Justice Not Done For Sierra Leone War Victims: Activist

Liberia's Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee, pictured on March 8, 2015, called for former president Charles Taylor's assets to be sold off to help the victims of Sierra Leone's civil war ©Mark Sagliocco (Getty/AFP)

Liberian rights activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee on Friday called for former president Charles Taylor's assets to be sold off to help the victims of Sierra Leone's civil war.

"Justice will finally be served if all of his assets are sold off and some of the proceeds given to these people," Gbowee said at "Women in the World", a forum organized by British-American journalist Tina Brown.

Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for leading a women's movement in Liberia that demanded an end to the brutal 1991-2002 war that left tens of thousands dead.

AFP report continues:

Taylor was jailed for 50 years in 2012 on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over acts committed by Sierra Leonean rebels he aided and abetted.

He is currently being held in a maximum-security British prison.

"If you look at the images of people that have suffered in Sierra Leone, images of one hand, two hands chopped off, these people will forever struggle," Gbowee said.

"Taylor, even though is in prison, he has three meals a day. When he's sick he will see the doctor and when there is something wrong, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch" will complain, she added.

But she added: "It's good that he is in prison because the rest of people who are ruling Africa and think that they can treat people any way will finally realize that we cannot do things with impunity."
"Reconciliation is a necessity for every country that has gone through crisis. I don't believe in impunity, I believe that people should be held responsible for everything that they do," she said.