Taylor in custody to face war crimes trial

By Alphonso Toweh

MONROVIA (Reuters) – U.N. officials took custody of
ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor in Liberia on Wednesday
and flew him to Sierra Leone to face trial for war crimes only
hours after Nigeria had captured him as he tried to flee.

Protected by a ring of U.N. troops, U.N. and Liberian
officials handcuffed the grim-faced former warlord after he was
flown from northern Nigeria where police intercepted him on
Wednesday trying to sneak across the border into Cameroon.

He was immediately flown by helicopter toward Freetown, the
Sierra Leonean capital, where a U.N.-backed special court has
indicted him on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity stemming from Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war.

Taylor, seen as the mastermind of a web of brutal West
African regional conflicts that killed as many as 300,000, is
accused of receiving diamonds in exchange for supporting Sierra
Leonean rebels who often hacked off the limbs of their victims.

His capture eased Nigeria’s embarrassment over his
mysterious escape on Monday from the villa in the southeastern
Nigerian town of Calabar where he had spent two-and-a-half
years in exile as part of 2003 deal to end a civil war in
Liberia.

Taylor’s brief disappearance had initially drawn sharp
international criticism as Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo
began a visit to the United States.

But Obasanjo said in Washington on Wednesday after meeting
President George W. Bush he felt vindicated by the capture.

Human rights groups said Taylor’s speedy transfer to face
justice would send out a strong message on the world’s poorest
continent, where thousands have endured death and suffering at
the hands of dictators, tyrants and warlords.

“Today, Liberia and Sierra Leone are safer and more hopeful
places. Today West Africa has moved one step closer to
dismantling the devastating grip of impunity,” said Corinne
Dufka, head of the West Africa office of Human Rights Watch.

TRUNKFUL OF DOLLARS

Earlier, journalists saw Taylor, dressed in a white safari
suit and surrounded by about 20 soldiers, walk onto the tarmac
at Maiduguri airport, in Nigeria’s far northeast, and board a
Nigerian presidential jet for the flight to Monrovia.

The 58-year-old former warlord was seized at dawn at the
border more than 1,500 km (930 miles) from Calabar, where he
had been living in exile until his disappearance on Monday
night.

When he was captured, Taylor was traveling in a jeep with
diplomatic plates with a woman and boy, and a large amount of
money in dollars in a trunk, local officials said.

Nigeria and Liberia have been at odds over how to handle
the case since Liberia’s newly-elected president asked for him
to be handed over in early March.

Taylor went into exile as part of a deal to end 14 years of
civil war in Liberia that spilled over into nearby states.

Nigeria had resisted sending Taylor to Sierra Leone,
arguing that the terms of his asylum stated that he could only
be returned to Liberia.

Some feared that Taylor’s presence in Liberia could spark
renewed bloodshed in the region as it recovers from the
devastating conflict.

Taylor’s disappearance from his residence on Monday caused
an international outcry. Some U.S. congressmen had urged Bush
to cancel Wednesday’s meeting with Obasanjo.

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