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Govt Protects Deal On Taylor 'We Will Not Request His Hand Over', Bryant Says

The NEWS (Monrovia)
NEWS
April 13, 2004
Posted to the web April 14, 2004

By Sheriff Z. Adams
Monrovia
The head of the Transitional Government of Liberia says his administration will
not be a part of any arrangement that would have former President Charles
Taylor face trial on charges of crimes against humanity at the UN-backed Court
in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Chairman Gyude Bryant said the Transitional Government will not request that
Mr. Taylor be turned over for war crimes in Sierra Leone because the former
President was flown to Nigeria under a special arrangement by ECOWAS leaders to
ensure peace in Liberia.
Chairman Bryant explained that under the arrangement which the Transitional
Government is a part, Mr. Taylor was granted amnesty as part of a special peace
deal arranged to have him live in Nigeria.
"This Transitional Government will not request for Mr. Taylor to be turned over
to the court in Sierra Leone," the Liberian leader stated emphatically.
Addressing a news conference Monday at the Parlors of the Executive Mansion,
Chairman Bryant said he will not support calls for Mr. Taylor to be turned over
to the war crimes court because, it was part of an ECOWAS arrangement.
But he said that if Mr. Taylor interferes with the internal affairs of the
country, he would think otherwise, adding, "I hope Mr. Taylor will try to be a
good boy while in Nigeria."
He narrated that President Olesegun Obasanjo of Nigeria had said that his
country would only turn Mr. Taylor over to an elected government and not the
Transitional Government as is being speculated in Monrovia.
The position of the Transitional Government followed a request by the
international community for the Liberian Government to support calls for the
former President to be turned over for prosecution at the UN-backed War Crimes
Court.
Recently, a petition seeking the endorsement of the National Transitional
Legislative Assembly (NTLA) to turn Mr. Taylor over for trial reportedly
stalled at the Assembly, allegedly due to procedural errors.
According to reports, the Assembly argued that the petition by two human rights
organizations fell short of some unspecified basic requirements to warrant
debate by the body.
The Sierra Leone Court has charged Mr. Taylor with seventeen counts, including
crimes against humanity, genocide, gunrunning and diamond smuggling and support
rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
But the former Liberian President had persistently denied the allegations and
requested his accusers to produce evidence.

   

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