Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor the scourge of West Africa and the guy responsible for children with cut off limbs and diamonds paid with the blood of many dead pregnant women gets a 50 years light sentence at The Hague. Effectively he will spend the rest of his life in prison, but, at least he will have access to books, music and other life enhancing material, which he determinedly decided was not good enough for thousands of people.
As the first head of state since the Nazis of World War 2 to be put on trial and convicted of being a evil and wicked as*hole he will hopefully set a precedent to those who see being in power as a way to play god with other peoples lives. Hopefully it will mean that having absolute power does not mean being absolutely corrupt. Some how I think that it will only mean that those in power will still get away with it if they have nuclear weapons.
Charles Taylor is apparently an educated man and had major connections with televangelist Pat Robertson – who used his aeroplanes to supply Charles Taylor with mining equipment to get the blood diamonds, and, the CIA. In the chaotic world of West African politics, international finance, diamond and arms smuggling and terrorism, Charles Taylor showed himself to be a more than interested party. He knew important people and had links with everyone from Al Qeada to Colonel Ghaddafi to George Bush and Naomi Campbell.
In the end Former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor is a desperately nasty piece of work and deserves all the discomfort he gets in his life. He has shown no remorse and does not want to say sorry at least for giving money and arms to people who carried out mass rape and murder.
Here is the video of his conviction.
Charles Taylor jailed for 50 Years [KTN Kenya TV]
