March 29, 2006

Arrest of War Criminal Hailed as a Huge Step Forward in International Law and Justice

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was apprehended and flown to Liberia on Wednesday, where U.N. peacekeeping troops waited to take him into custody to face war crime charges. Taylor had been living in Nigeria since 2003.

“It is a good day for Taylor’s victims, the people of West Africa and all those who wish that troubled part of the world well,” said Raj Purohit, Senior Fellow for Citizens for Global Solutions. “Nigeria deserves credit for  recognizing that his persistent meddling undermined regional stability, risked further loss of life and necessitated that he should be handed over for trial.”

Taylor was Liberia's president from 1997 until he was forced from office in 2003. A court in neighboring Sierra Leone indicted him on 17 counts of alleged war crimes after accusing him of supporting rebels in that country who were committing atrocities against civilians.

As many as 200,000 people were killed in the war waged by Sierra Leone's vicious Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels from 1991 until peace was officially declared in January 2002. Taylor has also been linked to Al Qaeda funding initiatives in West Africa.

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Notes to Editors: 
Citizens for Global Solutions is a non-partisan membership organization that envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no one nation can solve alone.
 

Howard Salter
Director of Communications
202 546 3950 ext 112