Taylor of Liberia accepts Nigerian asylum offer ( 2003-07-07 10:16) (Agencies)
Embattled President Charles Taylor accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria on
Sunday, but gave no timeframe for quitting power and insisted the transition
must be orderly. He urged the United States to send peacekeepers.
The calls by Taylor and Nigeria's leader
for a peaceful transition increase pressure on President Bush to send US troops to Liberia to
enforce a cease-fire in the war-torn nation. Bush heads to Africa on Monday for
visits to five nations — including Nigeria, the top powerbroker in West Africa.
Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Nigeria's
President Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday, said State
Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt. She did not say what the two discussed.
A team of about 20 US military experts, accompanied by 15 US security
troops, left Sunday from a base in southern Spain for Liberia to help assess
whether to deploy troops as part of a regional force, as sought by the United
Nations (news - web sites), European powers and the Liberians. West African
nations have offered 3,000 troops and have suggested that the United States
contribute another 2,000.
Taylor is under intense international pressure to step down — Bush has said
he would "not take 'no' for an answer" — and is holed up in a capital surrounded
by rebels. But Taylor has insisted peacekeepers deploy before he will go to
ensure fighting does not erupt again.
Another complication is the threat of trial on war crimes charges that hangs
over Taylor after his indictment by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone.
The Bush administration reacted coldly to any delay in Taylor quitting.
White House spokesman Jimmy Orr said: "What the president has said is Mr.
Taylor needs to leave and leave soon. He needs to leave so peace can be
restored."
One rebel official welcomed the news but said he had no confidence Taylor
would follow through and leave Liberia. Taylor has broken promises in the past
to step down.
"I hope this time around Mr. Taylor will act on his words," rebel leader
Kabineh Ja'neh said in Accra, Ghana. "Far too often he has failed to honor what
he says. We don't trust him. Not at all."
Taylor made his announcement after Nigeria's president met him at Monrovia's
airport to personally offer asylum in his country.
"I thank my big brother for coming," Taylor said at a news conference with
Obasanjo before the Nigerian leader left Liberia. "He has extended an invitation
and we have accepted an invitation."
But, Taylor said, "it is not unreasonable to request that there be an
orderly exit from power." He said US participation in an international peacekeeping
force planned for Liberia was "crucial in every way."
"We embrace it. We accept it," he said of the possibility of US involvement
in keeping peace in Liberia, founded in the 19th century by freed American
slaves.
Taylor and Obasanjo would not say when the Liberian president would step
down, but both warned that too hasty a departure could spark new fighting in the
West African nation, where hundreds were killed in a failed rebel push into the
capital last month.
"We believe the exit should not take place in confusion ... in a way that
will lead to more bloodshed," Obasanjo said. "We believe the transition should
be orderly and peaceful." He said the peacekeepers' deployment should take place
"in a very, very short time."
The Nigerian president called for international support for a Liberian
peacekeeping mission, saying West African nations had the military forces to
stop the fighting but lacked the funds.
Though Taylor insisted Sunday that deployment of a peacekeeping force was not
a condition for his departure, he said it was "necessary ... to prevent
disruption."
In Washington, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the Armed Services
Committee chairman, said Congress should vote on any US troop deployment to Liberia.
Because of the deadly chaos in Liberia, "we've got to think through
very, very carefully the insertion of US forces in there," Warner said on NBC's
"Meet the Press."
The visit by Obasanjo to bring the asylum offer in person underlined the
urgency of international appeals for the Liberian leader to leave.
Obasanjo arrived by jet in Monrovia airport, stepping into an embrace and
kisses on both cheeks by Taylor. Taylor's retinue handed Obasanjo, dressed in
flowing traditional robes, a live white chicken and some kola nuts — a customary
Liberian gift symbolizing purity of heart and peace.
Among the hundreds of Taylor supporters on the airport tarmac, many carried
banners, one reading, "U.N please drop the charges against President Taylor, for
peace sake."
The war crimes indictment — issued June 4 — likely weighs heavily in Taylor's
decision making on leaving power. He has said Liberia will not know peace until
the charges against him are lifted.
Nigeria, like many countries, has no law allowing Taylor to be extradited
to the Sierra Leone court for war crimes trial, UN officials say.
In an apparent warning that Nigeria should not be pressed to hand over
Taylor, Obasanjo said his sole condition for the asylum offer is that his
country "not be harassed by anyone for inviting Taylor ... not by any
organization or country for showing this humanitarian gesture."
The war crimes court indicted Taylor for his role in Sierra Leone's recently
ended decade of terror. Taylor has been accused of supporting the brutal
Revolutionary United Front rebels, whose trademark atrocity was amputating the
arms and facial features of their civilian victims with machetes.
Bush is scheduled to land Tuesday in Senegal, one largely peaceful West
African nation that has not experienced the ill effects of years of warmaking by
Taylor — a former warlord long accused of sowing strife in the region by aiding
rebel groups.
Taylor sparked Liberia's strife when he launched his 1989-1996 insurrection.
He was elected president in 1997 by a war-weary populace. Nearly one-third of
Liberia's 3 million people have been forced from their homes by fighting since
rebels took up arms against Taylor in 1999.
