Global Policy Forum

African dictators who destroy their countries and kill their people with impunity are, generally, either killed by their own people, or at least by shadowy forces related to them, or end up in comfortable exile in another country.

Ironically, those who flee the wrath of their people are allowed to do so because of the very scale of their wrongdoing. Their physical removal from the country becomes pivotal for change.

Charles Taylor, president of war-torn Liberia since 1997, is the latest member of this rather dubious club. As well as wreaking havoc and civil war in his own country, Taylor has actively fomented instability in his neighbours: Sierra Leone and Guinea and even Cí´te d'Ivoire. Liberia's problems have kept regional peacekeeping forces busy for years.

Taylor, recently indicted of war crimes committed in Sierra Leone, has offered to step down to allow a solution to be found to Liberia's problems. His offer is considered a necessary but not sufficient factor in restoring order. Thus Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has offered him asylum, a move not popularly supported by Nigerians themselves.

Obasanjo, at the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo last week, appealed to the world not to "harass" him over the matter. He said the offer was made on humanitarian grounds for the benefit of Liberia's people. He likened it to removing a "lion" from a "china shop" to prevent the destruction of the china.

Taylor has so far escaped retribution at the hands of his own people, a favour not accorded his predecessor, Samuel Doe, who was tortured, mutilated and killed by Taylor's one-time supporter Yormie Johnson.

The asylum offer will disappoint Liberians, and other West Africans who want justice done. Taylor has ruined thousands of people's lives and played a leading role in the virtual destruction of several countries. And he will probably get away with it.

African despots in exile have done well out of it. Take Idi Amin, who is accused of killing about 300000 people during his rule of Uganda. He lives in allexpenses-paid luxury in a villa on the Red Sea, courtesy of Saudi Arabia. Ethiopia's former leader Mengistu Haile Mariam, who killed tens of thousands of people opposed to his military Marxist regime in the 1970s, has been living in Zimbabwe since he fled Addis Ababa in 1991. President Robert Mugabe offered Mengistu refuge as a result of the latter's help during Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.

Mugabe has protected Mengistu from Ethiopia's attempts to have him extradited to face war crimes levelled against him in absentia.

So, he lives an easy life in Harare, guarded by Mugabe, whose agrarian policies and political manipulation of food and land have a distinctly familiar pattern to what Mengistu perpetrated against his own people.

Last week, while west Africa was gearing up to send troops into Liberia, Mugabe was at the AU discussing Liberia's problems. Conveniently his own problems were kept off the agenda. The AU does not deem Zimbabwe to be in conflict, let alone at war.

Taylor is the elected leader of Liberia and his presidential term only expires next year. His offer to step down was made under pressure from the region.

So what makes his situation different from that of Mugabe, whose sovereignty is defended on the basis that he is an elected leader? Is it the military strength of Liberia's opposition? Or the fact Taylor's agenda of instability is transnational? Or simply the fact that his neighbours agree that he is a problem and are prepared to act against him?

Mugabe may end up seeing out his days in one of his Zimbabwe mansions. However, if he had to go into exile, his choice might well be Britain, where his fortune is said to be stashed and where his favourite shops are.

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