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Chuck ramps up security as US offers $2m bounty
Security has been stepped up around former Liberian leader Charles Taylor's home in Nigeria, after the United States slapped a $US2 million bounty on his head. A former Liberian official who followed Mr Taylor into exile says Nigeria has promised to defend the former warlord.
| "Chuck, we will defend you with our blood!" |
The official is accusing the United States of inciting violence and risking civilian lives. "It's an incitement to terrorism because any bloke in Nigeria who is money hungry could take up that offer. Imagine the bloodshed," he said.
| Imagine how many blokes in Nigeria are money hungry! |
"We're prepared for the worst."
| Hopefully you'll get it... |
No Nigerian official is immediately available to confirm the claim. The US Congress included the $US2 million reward in its $US87.5 billion special budget for Iraq and Afghanistan, which President George W Bush signed into law on Thursday. The money has been set aside to help bring Mr Taylor
| ... or significant pieces of him... |
before a special tribunal on war crimes in Liberia's neighbour, Sierra Leone. The exact significance of the new law for US policy towards Mr Taylor's exile in Nigeria is not clear, and a diplomat says the US embassy in Abuja is seeking clarification from the US on the issue. Asked whether the money could be paid as a reward to anyone who seized Mr Taylor and managed to bring him out to Sierra Leone, the official replied: "Theoretically, yes, I suppose so."
| Dilemma time: What happens if Kony and the entire Lords Resistance Army shows up and captures Chuck? |
Before Mr Taylor agreed to step down as Liberia's president, a British-based "private military company" was reported as having offered to kidnap him for $US2 million. But west African mediators, with US support, preferred to encourage Mr Taylor to take up the offer of exile in Nigeria to allow an interim, peace building government to take over and end 14 years of civil war.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-11-08 |
