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News :: Globalization |
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Proof Neocons/corporate Fascists Are Backing Genocide & Arming Terrorists In Africa |
Current rating: 0 |
by SOMINI SENGUPTA
(No verified email address) |
08 Jul 2003
Modified: 09:45:28 PM |
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You know its true, corporate fascists have been doing it for years clearing the land of people through bio-weapons creating those phony terrorist / rebel group supplying guns etc so those psychopaths can have a free hand at stealing the oil and clear cutting the forests stealing every thing of value heavy metals diamonds etc they have caused the death of tens of millions in the past few years |
ONROVIA, Liberia, July 7 — President Charles Taylor, in an interview, accused the United States today of supporting his rebel enemies and pressed Washington to prove its commitment to Liberia by sending peacekeepers. He also added a surprising coda to his promise to step down, calling his exile a brief "cooling-off period" before a return to Liberian politics.
Asked about his legacy, Mr. Taylor, who was indicted on 17 counts of crimes against humanity for "bearing the greatest responsibility" for mutilations and rapes in neighboring Sierra Leone, said he wanted, above all, to be remembered as "the man that brought peace to Liberia."
"I think it's expedient at this time for Charles Taylor to sacrifice," he said of his departure. He said he was prepared to leave in the "shortest possible time" after international troops arrived. Otherwise, he said, there would be bedlam.
"If we high-tailed out of here without an international force, don't you think there would be a free-for-all?" Mr. Taylor wondered aloud.
Last week, President Bush called for Mr. Taylor's swift departure.
This morning a team of 15 military specialists accompanied by 15 rifle-toting marines touched down in helicopters at the heavily fortified American Embassy here to assess Liberia's needs for security and assistance.
Mr. Bush has yet to announce his decision on sending troops here. [The president left Washington Monday night for Senegal, the first stop on his five-nation trip to Africa.]
Mr. Taylor announced on Sunday that he had accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria, where he would presumably be protected from prosecution on the war crimes charges since Nigeria has no law compelling it to extradite anyone to a war crimes tribunal. Mr. Taylor said today that he planned to use his time in Nigeria to look through his presidential papers and write. He said he planned to return to political life back home after a transitional government had settled in.
"I'll be here to serve my people if the Liberian people want me in the future," he said. Asked whether he planned to seek re-election, he offered, "I don't see that in the very near future."
This afternoon, in the wide-ranging interview in the presidential mansion, Mr. Taylor at once took on the United States government, but was careful not to offend. The grandchild of an American settler in this country that was founded by former American slaves, Mr. Taylor, educated in the United States, said he rued being misunderstood and maligned by his country's closest cousin.
"My regret is that they never understood me, they never gave me a chance," he said of the Americans. "I'm at a loss. I harbor no anger. I harbor no animosity. I want to work with my people and hope the United States sees me in a different light."
He said he was particularly pained because he enjoyed no support from Washington, even after winning an election many international observers described as legitimate.
In the war crimes indictment, Mr. Taylor was described somewhat differently: in the Sierra Leone war, it said, "victims were routinely shot, hacked to death and burned to death." The indictment also noted that "mutilations included cutting off limbs and carving" the initials of rebel groups on the victims.
Mr. Taylor originally was a rebel warlord in his own country and his accusers say that when he came to power he formed alliances with groups in neighboring countries, including Sierra Leone, where he was accused of supporting a war on civilians that left more than 200,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands maimed or raped in the late 1990's.
Mr. Taylor escaped from an American prison in 1985 while awaiting extradition to Liberia on embezzlement charges. Starting in 1989, he led a seven-year insurgency against his predecessor, a military dictator and onetime American ally named Samuel K. Doe, before being elected president in 1997.
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