theSun | TUESDAY JULY 14 2009
news without borders
Taylor will tell court:
I’m a peacemaker
LONDON: For one year,
prosecution witnesses ac-
cused the former Liberian
President Charles Taylor of
atrocities that ranged from
cannibalism to commanding
Sierra Leone rebels who had
hacked off villagers’ limbs,
and of selling weapons and
ammunition in exchange for
“blood diamonds”.
Now Taylor is giving his
version of events at his trial
before the UN-backed Special
Court for Sierra Leone.
“His case is that he was
not involved,” Taylor’s British
lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths,
said. “He was a peacemaker,
not a warmonger.”
Griffiths will deliver his
opening statement today and
the former president will take
the stand today for what is
expected to be weeks of tes-
timony as he fights against
11 charges including murder,
torture, rape, sexual slavery
and spreading terror.
Prosecutors say that
Taylor commanded Sierra
Leone rebels responsible for
the atrocities from his base
in the neighbouring West Af-
rican nation of Liberia, where
the former warlord was the
elected president.
Taylor, the first African
head of state to be tried
Honduras may offer ousted
by an international court,
has pleaded not guilty to all
charges. He was forced into
exile after being indicted in
2003 and was arrested in
Nigeria in 2006. He was sent
Zelaya amnesty
for trial in The Hague because
officials feared staging the
case in Sierra Leone could
spark further violence.
Proceedings began
in January 2008.
Prosecutors called
91 witnesses,
ranging from
high-ranking
members of
Taylor’s inner
circle to victims
of atrocities.
Witnesses testi-
fied about radio
exchanges between
Taylor and the rebels
and arms and diamonds
smuggled between Liberia
and Sierra Leone. One former
aide said he saw Taylor eat a
human liver.
“We say and have said
all along that they are lying,”
Griffiths said of the prosecu-
tion witnesses.
About 500,000 people are
believed to have been the
victims of killings, mutilation
and other atrocities during
Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002
civil war. – The Independent
TEGUCIGALPA: Honduran interim
leader Roberto Micheletti (pix), said
on Sunday ousted president Manuel
Zelaya would not be allowed to
return to power under any circum-
stances but could be granted an
amnesty if he comes home quietly
to face justice.
Micheletti’s overture was the first
conciliatory offer from the interim
authorities to try to solve the worst
crisis in Central America since the
Cold War, although Zelaya insists
on being reinstated and has vowed
to return and defy the interim gov-
ernment.
“If he comes peacefully first to
appear before the authorities ... I
don’t have any problem (with an
amnesty for him),” Micheletti said
in an exclusive interview at the
presidential palace in Tegucigalpa
in a room guarded by five heavily-
armed soldiers.
“We have to talk to the Supreme
Court and consult with the State At-
torney of the Republic to see what
possibilities there are of that nature,”
he added. “But I think that we need
to seek peace, and that is part of it.”
However the interim president, a
centrist veteran of Zelaya’s Liberal
Party who was installed by Hon-
duras’ Congress after the June 28
military coup that deposed Zelaya,
repeated his position that Zelaya
would not be reinstated as president
“under any conditions.”
This signalled Micheletti’s con-
tinuing defiance of international
condemnation of the coup and calls
from the Organisation of American
States, the United States and the
United Nations General Assembly
for Zelaya to be restored to office.
Honduras’ Congress and Su-
preme Court ordered the army to
remove Zelaya last month, argu-
ing he had violated the country’s
constitution by attempting to lift
presidential term limits.
Zelaya, who is travelling in the
Americas to shore up his support,
also ran afoul of his political base
and ruling elites in the conservative
country by allying himself with Ven-
ezuela’s firebrand leftist president,
Hugo Chavez.
Micheletti blamed Chavez for the
political crisis.
“We are completely certain that
Chavez is intervening in our coun-
try,” Micheletti said. “He is com-
pletely responsible for the death the
other day at the protest,” Micheletti
said. “I think he is responsible for
all of this.”
At least one pro-Zelaya protester
9
was killed in clashes at Tegucigalpa’s
airport a week ago when Honduran
troops blocked an attempt by Zelaya
to return in a plane provided by
Chavez.
“Chavez is the great damage
that democracy in Honduras has
suffered. We hold him responsible
for any incident or any invasion that
might come against Honduras from
any country,” he said. “He believed
this country was one of his satellites,
and he was wrong.”
He said that Honduras would
fight back if Chavez sought to in-
vade the country in a bid to reinstate
Zelaya.
“We have the courage to defend
our resources,” Micheletti said. “We
will receive him with open arms,”
he joked. “I don’t have the least
doubt that seven million Hondurans
will become soldiers to defend our
territory.”
Micheletti on Sunday lifted a cur-
few imposed since the coup, despite
almost daily protests by pro-Zelaya
supporters.
His interim government is hold-
ing talks with Zelaya’s representa-
tives under the auspices of Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias. The
meetings have resulted in little
apparent progress, aside from an
agreement to keep talking.
Micheletti said Arias was due to
call his negotiating team in the next
10 days to organise the next round of
talks and that he was very satisfied
with Arias’ impartiality. – Reuters