UNITED NATIONS, June 4 (UPI) -- The U.N.-backed Sierra Leone Special Court Wednesday announced the indictment of Liberia's President Charles Taylor for war crimes. The court also sent a warrant for his arrest to Interpol and neighboring Ghana where the Liberian president was in just-opened cease-fire talks with rebel leaders.
But Taylor quickly flew back from Ghana's capital of Accra to the Liberian capital of Monrovia, reportedly on a Ghanaian government aircraft, with some Accra officials saying that no formal warrant had been received.
Ghana's foreign and interior ministers, however, confirmed to the British Broadcasting Corp. that they had been requested to arrest Taylor.
As news of the indictment spread, fear of renewed factional fighting hit the Liberia's capital. Thousands of the Monrovia's residents fled the city, troops moved into the streets, and a paramilitary force loyal to Taylor protectively surrounded the presidential mansion, the BBC reported.
Taylor was indicted for supporting Sierra Leone's rebels, allegedly in return for diamonds. Those rebels, many drug-induced child-soldiers, became infamous for using machetes to hack off the limbs of civilians during the conflict, which began in 1991 and ran for nearly the rest of the decade.
"We have to see how the facts unfold and how he got on a plane to leave Ghana," David Scheffer, former U.S. war crimes ambassador, told United Press International in a telephone interview.
"One hopes no government was encouraging the government of Ghana to immunize Taylor from the arrest warrant."
Chief spokesman Fred Eckhard at U.N. headquarters in New York said David Crane, chief prosecutor of the special court, had released the March 7 sealed indictment in Freetown, Sierra Leone, earlier upon learning that Taylor was in Accra.
Crane said in a statement: "The registrar of the special court served the outstanding warrant for his (Taylor's) arrest and transmitted the arrest warrant to Interpol."
"My office was given an international mandate by the United Nations and the Republic of Sierra Leone to follow the evidence impartially wherever it leads," said Crane, adding, it "led unequivocally to Taylor."
"The indictment accused Taylor of 'bearing the greatest responsibility' for war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law within the territory of Sierra Leone since Nov. 30, 1996," said the prosecutor, who asked the indictment be unsealed Wednesday. "This is the first time that his presence outside of Liberia has been publicly confirmed. The registrar was doing his duty by carrying out the order of the court."
"Furthermore, the timing of this announcement was carefully considered in light of the important peace process begun this week," the prosecutor continued, emphasizing that it was "imperative that the attendees know they are dealing with an indicted war criminal. These negotiations can still move forward, but the must do so without the involvement of this indictee."
"The evidence upon which this indictment was approved raises serious questions about Taylor's suitability to be a guarantor of any deal, let alone a peace agreement," said Crane.
The prosecutor also said he was aware "a great deal of energy" had been invested in the talks.
Taylor was in Accra in hopes of reaching a cease-fire with the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, which control about two-thirds of Liberia and were within striking distance of Monrovia.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was so enthused about the peace conference, he dispatched his representative in Liberia, Abou Moussa, to the meeting to deliver a personal message to the opening session.
"Your meeting today offers hope that a peaceful resolution may at last be reached," Annan said in the message. "I congratulate all those who have agreed to take part. We should all be grateful to the Government of Ghana for hosting the meeting, and to the Economic Community of Western Africa States for its role in organizing it."
Despite the importance of the meeting, the prosecutor accepted sole responsibility for the timing, saying: "I want to make it clear that in reaching my decision to make the indictment public, I have not consulted with any state. I am acting as an independent prosecutor and this decision was based solely on the law."
Eckhard said Annan's office was informed of the indictment after it was unsealed.
Scheffer agreed with Crane's handling of the matter.
"The prosecutor did the right thing," Scheffer said. "Because it would have been very deceptive to have allowed those peace talks to progress without revealing to the other negotiators that in fact Taylor is indicted."
"It would have been unwise to allow the talks to go on in ignorance of the indictment," the former envoy went on to say, "because the negotiators negotiate under fraudulent conditions."
As to complicating the talks, he said: "I thought we crossed that bridge a long time ago when we pursued bad guys very vigorously, and when you got the real bad guy of West Africa, you better see him for what he is and if the time has come for him to be arrested, the time has come."
Scheffer cited the arrest and prosecution of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, now on trial in The Hague for war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
"It's the classic peace versus justice argument, but even there one would have to argue 'Why is it assumed peace can only be achieved with Charles Taylor unindicted?,'" asked Scheffer. "It may be peace can be better served in West Africa with a major bad guy actually indicted and removed from the process. We found that true with Milosevic and I would say it is true with Charles Taylor."
Only Monday, in his latest report to the U.N. Security Council, Annan said: "Liberia remains the epicenter of the continuing endemic instability, which is gravely affecting the political, humanitarian and security landscape not only in the Mano River Union sub-region but also throughout much of West Africa."
The union encompasses West Africa neighbors Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Bertrand Ramcharan, the acting U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed solidarity with Crane and support for the special court. In a statement, he recalled the aspirations of the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia for peace and reconciliation, and appealed to all concerned -- particularly the Liberian leadership -- to act with calm and wisdom and to uphold international human rights and humanitarian law.
For years, Taylor has been tagged as enmeshing the region in upheaval, allegedly enriching himself with wealth from, particularly, "blood diamonds" and other natural resources in region, his payoff for funneling arms in and resources out.
Earlier this week, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported a fresh 2,000 Liberian refugees fled the rebellion in their own country for neighboring Ivory Coast, another West Africa nation facing rebellion, relatively quiet now with French troops on the ground. Some Ivory Coast refugees remained in Liberia.
It took British troops at the turn of the millennium to help stabilize Sierra Leone, whose refugees fled into Guinea and Liberia.
Earlier this week, officials of the Sierra Leone Special Court took custody of a body purported by Liberia to be Sam "Mosquito" Bockarie, indicted for Sierra Leone war crimes by the special court the same day as Taylor.
Liberian authorities had claimed Bockarie was killed May 6 during an alleged arrest attempt, the court's prosecutor, Crane, said. "Last week they revised their story and announced that Bockarie was plotting a coup attempt against the Taylor regime. For the past three weeks they have refused to transfer the remains to the court ... in order to provide positive identification."
Also earlier this week Crane announced the arrest and transfer to the court of Brima "Bazzy" Kamara, who was indicted for war crimes and was a former senior commander in the forces of Johnny Paul Koroma, also indicted for war crimes and sought by the court.
Crane said it was known Koroma was in Liberia "under the protection of Charles Taylor."
A U.N. Security Council fact-finding mission is set to visit volatile West Africa the end of this month.
