Mounting pressure on Nigeria to hand over 
Charles Taylor
Financial Times May 7, 2005

"(....) the US House of Representatives passed a resolution this week calling for Nigeria to hand over the former warlord. US senators also wrote last week to Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, urging Mr Taylor's return.

"Allowing Nigeria to shield Mr Taylor from the special court would set an unfortunate precedent," said the letter, signed by four Republican and four Democrat Senators.

"Permitting an indicted war criminal to escape justice from a United Nations and United States supported tribunal, undermines Security Council resolutions and damages our country's efforts to promote and protect human rights
around the world."

Mr Taylor was also on the agenda when US President George W. Bush received Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian president, in Washington on Thursday.

(....)

Mr Crane said last week that Mr Taylor had broken the terms of his asylum by backing an assassination attempt against Lansana Conte, the Guinean president, in January.

Court documents obtained by the Financial Times also concluded that Mr Taylor was plotting the overthrow of the Ivory Coast government as part of his master plan to plunge West Africa into further chaos and return to power. Both Guinea and Ivory Coast supported rebel movements that fought against Mr Taylor.

The documents also alleged that Mr Taylor had escaped from the Nigerian port city of Calabar this February to have secret meetings in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, with Francis Galawolo, a Liberian presidential candidate.

Hardliners in Ivory Coast's government accuse Burkina Faso and Mr Taylor of having backed Ivorian rebels in the north and west of the country. The Nigerian government has officially denied that Mr Taylor could have escaped from his security detail in Calabar." 

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