What's your thoughts on the disappearance, arrest and extradition of the former Liberian warlord and president? More info from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4867036.stm.
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What's your thoughts on the disappearance, arrest and extradition of the former Liberian warlord and president? More info from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4867036.stm.
Thunderblaster - did I read somewhere that he made a lot of money by supplying illegal diamonds to so called reputable diamond companies whose backing kept the b@stard propped up.:confused:
Not sure on that one but he used the sale of diamonds to buy weapons.Quote:
Originally Posted by sirhamish
Yeah that was it but I think the diamond companies were (and still are in the Congo) up their dirty little necks in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderblaster
Wasn't it Irish soldiers too that escorted him to Sierra Leone after he was recaptured?
Correct and they are keeping watch on him in Freetown's UN Prison Compound. He was formally arrested by Jordanian peacekeepers when he came off the Nigerian government jet and the picture of him in handcuffs has being the main pictoral event in Africa in recent days.Quote:
Originally Posted by sirhamish
hamish
a bad 'un no mistake :(
The only downside of Taylor being arrested and tried is that the West made a deal with him that he would never face a trial if he stepped down as President. How are we going to diplomatically get current African tyrants to stand down, if they can't believe our promises?Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderblaster
I'm not saying Taylor shouldn't be arrested here, I'm just asking how are we to rid Africa of corrupt officals if a} they cannot trust us, b} we don't 'invade' their country, or inevitably c} they have no reason to knowing that they cannot trust our 'pardon promises' and that America is focused on destroying the Middle East and not Africa
Since when was Pat Robertson reputable? Yes indeedy, America's #1 neo-con apparently had a wee $8,000,000 deal to mine diamonds there. Also had a "deal" with the leader of Zaire, some would say the dictator of Zaire.Quote:
Originally Posted by sirhamish
Yeah, I recall Robertson's diamond deals -lot of it on the US blogs but I was thinking of the likes of de Beers, dancinpants. Weren't that lot involved too??Quote:
Originally Posted by dancinpants
Robertson is even starting to embarrass the wingnuts and his "pronouncements" onHugo Chavez, Dover School, Sharon etc have revealed a person showing his true colours - a fascist fundamentalist yob.
To keep on topic had to cut and paste 'cos this article has lots of other stuff in it.
Africa and Charles Taylor;
In Africa , there is a never ending litany of wars, famines, death and misery ,thanks to the unholy union of Western mineral multinationals and their African crony dictators and militias.
Following the civil war in Angola in 1990s for diamonds with terrible consequences, in 1999, the UN Security Council acted to enforce sanctions on diamond sales by the UNITA rebel group and the conflict finally ended a short time later. But since then, further diamond-related conflicts have raged in Sierra Leone , Liberia and Congo .UN has passed resolutions and reports but rape of Africa by multinationals continues unabated .
Charles Taylor, the exiled former strongman of Liberia was brought to the Sierra Leone capital from the Nigeria-Cameroon border when he tried to flee Nigeria, which had granted him exile status under a 2003 peace deal.
It is strange that it happened just around the time President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria was to visit the White House . The monthly magazine 'The Atlantic' had an article 'Nigeria ;worse than Iraq' and speculated on the possible implosion of Nigeria .Was it a deal to provide good news of the Western international justice imposed on third world to jack up Bush's plummeting popularity and shore up a unpopular Obasanjo. Nigerians nay African would not be proud that some one given asylum has been handed over . When Taylor represented by a court-appointed lawyer, was asked to plead, he refused. "I do not recognise the jurisdiction of this court," he said. He had said earlier ,"I think this is an attempt to continue to divide and rule the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone." Western pattern is same all over the world.
Court officials asked the trial be moved to The Hague, Netherlands, because of fears that Taylor, once among the most feared warlords in the region, could still spark unrest in West Africa The U.S. would have balked at the idea if it meant transferring jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which Washington opposes.[ US has bribed many countries to sign accords that they would not report US suspects to ICC.] But no matter where the actual trial is held, control of the case will stay with the Special Court, which Washington sees as a model for future war crimes courts and a welcome alternative to the permanent ICC.
At such contrived courts, obscure judges from obscure third world countries, say Samoa, would be paid well to participate in such charades.
Because of its minerals Africa remains a free for all for western multinationals. Let us take Democratic republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony, one of the most miserable places in the world with horrifying colonial exploitation record of the Belgian King . Its resources rich north east province of Ituri, adjoining Uganda was the cause of civil wars and border clashes. Apart from the region's farmland and valuable cross-border trade, Ituri is the gateway to the Kilo Moto gold field, the world's biggest, where exploration rights are claimed by Canada's Barrick Gold, among others. And interest is rising in Ituri's oil reserves in the Lake Albert basin, where Heritage Oil, signed a licensing deal last year.
Dogs of wars and black mercenaries continue to play their games for personal gains or for foreign mineral multinationals to rob the impoverished masses of vast mineral wealth being mined in Congo and elsewhere. Unless these powers and vested interests are controlled ,ethnic conflicts and killings would continue. The vested multinational mineral interests are rarely mentioned in media. Years of wars, destruction and famines and the vast debts amounting to US$ 14 Billion left behind by Mobutu are major problems. He died a rich man benefiting his benefactors.
An October 2002 report written for UN by an independent panel of experts, accused dozens of multinationals including Barclays Bank, De Beers and Anglo American of facilitating the plunder of Congo's wealth. This scathing account accused 85 multinational companies based in Europe, the US and South Africa of violating ethical guidelines in dealing with criminal networks which have pillaged natural resources from the war-torn country. A scramble for gold, diamonds, cobalt and copper by army officers, government officials and entrepreneurs from Congo and neighbouring African countries had generated billions of dollars which found its way to mining companies and financial institutions.
"In this inhuman exploitation ,the list of the local accused is a roll call of top military officers, government officials and businessmen, --The elite networks derive financial benefit through a variety of criminal activities, including theft, embezzlement, diversion of public funds, undervaluation of goods, smuggling, false invoicing, non-payment of taxes, kickbacks to public officials and bribery," the report said. So lucrative and elaborate was the looting that there were attempts to prolong the fighting by stirring conflict between rival militias and rebels. "Those [criminal] groups will not disband voluntarily. They have built up a self-financing war economy centred on mineral exploitation," the report added. Rwanda's claim to have stayed in Congo to hunt the Hutu militia responsible for the 1994 genocide was described as a cover for its army's desire to strip minerals.
Verily, the era of colonization and exploitation is far from over. In Africa, globalization means rapacious loot of its mineral wealth.