Yet Injustice in Charles Taylor's Indictment
By Christina K. Zangar

10 May 04

As Mr. Alvin  Teage correctly put it in his Article (Justice in Taylor’s Indictment New democrat Website, May 3, 2004), the “The indictment against Charles M. Taylor (defendant) for crimes against humanity has left an embarrassing mark on Liberia”. I have followed the arguments concerning Taylor’s indictment by the special for Sierra Leone for some time now. After reading Mr. Teage and Mr. Keneah’s Jr. positions on this question, I fell compelled to make some import as Liberian.

Mr. Teage raised many points to support his claim (see Justice in Taylor’s Indictment). He argued that “it is the world vs. the defendant because the Special Court was duly established by the United Nations.” Therefore, he disagreed with certain potion of Mr. Keneah's Jr. Article (Liberian’s Liberia's Legal System Vs. Sierra Leone Special Court, New democrat Website, April 2004). He further noted that “The question as to whether the indictment has done Liberians any good is a little puzzling”. He went on that “such a question would be more appropriate if the defendant were indicted for acts committed within Liberia”. He asserted that, Taylor “is s indicted for acts committed within the borders of Sierra Leone. As the direct victims of the alleged criminal acts, it is the people of Sierra Leone who should specifically ask whether the indictment has done them any good”. Mr. Teage doubts Mr. Keneah’s Jr. sincererity when he questioned the timing of the indictment, while raising legal matter. He stressed that, “Mr. Crane has an international mandate to indict anyone he believes bears the greatest responsibility for the terrible acts, which were committed within the borders of Sierra Leone”. He reiterated that “the defendant had a long history of using violence against innocent Liberians to achieve his demands. So, if anything, the decision to unseal the indictment as the defendant was outside Liberia shows that Mr. Crane, a non-African, is more concerned about peace in Liberia than some are willing to admit”. In conclusion, Mr. Teage claimed to have to have cited Article 61 in it entirety to prove that the constitutional immunity “only applies to official acts”. To support this argument, he provided a comparative analysis, that “if the president orders a division of the armed forces to assist the police to restore order in an unusual case of domestic unrest and a protester dies as a result of the military action, the president would enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution. If the president, however, murders his or her spouse during the heat of an argument, the immunity would not apply because the murder was not in performance of his or her constitutional duties”.

From the above, my impression is that, Mr. Teage did not understand Mr. Keneah’s, Jr. Article ( Liberian’s Liberia's Legal System Vs. Sierra Leone Special Court, New democrat Website, April 2004); therefore he is being very personal and trying to present Mr. Keneah’s Jr. argument as being supportive of Taylor. Such a distortion is very unacademic and intended to confuse the Liberian people. If he understood Mr. Keneah’s Jr. Article, then he deliberately decided to distort it for reason(s) known to him. It is in line with this, I wish to make the following arguments.

1. Mr. Keneah, Jr. has not express opposition to the idea of indicting Taylor for any crime committed while he was president of Liberia. He has only raised procedural questions which he suggested that it be corrected by the Special Court for Sierra Leone before asking the Liberia Government for cooperation. Liberia has an established legal system which has to be obeyed. Even if Taylor has killed his wife while president, before standing trail, there is an established legal procedure(s) which has to be followed by the Legislative branch of government, if that crime undermines the exercise of presidential power by a setting President; otherwise, the legal proceedings in such a case will wait until the President leaves power.
2. I find it difficult to understand Mr. Teage when questioning Mr. Keneah’s, Jr. position on the timing of the unsealed arrest warrant for Taylor, while attending peace conference in Ghana. Is Mr. Teage trying to say that the arrest of Taylor was so important than the blood of innocent Liberians who were to die had Taylor been arrested in Ghana on that day? So, Taylor was not arrested, how many person died in Sierra Leone because of that? Had the peace process in Sierra Leone been aborted in any way because Taylor was not arrested on that day? Does the arrest of Taylor chain to the conviction of any of those presently detained in Sierra Leone? Is there no other avenue available to the Special Court for Sierra Leone to arrest Taylor but selected to sacrifice the blood of innocent Liberians as collaterals for a country that already have peace? Perhaps, Sierra Leonaen may ask themselves as to whether the indictment of Taylor had done them any good as suggested by Mr. Teage, because there are other African leaders and some Europeans who were involved and benefited from the armed conflict in Sierra Leone but none of them names had ever surfaced except Taylor. Through out his article, Mr. Keneah, Jr. did not express any support for Taylor to evade Justice as Mr. Teage tries to indicate. In any case, Mr. Keneah, Jr. strongly supports a tribunal that will bring all the warlords of Liberia, including Taylor to answer for their role in the death of innocent people in Liberia.
3. Mr. Teage used the word “pursuant” to distort the point Mr. Keneah, Jr. is trying to raise. He did not only fail to provide legal backing for his arguments but left out the last sentence in the same article he clamed to be quoting in its entirety. The last sentence in this article, Article 61, reads that, “the President shall not, however, be immune from prosecution upon removal from office for the commission of any criminal act done while President”. My understanding of this section is that, in the case, where the instance cited by Mr. Teage happens, i.e. where the President acts out of his presidential power, and the House of Legislature feels that the gravity of the case does not warrant impeachment for he/she to stand trail, the President could be indicted upon leaving power. This aspect was also acknowledged by Mr. Keneah, Jr. in his article. Instead of looking at this issue with independent eyes, as done by Mr. Keneah, Jr., Mr. Teage, like some of our people are controlled by hate feelings. This is not how the law works. If we agree with what you are say, it will suggest that, any body can just walk to a court house and issue writ on the President and an arresting officer will be sent to have the President arrested.
4. If one considers Mr. Teage argument carefully, one stands to collect that, since Taylor committed crime in the border with Sierra Leone, any body can come from there and have him arrest. If Mr. Teage is a lawyer I am not, but I want to let him know that this is a complex issue than he thinks. This identical question can only be answered by the necessary provisions of both International Public and Private Laws. The composition and territorial jurisdictions of this court was also addressed sufficiently by Mr. Keneah, Jr. However, for reason (s) best known to Mr. Teage, he selected to close his eyes on that. In addiction, Mr. Teage and others need to go back to carefully read our constitution and the Accra Agreement. Mr. Keneah, Jr. also referred in his Article to these documents.

Mr. Teage and other should be very grateful to Mr. Keneah, Jr. He demonstrated great sense of courage. I do not know this guy but I think he could make a great leader. Those points he raised are uncommon in our society because we always want to take the popular line. Remember, majority is not always right. When we hate someone, we never cared to look at the opposite side of things. Until we have at least one thousand Liberians in each of our counties like this gentleman, we will always be a followers. Maybe, there are many Liberians out there like Mr. Keneah, Jr. but they are afraid to come out because of fear of criticism. Lofen Keneah, Jr. keeps up your good work.. We need someone like you who will be critical in thinking and will care nothing but say things as you did. For me, you are not a defender of Taylor but a protector of our legal system