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Symptoms of Guilt: Warlords’ Cries Against a War Crimes Tribunal 30 April 04 Corrected With disarmament proceeding as planned, Liberia’s warlords are beginning to show signs of fear of what many around the world demand—a war crimes tribunal. Indeed, any dream of peace without justice remains a mere dream soon to fall apart. Fear of a war crimes is one which all Liberian warlords, without exception, have because of the enormous evidence and eyewitnesses available to tell their storiesfor justice to prevail. Speaking recently in Nigeria, where he has been given a safe-house to elude an indictment on 17 counts of crimes ranging from rape to terrorism, Charles Taylor said he is prepared to face a truth and reconciliation commission, something he vehemently opposed when he became president despite calls from all sectors of Liberian society to have one. Everybody committed crimes, he insisted. So there was no need for truth or to reconcile. He had forgiven his victims, he declared. But Taylor had another defence for his crimes that he frequently cited. He said the politicians were responsible, not he alone. “They and myself sent them”, he said of the politicians and the child soldiers he recruited to die. Prince Johnson, who reports say has fled back to Nigeria after an alleged threat from the family of late President Samuel Doe to kill him, also said the politicians were responsible for his acts. Alhaji Kromah, as a warlord, repeatedly made the same claim. Roosevelt Johnson and others were known for indicting "the politicians." Now comes George Dweh, the rebel commander speaker of the transitional parliament. This week, Dweh accused "the politicians" for the country’s collapse and the numerous crimes committed. He went further by saying blames against Charles Taylor are unjustified. The politicians, not Charles Taylor, are responsible. There is one chorus by the warlords: if the "politicians" insist on a war crimes court, we will pick-up the gun." "We have not killed yet", one rebel leader has been quoted as saying. Dweh said if there is a war crimes tribunal, it should try crimes committed as far back as not 1980 when executions became common as a political tool , but 1912. Whether the accused in the alleged crimes of 1912 are still alive is a question for Dweh to answer when the time comes. But he offers a compromise to be considered once the Court sits and he is brought before it. It has all been a big joke with ghastly implications. A bloody war was waged in the name of ridding the country of Charles Taylor, destroying towns from the Guinea border into Monrovia, just as Taylor waged his war to free it from the evils of Samuel Doe, as he vowed. In Dweh's words just as in Taylor's , it has all been a big joke. But these men did not have to utter a word about the joke. Their acts and minds are cleaere piece of evidence of the joke. They came for the politicians, not for Charles Taylor, and for Dweh, any lesson that his position as Speaker is a high political position, not a rebel command post, is simply a waste of time. He belongs to another world. Indeed a joke. Pictures of shells falling on civilians and churches, of heaps of corpses spread before the US embassy by the helpless, remain fresh in the mind. Those were acts to justify Dweh’s rebel movement’s war on Monrovia for one single purpose—to get Taylor out. Now, after Taylor’s exit with the likelihood that the world and Liberians will settle for nothing less than a war crimes tribunal, Dweh is wrapping his hands around Taylor in justified solidarity. This in itself is surprising only to those who believe that there is a distinction when referring to Liberia’s warlords. The only distinction between Taylor and a man like Dweh is that of background, which is fluid. But in terms of the capacity for evil, there is none, except that Taylor is more suave and better educated for those who do not know him to take him seriously, as was the case with his friendship with former US president Jimmy Carter. Dweh, on the other, is a street fighter many still fear, and justifiably so with knowledge of his record. There are however more fundamental questions of the warlords’ fingers pointed at the politicians, as they call their foes. Who are these politicians, since there are hundreds of them? Some names would make their case more tangible. But here again, in the world of Dwehs, any one questioning their crimes is "a politician." On the other hand, no politician has refused to appear before a war crimes tribunal. In fact, most are demanding one. The warlords are the ones fearing a war crimes tribunal and therefore resisting its formation, however fruitlessly. A Truth Commission, which they want to conceal their crimes, is practical where the villains admit their guilt and in some cases receive punishment, but not when they believe they are right and must therefore command political positions against the wishes of their intimidated victims. The truth in Liberia is known, only the verdict remains to be rendered. The ranting against a war crimes tribunal indicates that as the party slowly winds down, justice is in the horizon. And when the bells of justice ring, there will be no hiding place for George Dweh and his type. So it will be done by God’s grace and the will of determined humanity in the search for justice. --Tom Kamara ____________________________
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