Taylor in UN war crimes court?
2005-11-20 19:10
Monrovia - In her first public comments since the November 8 run-off election, Liberian president-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf says the question of ex-president Charles Taylor appearing in a UN war crimes court, could not be decided by Liberia alone.
"The African Union and the international community will have to be a part of such a decision because they were part of the arrangement that saw Taylor leave for Nigeria," Johnson-Sirleaf said.
"Liberia as a founding member of the UN will work to reflect the position of the UN," she said.
Her comments were in apparent reaction to a recent statement by the European Union observer mission asking the new government to send Taylor to the UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone to answer to 17-count charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Harvard-trained economist Johnson-Sirleaf, 67, is poised to become Liberia's and Africa's first elected female head of state after defeating former soccer star George Manneh Weah in two rounds of presidential elections.
The inauguration is set for January.
Taylor, the former Liberian rebel leader turned president,is said to have trained, armed and supported the defunct Sierra Leone rebel faction RUF which reportedly carried out heinous atrocities against innocent civilians.
Johnson-Sirleaf said that when inaugurated, her government would find a solution to the issue of Taylor, but added that any solution had to satisfy the European Union, African Union, the international community and West African leaders who, she noted, had "played a major role in bringing peace to war battered Liberia".
- SAPA