A tyrant on trial
By Michael Petrou - Thursday, November 26, 2009 - 8 Comments
It can be lonely writing about and covering wars and humans rights atrocities in Africa. Nobody really cares – at least not as much as they might had the victims been from almost anywhere else on the planet.
Consider the coverage afforded to the civil wars in Liberia and in the former Yugoslavia. They happened at around the same time. More died in Liberia. How many reading this even know that Liberia was consumed by a horrific, anarchic conflict for much of the 1990s?
It was, and so was next door Sierra Leone. Charles Taylor – first a warlord and then president of Liberia – is now on trial in The Hague for his role in the latter conflict. He’s on the stand now. The Special Court for Sierra Leone is posting daily transcripts. They’re worth reading.
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The world’s first analog blogger
By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 1 Comment
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Canada spends millions on the court that’s prosecuting Charles Taylor-but doesn’t want to protect the man who risked his life to bring the tyrant to justice
By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 10:16 PM - 1 Comment
From this week’s print magazine. The story, in a nutshell, is this:
Charles Taylor’s brother-in-law, Cindor Reeves, risked his life to help the Special Court for Sierra Leone build a case against Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president who controlled an army of murderous, drug-crazed child soldiers in next door Sierra Leone. Reeves is now a refugee claimant in Canada. Canada appears poised to kick him out.
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And Pearson’s wartime commander thought “Lester” was too mild…
By Michael Petrou - Friday, February 6, 2009 at 2:15 PM - 1 Comment
My normally restrained and sober colleague John Geddes fears that I’m depriving readers of a window into the lyrical creativity of Liberian warlords and child soldiers by not posting a full list of the names of all those wanted by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
My favourites are “Dead Body Bone,” “Bullet Bounce, ” and “Lucky Boy Kallay.” Given the unspeakable horrors of Liberia’s wars, “Bad Child” seems, I don’t know, a little redundant.
Suggestions for Canadian politicians and journalists are welcome. In the meantime, here’s the full list:
ABRAHAM DORLEY
ABU KEITA aka SMALL SOLDIER
ALEX TOLBERT ALIAS GEN YOUNG DEVIL
ALEX TOWAH ALIAS I MEAN IT
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Paging General Satan and Dirty Prick
By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 12:55 PM - 2 Comments
A Liberian newspaper is calling on those who played a role in the country’s long and bloody civil wars to testify before its Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
