Cutting deals for dictators

Posted By Jai Singh Saturday, April 1, 2006 - 2:43 PM



kapaul3


The Charles Taylor episode has renewed interest in a strange character, his "spiritual advisor," Indian-born Houston-based evangelical leader K.A. Paul, who seems to relish brokering parting deals for dictators.
 
As Taylor was apparently planning an escape this week, Paul was trying to negotiate another assylum agreement for with Ethiopia (where Taylor could stay until "the right time comes for him to face charges"). Paul helped negotiate the initial assylum deal with Nigeria in 2003, and Taylor, according to a 2003 William Finnegan New Yorker piece, wrote a letter (which wasn't published) to the New York Times giving Paul credit for getting Taylor to step down. Finnegan wrote:

Charles Taylor, having laid waste to Liberia, has been trying to set the record straight about who persuaded him to surrender his Presidency and go into exile in Nigeria. “I will say that 99% of [the credit] goes to Dr. K. A. Paul alone,” he wrote on August 16th, in a letter to the Times. Since Taylor was on the verge of losing a civil war, and three African heads of state went to Liberia to usher him out of the country—and since President Bush made his exit a precondition of American peacekeeping help—this is no small nod to Dr. K. A. Paul.

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EXPLORE:AFRICA, JUSTICE, RELIGION

Outsourcing justice

Posted By David Bosco Thursday, March 30, 2006 - 8:24 PM

 

Charles Taylor

That's former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor surrounded by serious-looking UN peacekeepers. It almost makes me believe in the UN again. Almost.

The remarkable story of Taylor's arrest took another interesting turn today when it was reported that the tribunal in Sierra Leone has asked the International Criminal Court in the Hague to host the trial (the ICC seems all but certain to say yes, though a UN Security Council resolution may be required). It's apparent that the governments in Sierra Leone and Liberia are nervous about the potentially destabilizing impact of a trial, and outsourcing justice to the Hague is a nice compromise.

t's unclear whether the Bush administration knew beforehand that the ICC would get a call. Top Bush folks, and UN Ambassador John Bolton in particular, have been hesitant to legitimize the ICC. In this case, the fact that the ICC will be merely hosting the trial -- not conducting it -- should save face all around.

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EXPLORE:AFRICA, HUMAN RIGHTS, JUSTICE

Chuck Taylor goes missing

Posted By Jai Singh Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - 11:44 AM

Charles Taylor

Darn it! A week after Liberia asked for him to be handed over a tribunal in Sierra Leone, Charles Taylor goes missing in Nigeria. Who didn't see this coming? In a press release last week, Human Rights Watch certainly did: "...credible sources in the past week have told Human Rights Watch that little or no security exists around Taylor’s compound in Calabar, Nigeria, prompting fears that he might escape before he can be brought to justice."

Nigerian security guards assigned to Taylor have reportedly been arrested, but there's no word on whether they're actually looking for him. 

There's really no doubt that this is Nigeria's fault -- either negligence, incompetence, or complicity.  

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