Mercenaries: 'Bounty hunters'

2004-03-24 10:52

Johannesburg - Eighty-five alleged mercenaries facing charges of trying to topple the president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea were actually on a mission to abduct former Liberian president Charles Taylor from Nigeria, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

This Day, quoting sources close to some of the South African nationals among the 70 presumed soldiers of fortune detained in Zimbabwe, said their objective was not to topple Equatorial Guinea's long-serving President Teodoro Obiang Nguema but to deliver Taylor to a special war crimes court in Sierra Leone.

Fifteen other presumed mercenaries have been detained in Equatorial Guinea on charges of trying to oust Nguema. One of the men has since died of cerebral malaria.

Merely a springboard

"Sources close to some of the men (being held in Zimbabwe) suggest there was never a plan to oust President Nguema. They say the west African state was merely to be the springboard for a sea-borne expedition to Calabar, the port city in southeastern Nigeria, where Taylor found asylum," the newspaper said.

Taylor has been in exile in Nigeria since August last year after stepping down to pave the way for peace in his country, riven by 14 years of nearly continuous war.

He was indicted by the Sierra Leone tribunal last year on 17 counts of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in arming and training the notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in their decade-long rebel war that left as many as 200 000 dead before it was officially declared over in January 2002.

Taylor has since been the object of an international arrest warrant. The special tribunal in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown enjoys the support of the United Nations, and the global police agency Interpol.

"Calabar is on an estuary and Taylor's guarded compound overlooks the Cross river," the daily said, adding that the Equatorial Guinea capital of Malabo, located on an island "is less than 300km from Calabar."

In September, the United States passed a law setting aside $2m to serve as a bounty on Taylor's head for anyone who could get him to Sierra Leone.

This Day said the mission was linked to the reward.

- AFP