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Last Updated: Oct 24th, 2006 - 17:24:11 |
DAKAR (Reuters) - The prosecutor of the U.N.-backed special court seeking to try former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes in Sierra Leone on Sunday
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| Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is seen speaking in this August 11, 2003 file photo. Nigeria will transfer Taylor, who is living in exile in Nigeria and has been indicted for war crimes, to Liberian custody, the Nigerian government said on Saturday. (Juda Ngwenya/Reuters) |
asked Nigeria to arrest Taylor to prevent his escape.
The urgent request by prosecutor Desmond de Silva reflected concern that Taylor, in exile in Nigeria since 2003, might try to abscond after the Nigerian government said on Saturday that Liberian authorities were free to take him into custody.
Taylor is seen as the mastermind behind once linked civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, where he is accused of having supported rebels notorious for their brutality in exchange for diamonds. Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war cost some 50,000 lives.
Some of Taylor's aides and supporters have warned that bringing him to trial would spark violence in Liberia.
Saturday's announcement by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo did not say that Nigerian authorities would themselves hold Taylor and hand him over, and this vagueness raised fears that he might have a chance to escape.
"I have requested President Obasanjo to have his authorities execute the warrant for the arrest of Charles Taylor issued by the Special Court and transmitted to Nigeria in 2003," de Silva said in a statement sent to Reuters from Freetown.
"I, as the prosecutor of the Special Court, out of an abundance of caution, wrote to President Obasanjo today (Sunday) to underline this."
Shortly before de Silva announced his request, a spokeswoman for Obasanjo in Abuja told Reuters: "You know, Mr. Taylor is not a prisoner in Nigeria."
She was not immediately available afterwards to say how Nigeria would respond to the prosecutor's arrest request.
Taylor has been indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
LIBERIA TO COOPERATE
Taylor's 2003 exile was part of a peace deal to end 14 years of civil war in Liberia which killed 250,000 people, spawned a generation of young gunmen and spread violence to nearby states.
Liberia's government said on Sunday it had no direct part in the 2003 deal but would cooperate with Nigeria and the international community "in determining the mechanisms that will bring this matter of former President Taylor to closure."
De Silva said that Taylor should be detained "to avoid the possibility of him using his wealth and associates to slip away, with grave consequences to the stability of the region."
Taylor's riverside villa in the southeastern Nigerian town of Calabar is normally watched by armed guards, but journalists were able to enter his compound last week without any security or identity checks and met him.
Earlier on Sunday, the U.S.-based international rights group Human Rights Watch said it had credible reports that "little or no security" existed around his residence.
"Nigeria must urgently take steps to tighten security around Taylor's villa in Calabar and should immediately take him into custody," Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Programme, said in a statement.
"It would be a disgrace if Nigeria allowed Taylor to flee."
One of Taylor's advisers has cited the former leader as saying that if he is brought to trial, his supporters may try to kill newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
A leading supporter of Taylor in Liberia criticized the special prosecutor's call for his arrest. "The court has no jurisdiction over Nigeria ... The prosecutor wants to extend his tentacles beyond his capacity," Cyril Allen, a former chairman of Taylor's National Patriotic Party, told Reuters.
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