Amnesty Int’l wants other Liberia, Sierra Leone war actors tried
--but welcomes Taylor’s 50yrs sentence
Amnesty International welcomes the 50 years jail sentence against former Liberian President Charles Taylor, but it wants other perpetrators of crimes against humanity in both Liberia and Sierra Leone to also be prosecuted.
In a statement received by WADR, the London-based rights group says the judgement ‘’affirms that former heads of state cannot consider themselves immune to international justice.’’
Amnesty is calling for the investigation and prosecution of Taylor for crimes he is alleged to have committed in his own country, Liberia.
The rights group says it remains concerned that "tens of thousands of people who suffered atrocities in Liberia and Sierra Leone are yet to see other perpetrators brought to justice."
Before becoming President in 1997, Taylor led the rebel National Patriotic of Liberia (NPFL), which waged one of Africa’s bloodiest insurgencies from December 1989. That war led to the deaths of an estimated 250, 000 people, when it officially ended in 2003.
The NPFL was later disbanded along with other rebel factions and Taylor contested the presidency and won in 1987.
He ruled Liberia he was forced to resign and go into exile in August 2003, as the LURD rebel group besieged the capital, Monrovia.
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