Bush may refuse to meet Nigerian president

[MaineDem]

WASHINGTON --The White House suggested Tuesday that President Bush may refuse to meet with Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo this week without answers about the disappearance from Nigeria of Africa's most infamous warlord.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has been indicted by a U.N. tribunal on charges of committing crimes against humanity while in office, including aiding and directing a Sierra Leone rebel movement and trading guns and gems with the insurgents, among them child fighters who terrorized victims by chopping off their arms, legs, ears and lips.

Taylor also has been accused of starting civil war in Liberia and of harboring al-Qaida suicide bombers who attacked the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing 12 Americans and more than 200 Africans. Fighting ended in 2001 in Sierra Leone, and Obasanjo had offered Taylor refuge in Nigeria under an agreement that helped end Liberia's civil war in 2003.

Since then, though, the United States, the United Nations and others have called for Taylor to be handed over to an international war crimes tribunal.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/03/28/bush_may_refuse_to_meet_nigerian_president/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

[meegbear]

1. Gee Mr. Bush, should the Liberian people try him ...

like Saddam in Iraq? Or are you saying that Saddam should be tried in an international war crimes tribunal?

[tekriter]

2. Shouldn't they just ask...

Pat Robertson?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Pat would know. Article: Pat Robertson Slams Bush On Liberia

Pat Robertson Slams Bush On Liberia

NORFOLK, Virginia, July 11, 2003

(CBS) Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson accused President Bush of “undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels” by asking Liberian President Charles Taylor, recently indicted for war crimes, to step down.

“How dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down,'" Robertson said Monday on “The 700 Club,” broadcast from his Christian Broadcasting Network.

“It's one thing to say, we will give you money if you step down and we will give you troops if you step down, but just to order him to step down? He doesn't work for us.”
(snip/...)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/11/national/main562915.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Makes you wonder how Robertson justifies his filthy suggestion someone should assassinate Hugo Chavez.

[ET Awful]

3. Why, did Obasanjo rip him off on some plot to get TWENTY-FOUR MILLIONS

US DOLLARS out of the country that formerly belonged to a top government official? :evilgrin:

[cliss]

4. I think......

there's more to the story.

Now, Nigeria has lots of oil. And they're holding out on Bush. They've threatened to kick everybody out of the Niger Delta if things don't improve.

They took 9 hostages about a month ago to make their point.

Does that have anything to do with it? Hmmmmm George? hint = you never met a dictator you didn't like. So it has to be something else.

[HamdenRice]

7. I hope you are not assuming that Obasanjo is a dictator?

Despite the very serious problems Nigeria faces, especially in the delta region, Obasanjo is considered to be a very legitimate, elected leader. He had been a military ruler in the 1970s -- he succeeded to the head of government when his predecessor was assassinated -- but Obasanjo was one of the few military leaders in the history of developing countries to decide to prepare his country for a return to elections and civilian rule, which Obasanjo accomplished.

Later when civilian rule was again overthrown by the military, Obasanjo, the former military man, became a human rights advocate and was imprisoned by the then military dictator. When military rule ended, Obasanjo, who had proven his democratic credentials in two different eras, ran for office and swept the elections. He has since been re-elected.

There certainly are human rights violations and corruption in Nigeria, but generally the view is that Obasanjo is trying to correct these problems, which is difficult for the federal president to do in a decentralized federal system like Nigeria's. It's kind of like blaming John Kennedy for the state of affairs in Mississippi.

As for the deal with Taylor, Nigeria offered to take him because both Liberia and Sierra Leone wanted to get rid of him, and unless asylum was offered by some country, it was feared Taylor would return to the bush to restart the war. Nigeria is generally thought of as playing a constructive role in helping to bring stability to west Africa. I will be very curious to learn just how Taylor escaped his virtual house arrest in Nigeria.

You should not assume that every head of state in Africa is a dictator.

[SOS]

5. Shell Oil

will remind Bush who's in charge and order him to meet with Obsanjo.