Bush Sends Taylor to ICC in The Hague – You Believe It?!

The Sierra Leone tribunal has jurisdiction, but Bush said the United States is working to have Taylor tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Amnesty International on Charles Taylor

Washington, D.C. (Liberian Times) March 30 — U.S. President George W. Bush has thrown the strongest hint yet that former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, who was captured in near the Nigeria-Cameroun border Wednesday may face trial at the Hague in The Netherlands.

Discussing Democracy in Iraq with Freedom House in Washington, D.C., the U.S. president said he was much more confident today than he was yesterday that Taylor would be tried before an International tribunal.

“This is what we call embedding. I talked to the President (Olesegun Obasanjo) about a variety of things, one of which, of course, was Charles Taylor. There is a process to get Charles Taylor to the court in the Netherlands,” said Bush.

Bush said such a process will require a United Nations Security Council resolution. “Secretary Rice, who was in the meeting, told me that she thought that might happen relatively quickly. And so, therefore, I think he is headed for where he belongs, which is trial.”

FREETOWN, Sierre Leone (Reuters) March 30 — Court President Justice A. Raja N. Fernando wants the trial switched to the Hague, where it could use the modern facilities of the new International Criminal Court (ICC).

The request cited fears the trial of Taylor, who still has supporters in neighboring Liberia, could provoke unrest in both of the small and war-ravaged west African states.

Court chief prosecutor Desmond de Silva stressed it was just a change of venue and it would “be the Special Court for Sierra Leone sitting in The Hague.”

The Dutch Foreign Ministry and the ICC were considering the request made on Wednesday, the day Taylor was delivered by U.N. forces to Freetown after being deported from Nigeria.

Newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has said Taylor should not face justice in a “hostile” venue, on Thursday also backed a move “to a more conducive environment such as … The Hague.”

July 2003 - Demonstrators demand Taylor's
departure from Liberia (AP)

Since coming into office in 2001, the Bush administration has consistently opposed to having the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, hold US military and political leaders to a uniform global standard of justice.

The ICC is the only international court to try individuals accused of the worst violations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when national courts are destroyed or unable to handle the case, or are deliberately shielding the accused from justice.

Although the ICC is in line with the wingnuttery’s declared “American values” of accountability, equality and justice, BushCo argues that the court, could be used for frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. troops.

Talk about the double standard, we dictate that other countries need the highest standards of fairness and judicial process, but when it comes to us – torture is the new American way.

● HR Watch – U.S.: ‘Hague Invasion Act’ Becomes Law

… the Council of Europe condemned the United States for torturing terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Council of Europe is made up of three main institutions:
European Court of Human Rights
Commissioner for Human Rights
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

You can learn about their history, mission, and structure here.

GENEVA (AP) March 30 — The United Nations’ special investigator of torture said he is certain there are secret U.S. prisons in Europe and he wants access to them.

Manfred Nowak said he has proof secret U.S. prisons continue to operate in Europe. “I am 100 per cent sure. I have evidence,” Nowak said in an interview. He cited a U.S. refusal to provide details or records of interrogations later used in terrorism trials in Germany.

BBC Hard Talk :: Stephen Sackur talks to Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, who recently met British Home Secretary Charles Clarke. Is the war on terror raising new concerns?