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| Former Liberian president and war crimes
suspect Charles Taylor was on Wednesday evening finally transferred to the
UN-backed special court in Sierra Leoneto face trial, after his three-year
exile in Nigeria, sudden disappearance, dramatic arrest and a short stay
at his homeland.(Xinhua file
photo) | LAGOS/MONROVIA,
March 29 (Xinhua) -- Former Liberian president and war crimes suspect Charles
Taylor was on Wednesday evening finally transferred to the UN-backed special
court in Sierra Leoneto face trial, after his three-year exile in Nigeria, sudden disappearance,
dramatic arrest and a short stay at his homeland.
"Today is a momentous occasion and an important day
for international justice, the international community and, above all, the
people of Sierra Leone," said the prosecutor of the special court, Desmond de
Silva, in a statement.
"His presence in the custody of the Special Court
sends out the clear message that no matter how rich, powerful or feared people
may be - the law is above them."
Taylor has been living in the southeastern Nigerian
coastal city of Calabar since August 2003 but disappeared on Monday night, about
48 hours after Nigeria, under the pressure of the U.S. government, announced
that "Liberia is free to take former president Charles Taylor into its custody."
Many suspect Taylor might have escaped by boat, but
it's in Gamboru Ngala, a Nigerian-Cameroonian border town, that he was
discovered by Nigerians immigration and custom officials.
"He (Taylor) was found (at about
0600 GMT) on a Land Rover, ashen color, jeep with a man (driver) and a woman. He
was arrested and sent to the state capital Maiduguri," Nigerian police spokesman
Haz Iwendi told Xinhua.
The official News Agency of Nigeria quoted Malam
Mohammed Bello,a controller of immigration in Borno, as saying that the woman
was his wife and Taylor was intercepted while driving the diplomatic jeep with
"Ambassador" on its plate number.
"A convoy was escorting the former warlord when they
were intercepted, but that the escort escaped arrest, leaving Taylor and his
wife," Bello added.
Witnesses told Xinhua that Taylor, accompanied by a
dozens of soldiers and clad in a white traditional flowing gown called Agbada,
boarded a Nigerian presidential jet which left for Monrovia from Maiduguri
airport at exactly 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT).
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who met U.S.
President George W. Bush in Washington early in the day, said in a statement
that the capture of Charles Taylor had "vindicated" the position of the Nigerian
government.
"Those who said Nigeria may have helped Taylor escape
are wrong and should apologize. Mr. Taylor is neither a friend of the President
of Nigeria nor that of its people," he added.
Taylor had been seen as the main obstacle to peace in
Liberia and a destabilizing agent within the region, allegedly extending his
destabilizing drive to neighboring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire,
claiming more than 200,000 lives.
But it is his support to the RUF rebel group against
the Sierra Leonean government in return for "bloody diamonds" that has cost him
his indictment on 17-count charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The prosecutor, Silva, said a judge of the court had
amended the indictment against Taylor, under which he is charged with 11 counts
of war crimes and crimes against humanity to "ensure a more focused trial."
Just before Taylor stepped on a plane to take him to
Calabar in August 2003, he told Liberians: "If God's willing, I will be back."
But his returned home may not have been what he may have expected when he left
for exile.
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| Former Liberian President Charles Taylor
exits a United Nations helicopter upon arrival in Sierra Leone's capital
Freetown, March 29, 2006. (Xinhua/Reuters) | Upon his arrival back home on Wednesday evening, UN
peacekeepers picked him up in handcuff at the Monrovia's Roberts International
Airport from a Nigerian presidential aircraft and transferred to Sierra Leone,
where the court has a cell waiting for him.
Liberian government and UN officials were
tight-lipped on the transfer. Liberia's new leader, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was
scheduled to have addressed the nation Wednesday at 1000 GMT, but her address
was rescheduled twice during the day and put back to 1800 GMT. But by 1700 GMT
her address was called off with no reason given.
Explaining reason for the twice rescheduling of
Johnson-Sirleaf's nationwide address, a presidential source who did not want to
be identified told Xinhua that "the president want to have the Taylor's transfer
issue settled and put behind her once and for all."
"The president does not want to address the nation
prior to Taylor's transfer to avoid unforeseen embarrassment should the
unexpected happen surrounding Taylor," the source added.
The cancellation of the Johnson-Sirleaf address was
viewed as a decision to avoid infuriating individuals believed to Taylor's
loyalists.
Monrovia was relatively calm as many persons gathered
around transistor radios during the day to listen to news as Taylor's arrest and
transfer filtered in. Commuters also went about their normal businesses.
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