I defy anyone to reveal how White Amerikkka is not totally accountable for the travesties in all of Liberia's history!
Liberia's Taylor faces war crimes trial at Hague

By Alexandra Hudson Sun Jun 3, 6:21 PM ET

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor goes on trial before a U.N.-backed court at
The Hague on Monday charged with instigating murder, rape and mutilation during Sierra Leone's civil war.

Prosecutors and human rights campaigners hope the case will send a message that no leaders, including heads of state, should expect to escape punishment for atrocities.

Taylor, 59, has pleaded not guilty to the 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity he faces at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Some 50,000 people were killed in the West African country's 1991-2002 civil war.

Even among Africa's horrific wars, the fighting in Sierra Leone stood out for its exceptional brutality -- casual murder, mass rapes, the hacking of limbs from civilians and the forced recruitment of child soldiers as young as eight.

Taylor, driving force behind a tangle of conflicts in West Africa, was brought to The Hague because of fears that a trial in Freetown could spark new regional instability.

"We view this trial as one where we have an opportunity to get it right -- to show how one can go about prosecuting a chief of state at international level and do so in a way which is accessible," said prosecutor Stephen Rapp, an American.

"Some of these crimes involve the most horrendous things human beings can do to one another."

DIAMONDS

Prosecutors state in the indictment that Taylor sought to gain control of Sierra Leone's mineral wealth, particularly its diamond mines, and destabilize the Freetown government, to boost his own regional influence.

They argue that Taylor supported and directed Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels as they carried out a campaign of terror against Sierra Leone's civilians. Prosecutors say he failed to use his power to prevent war crimes being committed.

Taylor's defense does not dispute the horrors, but says he was not giving orders to fighters in Sierra Leone, supplying weapons to the rebels or recruiting child soldiers.

It says the prosecution cannot prove his involvement during the period of the charges, which start from 1996, and says his contacts with the RUF after that were solely aimed at bringing regional peace.

Taylor invaded Liberia with a rebel force in 1989 to end a dictatorship and was elected president in 1997. His enemies regrouped abroad and their fighters forced him from Monrovia in 2003, first to refuge in Nigeria.

Taylor was handed over by the Nigerians under international pressure. In the past, ousted African rulers often lived out their lives in comfortable exile.

The Special Court aims to complete Taylor's trial quickly and hopes to avoid the disappointment felt when former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic died months before a verdict after a trial of more than four years.