Charles Taylor, War Criminal

Some say revenge is a dish best served cold. I have always found this to be a rationalization for people seeking revenge but who cannot exact it immediately. Most of us more realistically believe that vengeance served cold is better than no vengeance at all. After all, Milosovic's recent death was a classic example of revenge almost being served cold, but then the former dictator died, outcolding the avengers, as it were. "Revenge: get it while it's hot!" is probably a motto that would win more votes in a bumper sticker simplification-off.

Yet another of the world's vicious late twentieth century dictators is about to get his comeuppance. Charles Taylor, the former rebel leader-turned president of Liberia has spent the last two-plus years in exile in Calabar, a city in southern Nigeria. (I have written reproachfully about Taylor's exile here.) Taylor is just one in a long line of rapacious murderers, kleptocrats, and all-around bad guys who have led Liberia, the African state that most bears the American thumbprint. When a peace deal forced Taylor out of power and into what appeared to be a tyrant's golden parachute, it seemed possible, if not likely, that Taylor would never have to account for his reign of terror.

Not so fast.

Liberia's newly elected President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a glimmer of hope in that West African nation, recently called forTaylor's extradition and eventual trial on charges of committing war crimes for his role in fomenting Sierra Leone's civil war, which merely touches the surface of Taylor's crimes against humanity. Johnson-Sirleaf clearly aimed her demands in the direction of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. (The New York Times' story is here).

Johnson-Sirleaf's courageous call proved to be a catalyst. At the behest of the administration, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said, "He needs to be brought to justice." The usually tepid Kofi Annan echoed the American demand, issuing a statement declaring that he "calls on all countries in the region not to give refuge to Mr Taylor, but to execute the warrant for his arrest".

Apparently Taylor could feel the noose circling his neck. He disappeared. Nigerian officials, no doubt aware that the world was watching and expected action, and clearly feeling pressure from the US, caught and arrested the warlord-turned-president-turned-exile-turned-fugitive.

This will be revenge served neither warm nor cold, but rather, I suspect, lukewarm. There comes a time when a dictator's atrocities so outpace any possible consequences he might face that all revenge seems cold. Nonetheless, this is good news, and the lion's share of the credit ought to go to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the latest in a long line of African leaders who have inspired hope. Perhaps this will be one of those times where that hope is justified.