Liberia, Nigeria at odds over Taylor custody

Liberia, Nigeria at odds over Taylor custody
 
Liberia, Nigeria at odds over Taylor custody
Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:38 AM ET

By Alphonso Toweh
 

MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia and Nigeria were at odds (不合) on Monday over who should take charge of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is wanted by a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal (court) in Sierra Leone (塞拉利昂).

While Nigeria had invited Liberian authorities on Saturday to take custody of the former warlord, who has lived in exile on Nigerian soil since 2003, Liberia's president said on Monday Taylor should go to Sierra Leone.

Taylor's spokesman in Nigeria, Sylvester Paasewe, said Taylor was in his villa in the southeastern city of Calabar. He denied rumors that Taylor had escaped or been taken to a secret location by Nigerian authorities.

Seen as the mastermind (A highly intelligent person, especially one who plans and directs a complex or difficult project) behind once intertwined ( To join or become joined by twining together) civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Taylor is wanted by a U.N.-backed Special Court in Freetown where he is charged on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The charges relate to the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone, where he is accused of having supported rebels notorious ( infamous) for their brutality in exchange for diamonds.

"Taylor was indicted ( To accuse of wrongdoing; charge) by a Sierra Leone court. Taylor should rather go to Sierra Leone than come to Liberia because he was not indicted by a Liberian court," Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf told church representatives in Monrovia (蒙罗维亚. Monrovia. 赖比瑞亚首都).

It was her first public response to Saturday's announcement by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, which had placed the onus (a burden or obligation) of collecting Taylor squarely in the hands of Liberia.

"Taylor is not a prisoner in Nigeria ... The situation is that as of March 25 she (the Liberian President) is free to come and take President Taylor into her custody," Obasanjo's spokeswoman Remi Oyo insisted in Abuja on Monday.

The prosecutor of the Sierra Leone Special Court, Desmond de Silva, said on Sunday he had asked Obasanjo to arrest Taylor to prevent him escaping, but Oyo said the Nigerian government had not yet formally received this request.

Taylor's 2003 exile was part of a peace deal to end 14 years of war in Liberia which killed 250,000 people, spawned a generation of young gunmen and spread violence to nearby states.

The custody debate is further muddied (Not clear) by the fact Obasanjo had always said he would not hand Taylor to a third country but only to a democratically elected Liberian government.

Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-trained economist, took office as Africa's first elected female president in January.

She supports the idea of Taylor having "his day in court", but says she wants to ensure this does not derail (sudden halt) the process of reconciliation in Liberia, where memories of the brutal civil war are fresh and Taylor still has backers.

Some of Taylor's aides and supporters have warned that bringing him to trial would spark violence in Liberia.

"The Taylor issue is an inherited one. The government still stands by its position that Mr Taylor be tried in an environment that is not hostile to Liberia," Johnson-Sirleaf said.

Her government has said however it is willing to cooperate to bring Taylor's case to a conclusion.

Responding to concerns Taylor might try to flee Nigeria, Oyo said: "As far as the Nigerian authorities are concerned, he is still in Nigeria."

Obasanjo, who visits Washington this week, has been under intense pressure, notably from the United States, to send Taylor to stand trial. But he does not want to be seen as going back on his word given in 2003 granting him safe haven.

Christopher Staker, deputy prosecutor for the Special Court that indicted Taylor, said the court intended he should stand trial in Sierra Leone.

"As to how we get him here, that's being worked out," he added, but declined to elaborate.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Felix Onuah in Abuja and Tom Ashby in Lagos)