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(New York) - If U.S. troops are sent to Liberia, they should not make any deals that involve a withdrawal of the indictment of President Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Human Rights Watch said today.

The top priority for any peacekeeping troops must be the protection of civilians, who have suffered from abuses by all sides in the Liberian conflict.

U.S. President George W. Bush has called on Taylor to step down, but President John Kufuor of Ghana has urged that Taylor be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for leaving office.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone recently indicted Taylor as one of those “bearing the greatest responsibility” for war crimes (including murder and taking hostages); crimes against humanity (rape, murder, extermination, sexual slavery); and other serious violations of international humanitarian law (use of child soldiers) committed in Sierra Leone. The indictment charges that Taylor actively supported the rebel Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone’s ten-year civil war.

The indictment was announced on June 4, 2003 while Taylor was in Ghana attending peace talks on the recently intensified Liberian conflict. News reports today suggest that the United States is considering sending peacekeepers to Liberia.

Human Rights Watch considers it of utmost importance that any military action be undertaken with full respect for international human rights and humanitarian law. The force should have a robust mandate to ensure the maintenance of law and order to protect civilians and help ensure that humanitarian assistance can reach civilian populations in need.

“Letting Charles Taylor off the hook would make it harder, not easier, to bring lasting peace to Liberia,” said Janet Fleischman, Washington Director for Africa at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, we should look at how we can build on Taylor’s indictment to ensure accountability for all those responsible for war crimes in Liberia.”

Elected president of Liberia in 1997 after a seven-year war ousted former president Samuel Doe, Charles Taylor gained international notoriety for the brutal abuses of civilians perpetrated by his forces in Liberia, and for his use of child soldiers organized in “Small Boy Units.” Taylor’s support for the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone contributed to the deaths, rape and mutilations of thousands of civilians, and led to United Nations sanctions on his regime. Taylor’s forces have also been implicated in conflicts in neighboring Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire.

The Ghanaian peace talks produced a ceasefire agreement on June 17, 2003. The ceasefire has been broken by several serious bouts of fighting between the Liberian government and rebel forces in and around Monrovia. The recent conflict has displaced thousands of civilians and exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation in the country, where the majority of the population was already inaccessible to humanitarian agencies.

According to credible sources in Monrovia, several hundred civilians have died in the capital in the past few weeks, both from the fighting and the increasing toll taken by disease. Much of northern and eastern Liberia has been off limits to humanitarian agencies since the resurgence of fighting in March 2003.

Taylor, who reportedly stated that he would step down in favor of a transitional government, has recently wavered on that point. His past record of broken agreements and commitments give little grounds for hope that he will fulfill the most recent accords, or that providing him immunity would bring stability.

“All parties involved in the Liberia peace talks must respect the Sierra Leone Special Court,” said Fleischman. “Taylor should be handed over to the court to face trial.”

The 1999 Lomé peace accord in Sierra Leone purportedly granted an amnesty for crimes committed by all combatants during the civil war on the basis that this was necessary to achieve peace. But once granted amnesty, the rebels resumed military operations, plunging Sierra Leone into two more years of war. The Special Court for Sierra Leone, which has a mandate to bring those who bear the greatest responsibilities for atrocities to justice, is one of the key mechanisms that are now contributing to the restoration of peace in that country.

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