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| Liberia expects plan soon on warlord Taylor | ||
| 2005-11-30 | ||
| ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Liberia's President-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Wednesday a consensus would emerge on the future of former president and warlord Charles Taylor, after holding talks about him in Nigeria, where he is exiled. Johnson-Sirleaf said she had discussed Taylor, who is wanted for crimes against humanity by a U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone, with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. Nigeria's position is that it will only hand over Taylor to an elected Liberian government and will not send him to a third country. Some Liberian authorities believe any attempt to move him would upset the region's fragile recovery from war. Asked whether her government was likely to request Taylor's extradition, she said: "We are still continuing our consultations on that issue. We've consulted with President Obasanjo. We believe that some consensus will be reached in due course. "We think with a little time we will find a solution that will preserve Liberia's peace and West African peace and meet the requirements of the international community," Johnson-Sirleaf told reporters in the Nigerian capital.
Nigeria has come under intense pressure, including from the United Nations and the United States, to hand over Taylor to Sierra Leone, where he stands accused of backing rebels notorious for hacking off the limbs of their victims. Obasanjo has said Nigeria would not bow to such pressure. "Liberia is a good standing member of the United Nations and we abide by all the rules, but at the same time there are certain national and regional sensitivities that need to be taken into account," said Johnson-Sirleaf.
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| Posted by:Steve |