|
|
|
||
George Dweh Vindicates Charles Taylor, Wants Truth Comm., Not War crimes 30 April 04 The Speaker of the transitional assembly has called on Liberians to stop blaming Charles Taylor, indicted for war crimes, for the years of war that led to national collapse. George Dweh, accused of many human rights abuses during the reign of his kinsman Liberia’s military strongman Samuel Doe, killed in 1990, says a truth commission, not a war crimes tribunal, should be formed. Football star and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador George Weah, after touring disarmament sites, this week called for the formation of a war crimes tribunal to find and prosecute all warlords accused of recruiting children into their various armies. But Dweh, an official of the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, and before that another rebel group United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia-Johnson (ULIMO-J), was a leading actor in the war that finally contributed to Taylor’s exit, leaving the country destroyed. Many women’s groups have since staged demonstration against Dweh when he was named speaker, accusing him of executing Johnny Nah,(an engineer and official of the Liberia Electricity Corporation under whom Dweh served as a lower level functionary) and his pregnant wife in early 1990. Dweh spoke when a group of Assistant Ministers in the government visited his office to appeal for what they call restoration of benefits. He blamed the country’s politicians, not Taylor, for the anarchy. This is not the first time that warlords have blamed politicians for serious crimes committed against civilians. Charles Taylor and other warlords blamed politicians for the war. |
|||
