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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 17 March 2006

LIBERIA-NIGERIA: Taylor's extradition requested

ABUJA, 17 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Liberia has requested the extradition from Nigeria of former Liberian head of state Charles Taylor, the Nigerian presidency said on Friday.

President Olusegun Obasanjo’s office said in a statement that Liberia’s newly elected head of state, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, had made a “formal request” for the extradition of the former warlord.

Taylor, who was indicted for war crimes by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone, fled into exile to Nigeria in 2003 as rebel forces closed in on the capital Monrovia and the United States led international calls for him to step down.

Taylor’s exit from power was crucial to the signing of a 2003 peace deal in Liberia that ended 14 years of a brutal on-off civil war, and despite repeated calls for his handover to the court, Obasanjo had always insisted he would only hand him over to a government that had been democratically elected.

Johnson-Sirleaf, who is currently on a visit to the United States, was elected to office last November in the first democratic polls held in the country since the peace deal.

"In keeping with his commitment to give consideration to any formal request from a democratically elected government of Liberia for the return of former president Charles Taylor, President Olusegun Obasanjo has duly notified the chairmen of the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that President (Ellen) Johnson-Sirleaf has made such a request," the statement said.

Nigeria will consult with the AU and ECOWAS before responding to Sirleaf’s request, said the statement.

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006