Charles Taylor guilty

[Ian McColgin]

This ends Taylor's international war crimes trial in The Hague. Celebrations in Sierra Leone may be more reflective than ecstatic as they have had a decade of peace and various Chinese and British interests are investing. In Liberia, where the government is urging calm, things are a bit more complex since, despite his having lost his own civil war before moving the terror to the border with Sierra Leone, Taylor still has supporters.

[John of Phoenix]

Taylor still has supporters.

I'll never understand animals like Taylor or those that support him.

[Jefe]

Here's some recent pictures from Liberia. Wooden boats etc.

[S.V. Airlie]

I am happy he was found guilty. I'm amazed the start of the trial took so long.I would think trials, especially high profile ones would move a little more rapid. I wonder how many appeals he has and how long it will take the courts to go through them.

[Horace]

I'll never understand animals like Taylor or those that support him.

Got a list of his supporters?

[Jefe]

Got a list of his supporters?

He's (still) got some supporters.

[Horace]

He's (still) got some supporters.

Obviously. So do Milošević and Truman.

But finding out who and why can be instructive, at the very least.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

He's going to jail here in Britain.

[purri]

The late President of Burkina Faso was far worse.

[Ian McColgin]

I suppose purri means the leftist dictator Sankara, who was offensive to school children everywhere, changing the name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso. He was hacked to pieces in a 1987 coup partly organized from Liberia by Taylor.

Sankara’s former pal, one Blaise Compaoré, siezed power with French assistance and has held it since, ruling that the constitutional change limiting the President’s term did not apply to him. About 1/10 of eligible voters dare go to the polls but in ’10 Compaoré was reelected in a landslide.

So far as I can see, Compaoré is every bit as bloody and corrupt as Sankara was, but has been more effective at maintaining foreign (both governmental and corporate) support for his dictatorship. Since it’s Taylor who exported war there rather than the other way around, I’d not really consider either Sankara or Compaoré as “worse”.

[purri]

^ state sanctioned cannibalism is (whatever the ethos; note the French regional "influence") ...

[Flying Orca]

I think Taylor's conviction is an excellent precedent. Now, if we could just get Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz in the dock...