Pressure mounts for Taylor to face trial

As former Liberian president Charles Taylor spent his first day in exile in Nigeria, a war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone reiterated its demand that he be sent to face trial in Freetown. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also urged Nigeria, which has granted Taylor political asylum, to extradite him to Sierra Leone. The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone said in a statement that Taylor left Liberia as "an indicted war criminal and remains an indicted war criminal." It published charges against Taylor on June 4 for his role in backing a notoriously brutal rebel movement in Sierra Leone during the 1990's in return for smuggled Sierra Leonean diamonds and issued. At the same time, the court issued an international warrant for his arrest. "Taylor's departure was not accompanied by any promise of amnesty or legal barrier to prosecution and that demonstrates significant progress," the court said. It called on the international community to ensure that he stands trial, along with a dozen other key players in Sierra Leone's 1991-2001 civil war. Taylor has been charged with serious violations of the Geneva Convention, which establishes the rules of warfare, and crimes against humanity. The court alleges that he is among those who bear the greatest responsibility for widespread and systematic rape, murder, physical violence, including mutilation and amputation and other atrocities in Sierra Leone through his support and guidance of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement. Human Rights Watch urged Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to hand over Taylor to the war crimes tribunal, saying that amnesty for him "would flout international law and would be an affront to his innumerable victims." Amnesty International also urged the Nigerian government to arrest Taylor and either surrender him to the Court or launch an investigation with a view to opening criminal proceedings against him in Nigerian courts. "Nigeria, instead of seeking to end the culture of impunity, is fostering it and in so doing perpetuating what has been a major contributing factor to years of conflict in West Africa," Amnesty International said. "Nigeria is also undermining the important contribution being made by the Special Court towards justice, reconciliation and sustained peace in Sierra Leone." The National Union of Journalists is pressing to have Taylor tried in a local court for the killing of two Nigerian journalists by his troops in the early 1990s or have him handed over to face trial in Sierra Leone for war crimes. "You can't just harbour a suspected murderer in your house," said Smart Adeyemi, the union president. "It's against the Nigerian constitution." Facing huge international pressure to quit, particularly from the United States, Taylor handed over power to his vice-president, Moses Blah, on Monday and flew to the Nigerian capital Abuja aboard the Nigerian president's official jet. There, Taylor and his family transferred to another plane which flew them to the southeastern port city of Calabar, where three houses have been refurbished for their use. Taylor's flight into exile is supposed to end 14 years of civil war in Liberia in which an estimated 250,000 people were killed. The conflict began when Taylor and a band of Libyan-trained guerrillas launched a bush war in 1989. Taylor stepped onto the red carpet in Abuja - perhaps for the last time - to the warm embrace of President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was accompanied to Nigeria by President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, the current chairman of the African Union, and President John Kufuor of Ghana, who is chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is sending a peacekeeping force into Liberia. Chissano said: "We admire the bold position taken by former President Taylor; it's not easy to accept not only to relinquish his powers, but also to leave his country to come for a second time into exile." Taylor previously served in the government of Samuel Doe in the 1980s, but he fled to the United States after being accused of embezzling $900,000 of state funds. Kufuor described Taylor's latest departure as evidence of the commitment of the ECOWAS countries to check incipient chaos in the region. "Perhaps this is the best evidence that at long last Africa is waking up to its problems," the Ghanaian leader said. Obasanjo commended Taylor, who was elected president in 1997, for being prepared to give up power for the good of his nation. "Here was a man who decided to make a sacrifice, believing that sacrifice will give his country peace," Obasanjo said. Taylor nodded intermittently and smiled, but Obasanjo prevented him from taking questions from journalists. The Nigerian president said: "We will endeavour to be good hosts while they (Taylor and family) are here, and I hope the press will give them time to settle down." On Sunday, two aircrafts - a private jet and a Nigerian air force Hercules - brought Taylor's household goods, including two four-wheel drive cars and a Mercedes limousine, to Calabar airport.