Judd Gregg: “I agree with Mr. Crane's statement about the indictment of Charles Taylor. As much as anyone, I want to bring peace and…”

“I agree with Mr. Crane's statement about the indictment of Charles Taylor. As much as anyone, I want to bring peace and prosperity to West Africa. But, Mr. Crane has a mandate to bring to justice those most responsible for the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone, and the trail led to Charles Taylor. Not indicting Mr. Taylor would have been outrageous. Justice would not have been served. I also want to read from a Washington Post editorial, dated June 5, 2003, that summarizes the issue. It said, and I am quoting: After years of afflicting his own country with the worst kind of brutality and aiding and abetting a cruel civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, Mr. Taylor is now being pressed on his own soil by rebel movements bent on driving him from power. That he was out of the country this week was no accident. The purpose of his trip to Ghana, organized by the Economic Community of West Africa and a United Nations contact group that includes the United States, was to join peace talks with Liberian opposition groups. Military and political weaknesses, not strength, drove him from his haven in Liberia to the Ghana peace parley. Fear of international justice is what has sent him scurrying back home. . . ..The idea of Mr. Taylor working out an eleventh-hour agreement that restores peace and stability to Liberia strikes many human rights observers as ludicrous given both his record of broken pledges and his overwhelming contribution to that country's misery.”