US/NIGERIA: The United States is trying to persuade Nigeria to hand over former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, to face charges at Sierra Leone's special war crimes tribunal, the US ambassador to Nigeria said yesterday.
The UN-backed tribunal indicted Mr Taylor on 17 counts of crimes against humanity and other violations of humanitarian law in March 2003. He is accused of lending financial and military support to Sierra Leone's rebels in a decade-long war in which 50,000 people died.
The US ambassador to Nigeria, Mr John Campbell, said he must not be allowed to walk away scot-free.
"Taylor must be brought to justice, that is why we are in dialogue with Nigeria on how that can be brought about."
Nigeria played a key role in persuading the former leader to give up power in exchange for asylum in Nigeria, in a deal designed to prevent further bloodshed in Liberia as rebels marched on the capital Monrovia last year.
Chief prosecutor of the UN-backed tribunal, Mr David Crane, said Nigeria was under mounting international and domestic pressure to hand over Mr Taylor before the court's mandate expires in 2005.
Taylor's indictment says he received military training in Libya where he met Sierra Leone's notorious rebel leader Foday Sankoh, whose militia hacked and burned civilians to death and forced children to fight in a war in the west African country.
The court opened the trial of ringleaders of the Sierra Leone civil war this month and ruled that Taylor's status as a head of state at the time of the offences did not give him immunity from prosecution. Sankoh died in custody last year. Two other key suspects have been killed while at large.