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| Africa: West |
| Nigeria Will Surrender Taylor for Trial |
| 2003-11-25 |
| Nigeria will surrender ousted Liberian leader Charles Taylor to face a war crimes trial if Liberia asks, President Olusegun Obasanjo said Tuesday. Obasanjo’s comments marked the first time he has publicly shown willingness to yield Taylor for trial. The Nigerian president has strongly resisted U.S. congressional pressure to turn Taylor over to face a war crimes indictment by a U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone. Liberia has not yet pressed for Taylor’s return. And they most likely won’t. Liberia’s interim leader, Gyude Bryant, appointed under an Aug. 18 peace deal, has said he fears war-crimes trials would harm reconciliation in his war-battered country. If Gyude, Chuck’s buddy, doesn’t win the promised election, the new government may want Chuck’s head on a platter. Liberia’s Taylor has lived in exile in southern Nigeria since he fled Monrovia in early August, with rebels besieging the capital and international officials pressing him to go to allow a peace deal to be reached. Taylor is also blamed in much of the bloodshed in West Africa in recent years, and the U.N. indictment accuses him of backing rebels in a vicious 10-year terror campaign in neighboring Sierra Leone. A lot of people would pay to see Chuck go to the wall. If Liberia’s new interim government decides it wants him to face charges there, "then I believe he will understand sufficiently the need to go home," Obasanjo said, speaking in an interview at his farm north of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. Asked what he would do if Taylor resisted, Obasanjo responded, "I would persuade him." That’s Chuck’s two-minute warning. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 This really catches me by surprise. Do they get the bounty? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-25 7:23:39 PM |
| #1 hope they let him know, then shut off the phones and power to his lil refuge mansion.... heh heh Happy Thanksgiving Chuck! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-11-25 12:27:52 PM |