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Former Liberian president Charles Taylor convicted of war crimes
United Nations-backed court convicted former Liberian president Charles Taylor of war crimes on Thursday, the first time an African head of state has been found guilty by an international tribunal.
Taylor, 64, was charged with 11 counts of murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery during intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, during which more than 50,000 people were killed. (Photos: Reuters; AFP/Getty Images)
Mladic’s old social club
After 16 years on the run, former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic finds himself in a jail in The Hague, sharing showers and a laundry room with wartime subordinates and erstwhile foes.
One of his first encounters is likely to be with his former commander in chief, Radovan Karadzic, wartime president of the Bosnian Serb state, Republika Srpska.
Relations between the two men had reportedly soured toward the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian war and for which they both stand accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Gen. Mladic may also rub shoulders with former right-hand men like Vujadin Popovic, sentenced to life in prison for the Srebrenica massacre. Popovic remains at the detention unit, pending an appeal.
Erstwhile foes like Ante Gotovina, a former Croatian general, can be tackled in a board game in one of the prison’s common areas, where inmates relax when not in court or preparing for trial.
“There is a remarkably civil understanding between all of the accused and they tend to get on well together,” said Richard Harvey, the court-appointed standby counsel for Mr. Karadzic. “I wouldn’t say they are warm friendships, more a civil cooperation between people who recognize they are stuck together for a long time,” said Mr. Harvey.
Photo: A view of the exterior of the Scheveningen Prison in The Hague (Jerry Lampen/Reuters)
Is George W. Bush a war criminal?
Dan Gardner: George W. Bush ordered torture. He’s a war criminal
Do laws apply to the United States and its president as they do to other nations and men? On the weekend, Swiss officials were very nearly forced to answer that explosive question. Depending on George W. Bush’s travel schedule, Canadian officials could be put on the spot next.
In his memoirs, published late last year, and in subsequent interviews, Bush explicitly said he ordered officials to subject terrorism suspects to waterboarding and other torture techniques. The fact that he had done so wasn’t much of a surprise. There was already heaps of evidence implicating the Bush administration, up to and including the president. What was shocking was that Bush admitted it. He even seemed to boast about it. “Damn right,” he said when Matt Lauer asked whether he had ordered waterboarding.
Barbara Kay: No legal or practical reasons to prosecute Bush, a friend to Canada
George W. Bush, who has freely admitted to sanctioning waterboarding and other interrogation techniques on terror suspects, has cancelled a weekend speaking engagement in Geneva after a coalition of human rights groups pressed the Swiss government to do their UNCAT-sanctioned duty to “act against anyone who may have committed torture anywhere.” UNCAT stands for the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The convention has been signed by almost all nations, including Canada and the United States.
Photo: Protesters smear red paint on the face of a man wearing a George W. Bush mask during a protest in Toronto, May 29, 2009. (Tyler Anderson/ National Post)
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