Nigeria Agrees to Taylor’s Extradition

On Saturday, March 25, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo agreed to Liberia’s request for the extradition of the ousted Liberian dictator Charles G. Taylor. Liberia’s newly inaugurated President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, formally requested Taylor’s extradition earlier this month. The deposed warlord has been in exile in Calabar, Nigeria since August 2003 as part of the terms of an internationally brokered peace-deal, which ended Liberia’s 14-year civil war.

In an official statement, Obasanjo said that “the government of Liberia is free to take former President Charles Taylor into custody.” While the statement did not give any details about Taylor’s transfer, it indicates that the Nigerian Government will not be involved in the process but expects Liberia to arrange for Taylor’s physical arrest. Obasanjo had always stated that he would honor a request for Taylor’s extradition from a democratically elected Liberian government.

Taylor is responsible for leading Liberia and its West African neighbor Sierra Leone into almost two decades of deadly conflict. In 1989, his National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) militia toppled Liberia’s military leader Sergeant Samuel Doe, plunging the country into a brutal civil war. The civil war claimed at least 250,000 lives, and finally abated temporarily with Taylor’s election as President in 1997. However, anti-government rebels, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), orchestrated a rebellion in 1999. That uprising ended in 2003 with Taylor’s exile.

The former President Taylor was indicted by the U.N. backed Special Court for Sierra-Leone three years ago on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war. He is accused of arming Sierra-Leonean Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who were notorious for amputating their victim’s limbs. The civil-war claimed 50,000 lives. He is expected to stand trial before the Court following his arrest.
 

Updated March 27, 2006