Stephen Rapp, the lead prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, was recently in London asking for help to track down the hundreds of millions of dollars Charles Taylor stole while president. Rapp hopes this money, if found, could be used to provide reparations to war victims.
This BBC article says that Rapp believes “the real tragedy of the war in Sierra Leone is that not enough was being done to help the victims of the war. “
This seems to imply that the money would only go to Sierra Leoneans. And Taylor is only being tried for crimes he committed against the people of Sierra Leone. Would Liberians benefit from this money? After all, much of it was stolen from them in the form of revenue from the illegal export of timber and other natural resources. And more importantly, what shape would reparations take? I don’t know how this has worked in other post-conflict countries. Are there one-time payments to citizens? Would the money be invested in building hospitals in schools? Does anyone know more about this?
Update: This New York Times article seems to say that both Sierra Leoneans and Liberians would benefit from restitution.
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