joining the Kamajors was a means of taking up arms to defend family and home due to the SLA’s perceived incompetence and active collusion with the rebel enemy. The Kamajors clashed with both government and RUF forces.....with the RUF within twenty miles of Freetown, Executive Outcomes, a paramilitary group from South Africa, arrived in Sierra Leone. For $1.8 million per month (financed primarily by the International Monetary Fund), ....In just ten days of fighting, EO was able to drive the RUF forces back sixty miles into the interior of the country.[51] EO outmatched the RUF forces in all operations. In just seven months, EO, with support from loyal SLA and the Kamajors battalions, recaptured the diamond mining districts....After the departure of Executive Outcomes, the credibility of the Kabbah government declined, ....The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also condemned the AFRC coup, and ECOMOG forces demanded that the new junta return power peacefully to the Kabbah government or risk sanctions and increased military presence. [ECOMOG’s intervention in Sierra Leone brought the AFRC/RUF rebels to the negotiating table ....Unlike other previous neutral peacekeeping forces, UNAMSIL brought serious military power....British Royal Marines were deployed in Operation Palliser to evacuate foreign nationals and establish order.[83] They stabilized the situation, and were the catalyst for a ceasefire that helped end the war. The British forces, under the command of Brigadier David Richards, expanded their original mandate which was limited to evacuating commonwealth citizens
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So if interfering in one side of a civil war is a crime Taylor is hardly the only one who should be in the dock.
South African mercenaries, the IMF's own hired army, UN , assorted
No defence of Taylor but, if this "court" is meant to approximate a real court isn't there meant to be something about equality under the law? There is a pretty good case that a civil war on the other side of your border is a "threat to peace" justifying intervention but when did the IMF, Britain and South Africa develop such borders.
And haven't a number of European leaders said that international law doesn't apply to them and they have the right to intervene in any country they want (Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Syria), run their own terrorist organisations, bomb civilians, ethnically cleanse & worse whenever they want. Whatever one thinks of Taylor he isn't worse than that, or even as bad.
Actively not a question raised in any of the MSM coverage.
I am not going to say he was on the side of the good guys here because looking at that pointless 11 year gangsterism there doesn't seem to be antibody worth of that description. The closest is the Kamajors, a local militia who developed to defend villagers against both "soldiers" and "rebels" (sobels as they were called). Their leader failed to get on the "democratic" side fast enough and was also indicted by the Europeans,
The short wiki version of the war:
During the first year of the war, the RUF took control of large swathes of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone...precipitated a military coup d'état in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).[2] By the end of 1993, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) had succeeded in pushing the RUF rebels back to the Liberian border, but the RUF recovered and fighting continued. In March 1995, Executive Outcomes (EO), a South Africa-based private military company, was hired to repel the RUF. ...Under UN pressure, the government terminated its contract with EO before the accord could be implemented, and hostilities recommenced. In May 1997 a group of disgruntled SLA officers staged a coup and established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) as the new government of Sierra Leone.[5] The RUF joined with the AFRC to capture Freetown with little resistance. The new government, led by Johnny Paul Koroma, declared the war officially over. A wave of looting, rape, and murder followed the announcement.[6] Reflecting international dismay at the overturning of the civilian government, ECOMOG forces intervened and retook Freetown on behalf of the government, but they found the outlying regions more difficult to pacify.....The Lome Peace Accord, signed on 27 March 1999, was the result. Lome gave Foday Sankoh, the commander of the RUF, the vice presidency and control of Sierra Leone's diamond mines in return for a cessation of the fighting and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to monitor the disarmament process. RUF compliance with the disarmament process was inconsistent and sluggish, and by May 2000, the rebels were advancing again upon Freetown. The British intervened to save the failing UN mission and the weak government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. With help from a renewed UN mandate and Guinean air support, the British Operation Palliser finally defeated the RUF. On 18 January 2002, President Kabbah declared the Sierra Leone Civil War officially over.....Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who enjoys protection of the Russian state, supplied Charles Taylor with arms for use in Sierra Leone and had meetings with him about the operations. Charles Taylor worked for The United States' CIA, beginning in 1980s. The exact nature of this relationship is uncertain.....The initial rebellion could have easily been quelled in the first half of 1991. But the RUF – despite being both numerically inferior and extremely brutal against civilians – controlled two-thirds of Sierra Leone by the year’s end. The SLA’s equally poor behavior made this outcome possible....many SLA soldiers discovered that they could do better by joining with the rebels in looting civilians in the countryside instead of fighting against them.[6] The local civilians referred to these soldiers as ‘sobels’ or ‘soldiers by day, rebels by night’ because of their close ties to the RUF....A grassroots militia force, the Kamajors operated invisibly in familiar territory and was a significant impediment to marauding government and RUF troops.[41] For displaced and unprotected Sierra Leonans, joining the Kamajors was a means of taking up arms to defend family and home due to the SLA’s perceived incompetence and active collusion with the rebel enemy. The Kamajors clashed with both government and RUF forces.....with the RUF within twenty miles of Freetown, Executive Outcomes, a paramilitary group from South Africa, arrived in Sierra Leone. For $1.8 million per month (financed primarily by the International Monetary Fund), ....In just ten days of fighting, EO was able to drive the RUF forces back sixty miles into the interior of the country.[51] EO outmatched the RUF forces in all operations. In just seven months, EO, with support from loyal SLA and the Kamajors battalions, recaptured the diamond mining districts....After the departure of Executive Outcomes, the credibility of the Kabbah government declined, ....The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also condemned the AFRC coup, and ECOMOG forces demanded that the new junta return power peacefully to the Kabbah government or risk sanctions and increased military presence. [ECOMOG’s intervention in Sierra Leone brought the AFRC/RUF rebels to the negotiating table ....Unlike other previous neutral peacekeeping forces, UNAMSIL brought serious military power....British Royal Marines were deployed in Operation Palliser to evacuate foreign nationals and establish order.[83] They stabilized the situation, and were the catalyst for a ceasefire that helped end the war. The British forces, under the command of Brigadier David Richards, expanded their original mandate which was limited to evacuating commonwealth citizens
------------------------------------------------------
So if interfering in one side of a civil war is a crime Taylor is hardly the only one who should be in the dock.
South African mercenaries, the IMF's own hired army, UN , assorted
No defence of Taylor but, if this "court" is meant to approximate a real court isn't there meant to be something about equality under the law? There is a pretty good case that a civil war on the other side of your border is a "threat to peace" justifying intervention but when did the IMF, Britain and South Africa develop such borders.
And haven't a number of European leaders said that international law doesn't apply to them and they have the right to intervene in any country they want (Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Syria), run their own terrorist organisations, bomb civilians, ethnically cleanse & worse whenever they want. Whatever one thinks of Taylor he isn't worse than that, or even as bad.
Actively not a question raised in any of the MSM coverage.
Labels: International politics, Rise of modern fascism, Yugoslavia
