Guns and Garbage Trucks

A recent article by Peter Pham in World Defense Review (http://www.reportingwar.com/strategicinterests.shtml) highlights the role of Moamar Qadhafi in training Charles Taylor and supporting rebel efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Now that Taylor is facing trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Pham laments that Qadhafi will not be subject to similar proceedings. While it is possible that the connection with Qadhafi will be an issue at trial, there is little chance there will be any serious repercussions for Qadhafi. Curiously, Qadhafi continues to be involved in Sierra Leone, but in a far more benign manner. Recently, Libya donated a number of vehicles, including busses, water trucks, and garbage trucks, to the government of Sierra Leone. The large green busses are a shockingly-modern addition to the flow of poda-podas and taxis that dominate the streets of Freetown. The vehicles, though desperately needed, pose difficult questions regarding aid from war-supporters in post-conflict societies.

[View a picture of the donated vehicles at a Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces base here.]

According to Pham, Qadhafi trained both Charles Taylor and Foday Sankoh, leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), at camps in Liberia. In the camps, Taylor and Sankoh established a relationship that would result in their later collaboration. After Taylor overthrew the massively-corrupt Samuel Doe and assumed control of Liberia, he assisted, and perhaps controlled, rebels led by Sankoh in Sierra Leone. Pham contends that throughout the conflict, Qadhafi assisted by facilitating funding and weapons shipments.

Qadhafi has now made strides to repair his international image and appears to be doing the same in Sierra Leone. Although some eyebrows were raised at the acceptance of the vehicles, there was no lasting criticism. How to explain this apathy to a gift from a hand covered in blood? It is difficult to know the extent to which normal Sierra Leoneans consider Qadhafi an integral figure of the conflict, but he certainly is not as prominent as Taylor. Moreover, there is unlikely anything that can be done by Sierra Leone to punish Qadhafi for his role in the conflict. There are far more pressing concerns like development and the 2007 elections. I am sure a great deal of this also arises out of a desire to put the conflict in the past. They may be larger philosophical issues at play which can be debated in article and blogs, but in Sierra Leone it seems fairly clear that when one is desperate for help, it matters little where that help comes from.

Comments

[Kwalonue Sunwabe, Jr.]

It is rewarding to see my native Africa departing with the “lamentable and unacceptable judicial tradition” that insolated African dictators and heir cohorts from prosecution for the many crimes committed against African humanity during and immediately after the Cold War’s end in Africa. I hope that the ongoing trial of Liberian dictator, Charles Taylor will serve as a warming to current and future African leaders that the world will no longer sit by idly while African dictators brutalize their own people.

Nonetheless, consistency and the cardinal notion of judicial fairness are needed in the ongoing trial of Mr. Taylor. By consistency I am really saying that the UN Special Tribunal for Sierra Leonean needs to revisit the evidence in this case in order to bring additional indictments against other African leaders who played leading roles in the Sierra Leonean genocide. It is pathetic and profoundly disgusting that the special UN Tribunal for Sierra Leone has opted not to examine the roles Libyan leader Moamar Qadhafi played in the wars that have devastated West Africa in the past 15 years.

Like is protégé, Mr. Charles Taylor of Liberia, Mr. Qadhafi trained, equipped and provided international and regional diplomatic supports for both the rebel forces in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is only fitting that the world rises to the occasion and bring Mr. Qadhafi to justice for his crimes. His recent overture to the West should in no way obscure justice. Like Charles Taylor of Liberia, Mr. Qadhafi needs to be brought to justice for the crimes he indirectly committed against humanity in Sierra Leone.