[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 62 (Friday, April 27, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E685-E686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           JUSTICE IS SERVED

                                 ______
                                 

                           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.

                          ____________________