Gaddafi: the despot who would be king

ADEKEYE ADEBAJO: LIBYA - Mar 04 2011 16:57

Events in Libya suggest that the end of the regime of the world's longest-ruling autocrat, Muammar Gaddafi, is near. It is worth tracing the life and times of this eccentric despot.

After seizing power in an act of regicide against King Idriss in 1969, Gaddafi initially modelled his rule on that of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, the celebrated champion of pan-Arabism. Overcome by emotion, Gaddafi fainted twice during Nasser's funeral in Cairo in 1970.

As the martyred South African liberation heroine Ruth First noted in an insightful 1974 study titled Libya: The Elusive Revolution, the contradictions of Gaddafi's revolution were many.

He simultaneously pursued a social revolution and a revival of Islamic fundamentalism; 11 young soldiers held power while claiming to represent a mass-based popular revolution; the Libyan leader condemned the corruption of the monarchical ancien régime while cutting lucrative deals with global oil cartels; and Gaddafi's traditional, religious approach led him to live in a Bedouin tent and criticise Western decadence, even as he relied on its technology and companies to finance his domestic revolution and foreign adventures.

Gaddafi's Green Book of 1975 rejected liberal democracy in favour of what he described as direct democracy through "popular committees", though these were accused of terrorising the population. In his early rule the Libyan leader achieved some social progress through his oil wealth and 1,5-million foreigners flocked to his country from Africa and the Middle East.

In the politics of the Maghreb Gaddafi's role was mercurial. Just before his country took over the presidency of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) in 2003, the Libyan leader said: "It's time to put the union in the freezer." A year later Tripoli announced that it was leaving the AMU after the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation offered rapid reaction training to Maghrebi states. Only pleas from Morocco and Tunisia prevented Gaddafi from carrying out his threat.

'Diplomatically isolated'
Gaddafi would prove equally controversial south of the Sahara. He became diplomatically isolated in Africa after his 1980 military intervention in Chad, losing support among his peers for supporting dissident groups against "neocolonial" regimes on the continent.

Gaddafi sent troops to bolster the regime of brutal Ugandan autocrat and fellow Muslim, General Idi Amin, between 1972 and 1979. In the 1980s the self-styled Libyan revolutionary provided military training to the warlords of two of West Africa's most vicious rebel groups in the 1990s: Liberia's Charles Taylor and Sierra Leone's Foday Sankoh. He also reportedly trained and armed Tuareg rebels who triggered a conflict in northern Mali in 1990.

Gaddafi would eventually swap his pan-Arab robes for Pan-African garments in anger at the lack of Arab support for Libya after Western-inspired United Nations economic and travel sanctions were imposed on Tripoli in 1992. By contrast with the muted Arab response, strong black African backing was offered in his hour of need. Indeed, the sanctions on Tripoli were eventually lifted in 1999 with the help of Nelson Mandela, who mediated with Washington and London. Former president Thabo Mbeki famously did not get on with ­Gaddafi, while Jacob Zuma appears to have attempted to appease him.

Gaddafi sought to become the heir of Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah's pan-African vision. He was the moving force behind the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity into the African Union (AU), hosting several meetings in his home town of Sirte. At the AU summit in Ghana in 2007, Gaddafi championed a "United States of Africa" with an all-African army, a common monetary union, as well as a central bank. But the eccentric "brother leader's" vision was, like Nkrumah's, rejected by most African leaders.

Gaddafi also used his oil wealth to buy influence within the AU by paying the debts of member states. With strong leaders like Mbeki and Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo having left the political stage Gaddafi finally became chair of the AU for the first time in January 2009. This was largely a wasted year, as the Libyan leader continued to pursue his quixotic federalist dreams without the support of African leaders. As AU chair, Gaddafi was also accused of coddling fellow military putschists in Guinea, Mauritania, and Madagascar.

As his four-decade autocratic reign appears to be coming to an ignominious end, Gaddafi, the self-proclaimed "King of Kings", seems to be drifting into delusional madness.

Having toppled a monarch to promote social justice, he recently compared his 41-year rule with that of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, wondering why similar protests were not being raised about her long reign.

Coming from a lower social class, Gaddafi had always aspired to greatness and coveted King Idriss's crown. A social climber and arriviste, he donned ill-fitting borrowed royal robes to which his birth did not entitle him. As the fin de régime approaches, the Libyan despot appears to be a poor parody of the very system that he toppled.

Dr Adekeye Adebajo is executive director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, and author of The Curse of Berlin: Africa After the Cold War
 
Source: Mail & Guardian Online

Huge win for Nigeria's Yar'Adua

Nigeria's ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua has won controversial presidential elections by a landslide, according to official results. He gained 70% of the vote but European Union observers say the elections did not meet international standards and were not "credible". The EU says at least 200 people have died since campaigning began.

The two main opposition candidates have told their supporters to reject the results and want a re-run. Mr Yar'Adua gained 24.6m votes, against 6.6m for his closest challenger, Muhammadu Buhari. Vice-president turned opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar came third with 2.6m votes.

This should be the first time Africa's most populous nation replaces one elected civilian head with another. "I felt greatly humbled by the events of today and this mandate," Mr Yar'Adua, 56, told state television. Mr Buhari had earlier threatened to call his supporters onto the streets if Mr Yar'Adua was declared the winner and there was tight security outside the election commission headquarters in the capital, Abuja.

Independent National Election Commission (Inec) head Maurice Iwu refused to take any questions from the large crowd of journalists waiting for the results. He only read out the results. Shortly before the announcement was made, outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo made a surprise televised address to the nation. He admitted that the poll had not been perfect but said the next elections would be better. "It is my fervent wish that Nigerians will consider this experience as a necessary step in our journey as a people towards consolidating our democracy," he said.

Nigeria's biggest election monitoring group said the presidential poll was so flawed that it should be scrapped and held again. "In many parts of the country elections did not start on time or did not start at all," said Transition Monitoring Group chief Innocent Chukwuma. The US says it is "deeply troubled" by the weekend polls which it said were "flawed". A spokesman at the State Department said Washington hoped the political parties would resolve any differences over the election through peaceful, constitutional means.

Voter Donaman Atezan, 25, told the BBC News website that election material was delivered late to his polling station in the central Benue Sate, after most people had gone home. "Thugs were then left alone to vote and each one of them voted for the PDP over and over as many times as the ballot papers were available," he said. He said he tried to vote for an opposition candidate but the ballot paper was ripped from his hand.

Officials had struggled to deliver some of the 60m ballot papers to stations in time for the vote. They only arrived in the country on Friday evening. “ [It is] a necessary step in our journey as a people towards consolidating our democracy ” The boldest of several attempts to disrupt polling was in the hours before voting was due to start when a petrol tanker laden with gas cylinders was used in an attack on the electoral commission's headquarters in Abuja. The attackers tried to roll the unmanned tanker into the building, but the vehicle missed its target and came to a halt.

The presidential poll was running alongside elections for the National Assembly and Senate. The new government is scheduled to take power on 29 May. Nigeria - one of the world's biggest oil producers - is of key strategic interest to both the West and the growing economies of the East. But despite the country's huge oil wealth, tens of millions live in poverty.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Seized to Stand Trial on War Crimes

Charles G. Taylor, the warlord who became Liberia's president, was captured Wednesday after a dramatic 24 hours in which he disappeared from the villa in Nigeria where he had lived in exile and then was recognized at a remote outpost as he tried to leave the country.

He was brought here to face war crimes charges for his role in a brutal decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, one of a series of conflagrations that he set off, killing at least 300,000 people. He is the first African head of state to face such charges in an international court. Mr. Taylor's arrival by helicopter under extraordinary security capped a saga that began nearly three years ago, when he fled his nation in the face of a rebel onslaught. He was captured Wednesday morning after a customs official recognized him as he tried to escape into Cameroon.

He arrived unshaven and dressed in a white tunic covered by a bullet-proof vest, tan pants and slip-on shoes. His appearance was in stark contrast to his dapper look in his last public appearance, in 2003, when he went into exile after a 14-year civil war that killed a quarter million of his countrymen, defiantly declaring, "God willing, I will be back." He did return to Liberia, briefly, on Wednesday, but only to be handed over to United Nations troops who promptly flew him here, where he was read the indictment from a United Nations-backed court dealing with war crimes in Sierra Leone — 11 counts of crimes against humanity — then jailed.

Desmond de Silva, the prosecutor who will try the case, said Mr. Taylor's arrival "sends out the clear message that no matter how rich, powerful or feared people may be, the law is above them." The trial is sure to resonate on a continent where dictators have ruled with ruthless impunity. From Idi Amin, the soldier whose murderous rule in Uganda gave way to comfortable exile in Saudi Arabia, to Haile Mengistu Mariam, whose 14-year Communist rule in Ethiopia brought political purges that killed more than a million people but who is now living quietly in Zimbabwe, African leaders who brutalize their citizens have faced few consequences. "The current perpetrators of serious human rights crimes should be put on notice that international courts take the crimes they commit very, very seriously," said Corinne Dufka of Human Rights Watch.

Mr. Taylor's arrival here was a dramatic turn in the already complicated saga of the effort to bring him to justice after he ignited a series of civil wars in the 1990's that engulfed much of West Africa. In the early 1980's, Mr. Taylor was a senior government procurement officer in Liberia. Charged in 1983 with embezzling nearly $1 million, he fled. He was arrested in Massachusetts in 1984, then escaped from jail in 1985. He resurfaced in Liberia in 1989 as a Libyan-trained warlord, leading a rebel force. He was elected president in 1997, in a vote overshadowed by fears of what might happen if he lost.

A warrant for his arrest was issued in March 2003. But as part of an agreement to remove him from power and halt a bloodbath in Liberia, Nigeria offered him asylum and refused to hand him over to the court in Sierra Leone, where he was accused of fomenting a civil war. Though under intense pressure by the United States to arrest him, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria had insisted he would hand over Mr. Taylor only to an elected Liberian government. Earlier this month, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's new president, herself facing pressure from the United States, made the request, and Mr. Obasanjo agreed. But Nigeria insisted that it was Liberia's responsibility to go and arrest him, with Mr. Obasanjo's spokeswoman declaring that Mr. Taylor was "not a prisoner," which seemed almost to taunt Mr. Taylor into trying to escape from his lightly guarded compound in Calabar.

Late Monday night the Nigerian government said he had vanished. He was found more than 600 miles north, in an ash-colored Land Rover with a large quantity of dollars, in the company of a woman and a driver, Haz Iwendi, a spokesman for the National Police, said by telephone. A customs official spotted Mr. Taylor, whose vehicle had diplomatic license plates, early Wednesday morning in the border town of Ngala, Mr. Iwendi said.

The escape was an acute embarrassment for Mr. Obasanjo, who arrived Tuesday in Washington for a visit to the White House to discuss security in the volatile Niger Delta, where attacks by militants on oil facilities and kidnappings have slashed output. Nigeria is the United States' fifth-largest supplier of oil. Outraged American lawmakers called on President Bush to cancel his meeting with Mr. Obasanjo, with whom Mr. Bush has had a warm relationship, based in part on their shared Christian faith and bolstered by Mr. Obasanjo's role as a regional problem solver. But internal problems have eroded the Nigerian's status. Militants in the Niger Delta, sectarian violence that killed more than 100 people last month and a political crisis stemming from plans to try to extend his rule to a third term have roiled Nigeria.

Mr. Bush met with him on Wednesday, and at a joint news conference, hailed the arrest of Mr. Taylor. "The fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court of law will help Liberia," Mr. Bush said, "and is a signal, Mr. President, of your deep desire for there to be peace in your neighborhood."

Mr. Taylor was flown on a Nigerian government jet from Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria, where he was captured, to Monrovia, Liberia's capital. There he was handed over to Liberian officials, who promptly turned him over to United Nations peacekeepers, who arrested him. After a brief medical checkup, he boarded a helicopter for Sierra Leone. The reaction to Mr. Taylor's arrival here was muted and fearful.

J. B. Jenkins-Johnson, a human rights lawyer in Freetown, worried that Mr. Taylor's arrival would cause unrest in a country still reeling from the long civil war. "Let them not bring that man here," Mr. Jenkins-Johnson said. "This man will bring us nothing but problems." Indeed, many Sierra Leoneans wonder if the court's work will do much to help them improve their lives. "The Taylor case doesn't have a lot of resonance," said Olu Gordon, a political analyst and journalist in Freetown. "It is abstract, while the problems they face are concrete: what to feed their children, how to pay for school, and so on."

The loudest calls for Mr. Taylor's arrest came not from his victims but from the United States, which has backed the international court here financially and diplomatically. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf, the Liberian leader, had been hesitant to act on Mr. Taylor, saying that the peace in Liberia was still fragile and that any action could stir up his allies, several of whom hold seats in Liberia's new legislature. Several of his commanders remain in Liberia, and news of Mr. Taylor's arrest caused immediate fears of a coup attempt. But removing him from the scene could also help stabilize the region, said Mike McGovern, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, by demoralizing Mr. Taylor's supporters. "The arrest closes an ugly chapter in Liberian history and gives people the confidence to look to the future," Mr. McGovern said in an interview in Monrovia. "A lot of people are still sitting on the fence. Once they have a clear idea of where Taylor is and what's likely to happen to him, they're likely to really turn their backs on that period and move forward."

In Liberia, human rights advocates exulted in the news. "This is a great day," said Jerome J. Verdier Sr., head of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "It's a fundamental triumph for the rule of law both in Liberia and the sub-region."

Source: New York Times

Nigeria Will End Asylum for Warlord

Nigeria said Saturday that it would end the asylum of the deposed Liberian dictator Charles G. Taylor and turn him over to the Liberian government for trial. Mr. Taylor, a warlord-turned-president, spawned a bloody cycle of civil wars that killed 300,000 people across West Africa in the 1990's. He was indicted by the United Nations-backed Special Court here in Sierra Leone in 2003 for war crimes and crimes against humanity during this country's decade-long insurgency.

But the court has been unable to arrest Mr. Taylor, who left Liberia as rebels narrowed in on him in 2003. Instead, he went into exile in Nigeria, where authorities agreed in an internationally brokered deal to grant him safe haven in order to end 14 years of civil war in Liberia. "God willing, I will be back," the flamboyant Mr. Taylor said as he bid farewell to his country.

Since agreeing to accept Mr. Taylor, the Nigerian government has rebuffed many attempts to put him on trial before the international court, saying it was awaiting a request from an elected Liberian government. Liberia's new president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, raised the issue this month with President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, describing it as an important part of bringing stability to Liberia. "Liberia's peace is fragile," she said this month after announcing her extradition request. "There are many loyalists in our country to Mr. Taylor."

In Sierra Leone, where a cell has sat empty awaiting Mr. Taylor's arrival, there was fear and awe of the man who let loose so much misery in a nation smaller than South Carolina and home to five million people. "We are very afraid of Charles Taylor coming here," said Jerry Nyuma Bongay, a 25-year-old student in Freetown. "But we want him to face justice. He hurt us too much."

Desmond De Silva, the chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone court, hailed the announcement. "This is a remarkable day for justice," he said. "This is very important because it is all part of the fight against impunity." In a statement on Saturday, Mr. Obasanjo said Liberia was free to take Mr. Taylor into custody. Although he is not under indictment in Liberia, United Nations peacekeepers there have been authorized by the Security Council to transfer him to Sierra Leone.

The statement gave no date or details for the transfer, but Mr. Obasanjo said he had never been against surrendering Mr. Taylor to a democratically elected government in Liberia. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia's president in January, becoming Africa's first woman to be elected head of state. Mr. Taylor was forbidden from leaving Nigeria during his exile, but he continued to meddle in his former country's affairs from his government guest house in Calabar, on Nigeria's southern coast, using some of the millions of dollars he is accused of stealing from Liberia's coffers.

Security around Mr. Taylor's villa has been lax, said Corinne Dufka, a researcher for Human Rights Watch based in Dakar, Senegal, prompting fears that Mr. Taylor may try to escape. "We are calling on Nigeria to tighten security around Taylor," Ms. Dufka said. "I think there will be a great sense of relief when Charles Taylor is actually in the custody of the special court."

The court, set up in 2000, had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Taylor on 17 counts in 2003 but Nigeria ignored it. Mr. Obasanjo had said that he would honor a request by Liberia's government to relinquish Mr. Taylor, but until this year Liberia had only transitional leaders. With the backing of Libya and other regional powers, Mr. Taylor unleashed his horrific brand of warfare across the region for the better part of two decades, dragooning young boys into combat, first with violence, then with drugs, money and sex.

In Sierra Leone, he is accused of training and arming Sierra Leone's rebels in a bloody conflict left tens of thousands of people dead.

Source: New York Times

Mauritania officers 'seize power'

Mauritanian army officers have announced the overthrow of the country's president and creation of a military council to rule the country. The council said it had ended the "totalitarian regime" of Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya, who is now in Niger. It named security chief Col Ely Ould Mohamed Vall as the new leader. There were street celebrations in the capital, Nouakchott, as troops controlled key points. African and world bodies condemned the action.

The African Union said it "strongly condemns any seizure of power or any attempt to take power by force". United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply troubled" by the reports, insisting political disagreements should be settled peacefully and democratically, a spokesman said.

President Olusegun Obasanjo of regional powerhouse Nigeria said "the days of tolerating military governance in our sub-region or anywhere" were "long gone". President Taya, attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd at the time, was flown to Niger's capital, Niamey. He was met by Niger President Mamadou Tandja before travelling on to a villa in Niamey, where officials say he may stay for several days, the Associated Press reports.

The national armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put a definitive end to the oppressive activities of the defunct authority. The new Military Council for Justice and Democracy said it would rule the West African state for a transitional period of two years, after which it would organise free and fair elections. Following the announcement on national radio, people took to the streets of Nouakchott in celebration, hooting their car horns. "I can hear the cars now and people running in the streets. People are celebrating," president Hassan Ahmed told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Heavily armed forces surrounded state radio and television buildings as well as the presidential palace from 0500 GMT. State media broadcasts were cut and the airport closed. Some sporadic gunfire was heard at first, and there were unconfirmed reports of senior army officials being arrested. Shops immediately shut down and civil servants left their offices, said witnesses.

President Taya took power in a bloodless coup in December 1984 and has been re-elected three times since. Correspondents say he later made enemies among Islamists in the country, which is an Islamic republic. Critics accuse the government of using the US-led war on terror to crack down on Islamic opponents. Mr Taya has also prompted widespread opposition by establishing links with Israel. Earlier this year, nearly 200 people, including former President Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah, were put on trial for a series of alleged coup plots. Mauritania is deeply divided between three main groups - light-skinned Arabic-speakers, descendents of slaves and dark-skinned speakers of West African languages.

Source: BBC

Liberian Ruler Can Be Tried, Court Rules

Charles G. Taylor, the former Liberian president accused of crimes against humanity in connection with a rebel insurrection in neighboring Sierra Leone, can be prosecuted by an international war crimes tribunal, a United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone ruled Monday.

Mr. Taylor's lawyers had argued that a court in one country had no right to try the head of state of another country. But the four judges on the appeals panel of the Special Court for Sierra Leone rejected that argument, ruling that as an international tribunal, the special court does have that authority. The ruling clears the last legal hurdle for the prosecution, but another more daunting one remains. Nigeria, which has sheltered Mr. Taylor since he stepped down as president of Liberia in August 2003, has so far rebuffed demands to turn him over to the court in Sierra Leone. The Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said only that he would return his guest to his home country if the Liberian courts seek to prosecute him.

Liberia, which emerged from 14 years of crushing civil war with Mr. Taylor's departure, has issued no such request. Mr. Taylor's lawyer in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, declined to comment on the special court's ruling. "I haven't read the report, so how can I comment on it?" said the lawyer, Terrence Terry.

The special court was created jointly by the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone to punish the ringleaders of that country's decade-long war. Mr. Taylor is the most prominent among 11 people indicted so far. He faces 17 counts of murder, rape and other crimes against humanity in connection with the support he reportedly gave the rebels in Sierra Leone. "With this decision, Charles Taylor has no more legal cards to play," said Richard Dicker, director of international justice for Human Rights Watch, based in New York. "The time has come for Nigeria to hand Taylor over to the special court." The special court will begin its first trial on Thursday. Among the defendants is Sam Hinga Norman, a former government minister in Sierra Leone accused of raising a terrifying pro-government militia, the Kamajors.

Source: New York Times

Interpol Puts Liberian Ex-Chief On World's Most-Wanted List

Interpol called Thursday for the arrest of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, for his suspected role in atrocities committed during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war. Interpol put Mr. Taylor on its most wanted list by posting a "red notice" on its Web site, alerting police forces around the world to an arrest warrant issued by Sierra Leone in June.

Interpol's notice does little to change Mr. Taylor's status: he has been living in Nigeria since resigning his presidency in August as part of an American-brokered accord to end fighting in Liberia. But the Interpol action does raise the international profile of the Sierra Leone warrant, which Nigeria has so far ignored. "It reminds the world that Charles Taylor remains a fugitive from justice," said Allison Cooper, a spokeswoman for the United Nations court in Sierra Leone, speaking by telephone from Freetown. "It also demonstrates that there's no such thing as amnesty for war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The court, set up in 2000, has argued that because Nigeria is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, the African Convention on Human Rights and the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, it is obligated to turn Mr. Taylor over for prosecution as a war criminal or try him itself. But Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who granted Mr. Taylor asylum in hopes of neutralizing his influence in the region, has rejected Sierra Leone's extradition request. Mr. Obasanjo has said he might consider a similar request by Liberia, if that country seeks to prosecute its former president. Nigeria's asylum agreement with Mr. Taylor does not shield him from Liberian law.

Mr. Taylor, born to an American father and a Liberian mother, graduated from Bentley College in Massachusetts and worked in the Liberian civil service in the 1980's before he was accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. He fled and returned in December 1989 to mount a rebellion from neighboring Ivory Coast. From the beginning, his forces were accused of appalling violence. He became Liberia's president in July 1997, though the fighting in the country continued.

Mr. Taylor is charged with training and arming Sierra Leone rebels, many of them children, for that country's long and bloody civil war. Hundreds of thousands of people died during the fighting, and thousands more were left maimed by the Liberian-trained rebels who punished civilians by hacking off limbs. Sierra Leone's war ended in 2001, and its court indicted Mr. Taylor in June. The court applied to become an Interpol member this April, and that process was completed last month, allowing the police organization to post its notice.

As with all Interpol red notices, a photograph of Mr. Taylor appeared on the organization's Web site, with the added warning: "Person May Be Dangerous."

Source: New York Times

LEADER OF LIBERIA SURRENDERS POWER AND ENTERS EXILE

Charles G. Taylor, a star player in this country's 14 years of sporadic civil war, resigned from the presidency today and left his country for exile in Nigeria. "History will be kind to me," Mr. Taylor said, addressing the crowd in a sweltering second-floor room inside the Executive Mansion that had been packed for the ceremony with Liberian politicians, three African heads of state and foreign journalists. "I have accepted this role as the sacrificial lamb."

Sounding alternately bombastic, chipper and defiant, Mr. Taylor, 55, as usual likened himself to Jesus, blamed international forces for his downfall and challenged the United States in particular to step in, now that he had done his part. President Bush called on Mr. Taylor to leave Liberia more than two months ago and made his exit a condition for any American involvement in peacekeeping here.

Dressed in white, Mr. Taylor handed over the presidency to his longtime ally and vice president, Moses Z. Blah. Mr. Blah will steer the country until a new transitional government takes over in mid-October, President John Kufuor of Ghana announced today.

Mr. Taylor, accused of spreading conflict across the region, has been under a United Nations arms embargo and has been charged with playing a role in the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. "I want to thank Mr. Bush, even though we have had some disagreements," Mr. Taylor said, adding that he was confident that as a Christian, Mr. Bush would soon see the truth. "He's been misled," he offered. "God will reveal the truth to him."

The White House, under competing pressure for and against intervention to restore security to this crushed nation founded by Americans 150 years ago, has yet to decide to what extent it will engage in Liberia. Three American warships appeared on the horizon here today, apparently more for show than anything else at the moment. Two helicopters hovered from a warship to ferry supplies to the American Embassy this afternoon. "Today's departure of Charles Taylor from Liberia is an important step toward a better future for the Liberian people," Mr. Bush said in remarks this afternoon in Aurora, Colo. "The United States will work with the Liberian people and with the international community to achieve a lasting peace after more than a decade of turmoil and suffering."

It was not clear when the Americans, or the West African peacekeepers who are already on the ground here, would secure the vital Free Port of Monrovia to open the lifeline for food and fuel to the rest of the city. The port is in the hands of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, a rebel group. In Washington this afternoon, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the commander of the Marine Expeditionary Unit off Liberia's coast would come ashore, probably on Tuesday, to discuss how to assist in getting aid supplies into the port. "They have agreed to leave upon a turnover," Mr. Powell said of the rebels, adding that the West African mission in Liberia "will be in the lead." "The United States is there to see how we can assist them," he said.

Monrovians rushed to the beach at the first sight of the American ships late this afternoon. They stared out at the sea, anxious and hopeful. "We eat something now," said an optimistic Koko Wreh, 40, a resident of the rebel-held side of the city who was seeking shelter in an overflowing building on the government side. "I'm tired of fighting," said Johnson B. Sulonteh, 20, a government soldier sitting on sandbags near the beach. "I'm ready to go back to school."

Peace talks between government and two rebel factions have been under way in Ghana's capital, Accra, for more than two months. "The war in Liberia has ended," said Mr. Kufuor, the Ghanian president. Mr. Kufuor, who currently leads the regional bloc known as the Economic Community of West African States, escorted Mr. Taylor and his family to Nigeria this afternoon. Waving a white handkerchief to a crowd that rushed onto the tarmac to wave and weep, Mr. Taylor boarded a Nigerian government jet. West African officials said he was bound for the capital, Abuja. The Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, had offered Mr. Taylor a safe haven.

The first of 3,250 West African troops have begun arriving in Monrovia, but so far have done little more than erect checkpoints near the Executive Mansion. A United Nations peacekeeping force is expected to take over this fall. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, at the handover ceremony today, pledged to contribute troops. "It has indeed been a shameful thing that as Africans, we have killed ourselves for such a long time"' he said. "It is indeed time this war should come to an end."

Mr. Taylor's exit, while it closes one page in Liberia's sad history, also paves the way for new challenges. The warring parties must agree on an interim government before elections can be held. The port must be opened and desperately needed aid delivered. Soldiers on both sides must be offered reasons not to pick up their guns again. Before anything, the fighters who still control their patches of the city, on opposite sides of a set of strategic bridges, must be told what to do. Confusion reigned today after Mr. Taylor's resignation, as rebels in Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, known as L.U.R.D., pranced on their part of what is called the New Bridge, and began taunting the government side's chief. Shots were fired in the air. Then, throngs of civilians from both sides tried to press through, meeting again midway, only to driven back by the gun-toting youths who rule each side. Neither side had agreed to open up the bridges.

A commander on the government side, Gus Menwon, said he was awaiting orders. His men were asking him who would take care of them now. Asked if reconciliation was possible, he first waxed optimistic, saying many fighters on the other side were his friends. But then, he added, "It's hard to trust human beings." Shots were fired in the air jubilantly this afternoon, after news came of Mr. Taylor's exit. Around sundown, chaos erupted for a little while, as rebel fighters started shooting in the air to blow off steam, witnesses said. Apparently, two of their men had been executed for killing civilians. "For us in L.U.R.D., the war is over," said the rebels' secretary general for civilian administration, Sekou Fofana.

The rebels had been rankled by the choice of Mr. Blah as president, preferring someone they considered more neutral. Today, Mr. Blah, 56, reiterated his invitation to the rebels to join the interim government. "Let the nation begin to heal," Mr. Blah said. "Let all of us unite as one people and work to peace."

Source: New York Times

War Crimes Indictment of Liberian President Is Disclosed

President Charles Taylor of Liberia, widely viewed as a wellspring of the violence that has ravaged West Africa, has been indicted on war crimes charges by a special court in Sierra Leone that accused him of ''bearing the greatest responsibility'' for a decade's worth of murders, mutilations and rapes in the neighboring country. He is the second serving national leader to be indicted on war crimes charges in the last decade. The first was Slobodan Milosevic, who was indicted by the tribunal in The Hague while he was president.

The indictment by the court, run jointly by the United Nations and the Sierra Leone government, was originally issued on March 7. It was made public today shortly after Mr. Taylor, bowing to pressure from the leaders of Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, announced that he would step down by the end of the year. Diplomatic officials and news reports from the region described a surreal diplomatic drama in which Mr.

Taylor was transformed from statesman to fugitive in a matter of minutes. The announcement came at the opening of a peace conference convened in Accra, Ghana, and designed to end Liberia's current civil war. Just after being applauded for his retirement announcement, Mr. Taylor left the peace conference abruptly and caught a plane home rather than risk arrest by his Ghanaian hosts. In the brief time that elapsed between the announcement of the indictment and Mr. Taylor's departure, various Ghanaian officials and West African diplomats said they did not know whether they would attempt an arrest, since Mr. Taylor's status as a head of state grants him automatic immunity from such actions, under various international treaties.

The train of events left deep frustration in at least two quarters, diplomatic officials said today. One senior United States official said today that Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and John Kufuor of Ghana felt sandbagged by the release of the indictment on the heels of their successful effort to get Mr. Taylor to resign. But both the Ghanaian government's delays and indecision about arresting Mr. Taylor, and his subsequent return home, left both the war crimes prosecutor's office and some Republican members of the international affairs committee of the United States House of Representatives confused or angry.
In a telephone interview, Luc Copè, the chief of prosecution for the court in Sierra Leone, said: ''We don't have any power of arrest. We depend on a state to execute our orders.'' He added, ''We can serve the warrant of arrest on Liberia. But that would be asking him to arrest himself.''

The indictment itself provided, in stilted legal language, a capsule history of the allegations of crossborder alliances between Mr. Taylor and insurgents in Sierra Leone, and his reported support for a war on civilians that left upwards of 200,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands more maimed or raped or homeless in the late 1990's.

Mr. Taylor originally was a rebel warlord in his own country, and on coming to power, his accusers have charged, he helped rebel groups in neighboring countries, effectively franchising out his own civil war first to Sierra Leone and later to the Ivory Coast. In the case of Sierra Leone, one of the prizes in the conflict was access to Sierra Leone's wealth of diamond mines. ''Victims were routinely shot, hacked to death and burned to death,'' in Sierra Leone, one count of the new indictment said. Another said ''widespread sexual violence committed against civilian women and girls included brutal rapes, often by multiple rapists.''

A third count, involving the mutilations of civilians whose limbs were hacked off, charged that ''these mutilations included cutting off limbs and carving'' the initials of rebel groups on the bodies of the victims. The war crimes court in Sierra Leone, created jointly by the United Nations and Sierra Leone's government 18 months ago, has already indicted several militia leaders from the Revolutionary United Front and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, who made common cause with Mr. Taylor's government.

The indictment unsealed today charged that Mr. Taylor had ''to obtain access to the mineral wealth of the Republic of Sierra Leone, in particular the diamond wealth of Sierra Leone, and to destabilize the state'' provided ''financial support, military training, personnel, arms, ammunition'' and other support to the R.U.F., which in turn allied itself with the A.F.R.C.

In a statement released in Freetown today, the chief prosecutor of the special court, David M. Crane, said that he had unsealed the indictment when he learned Mr. Taylor would be in Ghana for the peace talks, and thus would be susceptible to arrest. He added, ''To ensure the legitimacy of these negotiations, it is imperative that the attendees know they are dealing with an indicted war criminal.''

A member of Mr. Crane's staff, contacted by telephone in Freeport on Tuesday night, said that the news of the indictment prompted ''cheering in the streets'' of Sierra Leone's capital. In Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, The Associated Press reported that thousands of panicked civilians were running home from work to find their children, apparently fearful of renewed civil strife if Mr. Taylor's government fell.

Mr. Taylor's announcement today that he would resign was made, in the third person, to warm applause, The Associated Press reported. ''It has become apparent that some people believe that Taylor is the problem,'' he said. ''President Taylor wants to say that he intends to remove himself from the process.''

Sourc: New York Times