Nigeria Not to Turn Taylor to War Crimes Court

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 14, 2003

Nigeria Not to Turn Taylor to War Crimes Court

Nigeria's Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji said in Abuja Wednesday that Nigeria would not turn Liberia's exiled former president Charles Taylor to a UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone.

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Nigeria's Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji said in Abuja Wednesday that Nigeria would not turn Liberia's exiled former president Charles Taylor to a UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone.

"Nigeria will not be harassed by anybody about the indictment,"Adeniji said when asked about the United States' call to send Taylor to face war crimes charges at a news conference in the capital Abuja, adding that the United States had not contacted Nigeria and should understand the Nigerian government's position.

Taylor resigned on Monday under pressure from the United States which hoped that his departure would expedite an end to violence that gripped Liberia and West Africa for nearly 14 years.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had offered Taylor political asylum as part of West African attempts to mediate an end to the bloody civil war in Liberia.

Taylor, a former warlord, was elected president of Liberia in August 1997. He has been indicted for war crimes committed during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war by a UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone.

The Liberian civil war, which lasted more than 14 years and claimed at least 200,000 lives, flared up again in 1998 following attacks launched by the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy in northern Liberia.

Civil war over the past decade has made Liberia among the most miserable places in the world and the latest unrest since 1998 has forced some 300,000 Liberians to flee to neighboring countries and claimed thousands more lives.

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