[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E685-E686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

JUSTICE IS SERVED

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HON. FRANK R. WOLF

of virginia

in the house of representatives

Friday, April 27, 2012

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark a historic occurrence--
the first conviction of a head of state in an international war crimes
court since World War II. Of course Adolph Hitler, convicted at the
Nuremberg Trials, had committed suicide prior to the verdict.
Charles Taylor organized and ordered armed attacks throughout Sierra
Leone to terrorize the civilian population and ultimately punish them
for failing to provide sufficient support to the Revolutionary United
Front (RUF), or for supporting the legitimate government. The attacks
were brutal in nature and routinely included unlawful killings,
abductions, forced labor, physical and sexual violence, the use of
child soldiers, looting and Taylor's trademark--mass amputations.
I visited Sierra Leone in 1999 with my good friend, former Member of
Congress Tony Hall. I heard the tales of horror with my own ears and
witnessed with my own eyes the nightmare Taylor left in his wake.
Taylor's interest in promoting and supporting the RUF insurgency was
driven by greed--specifically Sierra Leone's vast diamond resources.
Victims told us that when the RUF would arrive in a village, they would
ask their victims if they wanted ``a long sleeve'' or ``a short
sleeve'' and amputate accordingly.

[[Page E686]]

While it was years in the making, this week's historic verdict marks
a triumph for justice. I especially want to note the dedication of Dr.
Alan W. White, chief investigator responsible for putting the case
together, David M. Crane, chief prosecutor at the Hague, and my former
staffer Chris Santoro who served as a trial attorney in the Taylor
case.
Perhaps most significantly, Taylor's conviction, in the words of an
Associated Press story that I submit for the Record, sends a ``warning
to tyrants.'' Foremost among them is Sudanese president Omar Bashir--
himself an internationally indicted war criminal with blood on his
hands. Furthermore, this verdict ought to be a wake-up call to the
countries and governments that persist in hosting Bashir on official
travel--they will find themselves on the wrong side of history.

Charles Taylor Conviction Sends Warning to Tyrants

(By Mike Corder)

Leidschendam, Netherlands.--Former Liberian President
Charles Taylor became the first head of state since World War
II to be convicted by an international war crimes court, a
historic verdict that sends a message that tyrants worldwide
will be tracked down and brought to justice.
The warlord-turned-president was found guilty on Thursday
of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for
arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for ``blood diamonds''
mined by slave laborers and smuggled across the border.
Judges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone said Taylor
played a crucial role in allowing the rebels to continue a
bloody rampage during that West African nation's 11-year
civil war, which ended in 2002 with more than 50,000 dead.
Ten years after the war ended, Sierra Leone is still
struggling to rebuild.
The rebels gained international notoriety for hacking off
the limbs of their victims and carving their groups' initials
into opponents and even children they kidnapped, drugged and
turned into killers. The rebels developed gruesome terms for
the mutilations that became their chilling trademark: They
would offer their victims the choice of ``long sleeves'' or
``short sleeves''--having their hands hacked off or their
arms sliced off above the elbow.
The 64-year-old Taylor will be sentenced next month after a
separate hearing.
The court has no death penalty and no life sentence. Judges
have given eight other rebels as much as 52 years in prison.
The verdict was hailed by prosecutors, victims and rights
activists as a watershed moment in efforts to end impunity
for leaders responsible for atrocities.
The ruling ``permanently locks in and solidifies the idea
that heads of state are now accountable for what they do to
their own people,'' said David Crane, the former prosecutor
who indicted Taylor in 2003 and is now a professor of
international law at Syracuse University. ``This is a bell
that has been rung and clearly rings throughout the world. If
you are a head of state and you are killing your own people,
you could be next.''
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the judgment as
``a significant milestone for international criminal
justice'' that ``sends a strong signal to all leaders that
they are and will be held accountable for their actions,''
said U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said
Taylor's prosecution ``delivers a strong message to all
perpetrators of atrocities, including those in the highest
positions of power, that they will be held accountable.''
Despite optimism over the verdict, international efforts to
prosecute leaders have been spotty at best. Slobodan
Milosevic died in his cell before a verdict could be reached
on charges of fomenting the Balkan wars. Moammar Gadhafi was
killed by rebels last year before he could be turned over for
trial. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is openly defying
attempts to arrest him on international genocide charges.
In one success story, prosecutors at the U.N.'s Yugoslav
war crimes tribunal are close to wrapping up their case
against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic although
it took more than a decade to have him arrested.
The global implications meant little to survivors of the
war in Sierra Leone who celebrated Taylor's conviction.
``I am happy that the truth has come out . . . that Charles
Taylor is fully and solely responsible for the crimes
committed against the people of Sierra Leone,'' said Jusu
Jarka, who had both his arms hacked off by rebels in 1999 and
who now runs a support group for fellow amputees.
Crowds that gathered to watch the verdict live on
television in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, sighed with
relief when the conviction was announced. Some carried
posters that exposed still-simmering anger. ``Shame on you
Charles Taylor. Give us your diamonds before going to
prison,'' one read.
Prosecuting Taylor proved how hard it is to bring leaders
to justice. He fled into exile in Nigeria after being
indicted in 2003 and wasn't arrested for three years. And
while the Sierra Leone court is based in that country's
capital, Taylor's trial was staged in the Netherlands for
fear it could destabilize the region.
There was no clear paper trail linking Taylor to rebels,
and the three-judge panel wound up convicting him of aiding
and abetting the fighters. He was cleared of direct command
responsibility over the rebels.
In their verdict, reached after 13 months of deliberations,
the judges said Taylor regularly received diamonds from
rebels. But they made no mention of the most famous witness
to testify about the gems--supermodel Naomi Campbell, who
recalled being given a bag of ``very small, dirty-looking
stones'' at a 1997 dinner at Nelson Mandela's official
mansion in South Africa.
Taylor attended the dinner, and prosecutors had hoped
Campbell would testify that he gave her the diamonds. But
Campbell did not, and Taylor's lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths,
dismissed the testimony on Thursday as ``a large, fat zero.''
Taylor, impeccably dressed as usual in suit and tie, said
nothing in court and showed no emotion as the verdict was
read.
There was emotion enough during the five-year trial as 91
prosecution witnesses outlined the horrors of Sierra Leone's
war, many of them describing murders, mutilations, torture
and acts of cannibalism by rebels and the children they
turned into merciless killers.
Taylor insisted he was an innocent victim of neocolonialism
and a political process aimed at preventing him from
returning to power in Liberia. In seven months of testimony
in his own defense, he cast himself as a peacemaker and
statesman in West Africa.
Crane--a vocal supporter of efforts to hold leaders
accountable--concedes that while war crimes tribunals are
independent, they are hard to separate from geopolitical
realities.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is widely accused of
atrocities as it battles to put down a popular revolt, and
yet the prospect that he or any of his generals will be
indicted anytime soon appears remote. Syria does not
recognize the International Criminal Court, meaning
prosecutors there cannot intervene unless the U.N. Security
Council asks them to. Russia and China would likely veto any
such move.
The ICC has indicted al-Bashir for genocide in Darfur,
Sudan, but he has openly defied an international arrest
warrant by flying to friendly nations and has recently
cranked up war rhetoric in his country's border dispute with
South Sudan.
Most likely the next former leader to face justice will be
former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, who is jailed in
The Hague on charges of attacking political opponents as he
attempted to cling to power following elections last year.
Edward Songo Conteh, of Sierra Leone's Amputee and War
Wounded Association, was in court Thursday to watch the
verdict. His only regret was that Taylor was not immediately
sentenced.
``I want to see this man behind bars for the rest of his
life,'' said Conteh, who had one of his hands hacked off by
child soldiers.

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