'Arrest Charles Taylor now'
2006-03-27 08:31
Lagos - Nigeria must arrest exiled Liberian warlord Charles Taylor immediately, the international war tribunal in Sierra Leone said, amid fears the former president might flee to avoid standing trial for crimes against humanity.
Nigeria has reluctantly said it was ready to hand over Taylor, sending a strong warning to other warmongers on the continent.
Liberia's information minister Johnny McClain said his government worked on Sunday with other countries to get Taylor sent directly to Sierra Leone.
"Modalities will be worked out to ensure that he is transferred to Sierra Leone," he said in a telephone interview.
Taylor, who could not be reached for comment, is accused of starting a 14-year civil war in his homeland that brutalised tens of thousands of young boys and girls drafted as rebel fighters.
He also is blamed for a savage war in neighbouring Sierra Leone where rebel fighters, including children, terrorised victims by chopping off body parts.
An international tribunal indictment says Taylor is criminally responsible for the destruction of Liberia and Sierra Leone and for the murder, rape, maiming and mutilation of more than a half-million Sierra Leoneans.
Each of the 17 charges he faces carries a life sentence.
Taylor is also accused of harboring al-Qaeda suicide bombers who attacked US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Sent message to president
"The watching world will wish to see Taylor held in Nigerian detention to avoid the possibility of him using his wealth and associates to slip away, with grave consequences to the stability of the region," Sierra Leone war tribunal prosecutor Desmond de Silva said.
De Silva said he had sent a message asking Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to arrest Taylor.
The former Liberian leader has been in exile in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar since being forced from power under a 2003 accord that ended a rebel assault on Liberia's capital.
Nigeria "has resisted persistent pressures to violate the understanding of 2003," giving Taylor refuge under an internationally brokered peace deal," Obasanjo said in a statement on Saturday.
- SAPA