Nigeria agrees to hand Taylor over to Liberia
Exiled former Liberian president indicted on war crimes charges
Saturday, March 25, 2006; Posted: 11:02 p.m. EST (04:02 GMT)

(CNN) -- The Nigerian government on Saturday agreed to allow Liberian authorities to arrest exiled leader Charles Taylor and return him to Liberia, where he is accused of war crimes.

Nigerian government spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode said the agreement followed a meeting late Friday between representatives of both nations.

Nigeria has resisted calls to hand over Taylor, citing its agreement with Taylor granting him safe asylum.

The Liberians say Taylor could be back in the coming weeks.

On March 17, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf asked Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to hand Taylor over.

Taylor's exile to Nigeria was part of a peace deal three years ago that helped bring an end to Liberia's civil war, which killed some 200,000 people.

Taylor was indicted in 2003 by a U.N.-backed court in neighboring Sierra Leone on charges of war crimes related to his support for rebels in that country who were committing widespread atrocities. He was president of Liberia from 1997 until forced out of office in 2003.

Taylor reportedly supplied arms to the Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for diamonds.

Taylor is being monitored but is not under Nigerian house arrest. It is conceivable that he could flee to avoid detention. Obasanjo is scheduled to meet with President Bush in Washington on Wednesday and Taylor's status is expected to be on the agenda.

The Nigerian decision was made after consultations with the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States.

Taylor is banned from traveling outside Nigeria under a previous U.N. resolution, which a U.N. panel has said he has violated by traveling within Africa.

Source: here. (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/03/25/taylor.liberia/index.html)

US upset with Nigeria over warlord’s flight
By Dino Mahtani in Lagos and Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: March 28 2006 19:11 | Last updated: March 28 2006 19:11

The Bush administration on Tuesday night was considering cancelling a White House meeting scheduled for Wednesday with Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian president, after Nigeria confirmed that Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president indicted by a UN court for war crimes and given asylum in Nigeria, had disappeared.

A White House spokesman said President George W. Bush was waiting to hear back from Nigeria on the status of Mr Taylor. The spokesman said that “for now, the meeting is still on”, but he suggested that this might change.

Other US officials expressed surprise and dismay that Mr Taylor had been able to vanish after strong messages from Washington that Nigeria was responsible for handing him over for trial by the special UN court in Sierra Leone for his role in the civil war there. Liberia’s newly elected president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who visited the White House last week, made public calls that he face justice.

Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, called Mr Obasanjo last Friday to reinforce that message, a senior US official said.

Members of Congress were outraged that Nigeria had apparently let him slip away on Monday, just two days after it had complicated the situation by suggesting that Liberia should come and collect him.

“Nigeria reportedly has let a mass murderer with alleged links to al-Qaeda slip out the back door. President Bush should cancel tomorrow’s scheduled meeting with President Obasanjo,” declared Ed Royce, a California Republican.

Rest of article (http://news.ft.com/cms/s/bc3ab438-be81-11da-b10f-0000779e2340.html).

I(t seems to me that if they were serious about arresting him, they wouldn't have made the negotiations and agreement of Nigeria public. When every news outlet in the world announced that he would be arrested shortly it seems reasonable to expect that he would flee. I'm forced to conclude that there was no real intent to arrest him on the part of either Nigeria or the United States.