Charles Taylor, The former President of Liberia and indicted war criminal who spend decades terrorizing West Africa for personal gain, has been captured. Taylor was found (along with his wife and several bags of cash) 600 miles from his villa in Nigeria, where he had enjoyed a couple years of relatively peaceful exile. Taylor is responsible for completely destabilizing Liberia and Sierra Leone and for the torment and murder of thousands of innocent people. Current Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has made an official request for Taylor, which means that he will finally be tried for his crimes; mainly, his part in the atrocious civil war that rocked Sierra Leone in the 1990’s.

This wasn’t even the first time Taylor had been exiled from Liberia, nor was this his first attempted escape from capture. After his first exile, the result of a falling out with then leader Samuel Doe (understandably angry after Taylor embezzled almost 1 million dollars), Taylor fled to the US. He was captured and served a brief prison sentence before sawing through the bars to freedom in 1985.

After his escape, Taylor decided that he needed an education in murder. He went to Libya and sought out Muammar Quaddafi, who took Taylor under his wing for some guerrilla training. He made a fateful friend there, Fadoy Sankoh, who was also seeking Qauddafi’s training. Sankoh would eventually go on to become a revolutionary leader of one of the most frightful organizations in West Africa, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

After this training, Taylor returned to Liberia, incited violent revolt throughout the country, saw to it that Liberia was immersed in an ethnic conflict and divide that would displace over a million people and kill 200,000, and finally, took office in 1997 when an overwhelming majority voted him in. Why? He ran a campaign of threats and intimidation, telling the terrorized and exhausted Liberians that war would continue if he wasn’t elected. Liberia still hasn’t recovered; 80% of citizens are living on less than a dollar a day, and 85% are unemployed.

As part of his brutal decade-long campaign for Presidency, Taylor turned his attention to neighboring Sierra Loene. At the time, Sierra Leone was home to a peacekeeping group, ECOMOG. They had some success in keeping Taylor from gaining control, so Taylor did his part to destroy all stability and peace in the entire country in order to weaken the group. He accomplished this by funding the RUF, conveniently controlled by his old friend, Fadoy Sankoh. With Taylor’s help, the RUF committed mass-murder, raped civilians, engaged in brutal limb mutilation practices, and forced the conscription of child soldiers (whose initiation often included killing their parents, getting “RUF” etched deeply into their skin, and having cocaine rubbed into their open wounds).

After gaining control of Liberia, Taylor continued to add to his rap sheet of atrocities, but his past started to catch up with him. In 2003, the Special Court of Sierra Leone indicted Taylor for war crimes, and the UN justice tribunal soon issued a warrant for his arrest. He was also losing power in Liberia, as various rebel groups gained control of over nearly two-thirds of the country. Things did not look good for Charles. Nigerian President Obsanjo came to his rescue, offering him exile as long as he no longer interfered in politics. He took the offer, and has been in Nigeria until his recent attempted escape and capture. Johnson-Sirleaf had been under pressure from much of the world to finally try and punish Taylor.

The trial should begin shortly, and we will see how the world sees fit to punish one of the most monstrous men to walk its face in recent history.

Originally published by InternationalistMag.com on April 7,2006