It’s good to see some coverage in the Australian media, including stories in this morning’s Age and Australian of the war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, which began in The Hague two years ago.

Taylor, who testified yesterday for the first time, faces 11 charges of murder and other atrocities related to the 1990s civil war in Liberia’s neighbor, Sierra Leone. He denied responsibility, claiming (implausibly) that he had always done what he “thought was right in the interests of justice and fair play”.

Taylor’s trial represents the first time that an African leader has been brought to account before an international tribunal. A handful of African despots have been tried in their own countries — Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea in 1979, Jean-Bédel Bokassa of Central Africa in 1987 — and rather more have been summarily killed, but for the most part there has been little accountability for the blood shed on the continent over the last 50 years.

The lack of international concern for the crimes of Africa contrasts unfavorably with the attention given to events elsewhere. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has pursued, at great cost, the culprits from a series of wars whose casualties — while the heaviest in Europe for a generation — are dwarfed by those of Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan and many others.

From the end of colonialism in the 1960s through to the end of the cold war and beyond, Africa presented an almost unrelieved scene of coups, dictatorships, massacres and civil wars. For long periods, the number of African democracies could be counted on one hand, with a finger or two left over.

The last two decades have brought change to much of the continent, and there are now a number of democratic success stories. Yet democratisation often just presented old despots in a new guise, and many of the worst criminals died peacefully in their beds, or are still at liberty. (It should also be pointed out that the crimes of European powers in the colonial era went equally unpunished.)

In certain circles, it was long considered improper to mention this massive failure of governance in Africa — as if drawing attention to atrocities, rather than failing to punish them, was the real evidence of racism.

On the contrary, the west’s lack of interest in its former colonies, and its indulgent attitude towards the continent’s authoritarians, created an environment in which crimes against humanity were allowed to flourish. Justice for Charles Taylor and his like will be an important step on Africa’s road to redemption.