UN Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on Saturday stepped up pressure on Nigeria to extradite former Liberian leader Charles Taylor to stand trial at a UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone.
Winding up a three-day visit to Sierra Leone crisscrossing the former war-torn country to evaluate the state of human rights, Arbour added her voice to the growing campaign to extradite Taylor to the Special Court in Sierra Leone.
”I call and will continue to call publicly not only on (Nigerian) President Obasanjo but all African leaders to stand up and say very firmly that they believe in justice just as they believe in peace and that they support the immediate transfer of Taylor to Sierra Leone to stand trial.”
In August 2003 Liberia emerged from two decades of deadly civil war when Taylor bowed to pressure from rebels besieging the capital Monrovia — and from Ecowas and members of the international community — and stepped down.
At the request of Ecowas and the African Union, Obasanjo agreed to allow Taylor to settle in Calabar, southern Nigeria.
The former head of state is wanted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone who is seeking to indict him for his presumed support for rebels of the Revolutionary United Front who sparked a civil war in this west African country in 1992.
Both the UN-backed tribunal and the United States want Taylor to be judged in this court.
Earlier this month Obasanjo complained that his country was being harassed and blackmailed for having taken in Taylor.
Stressing that there would be ”no lasting peace in Sierra Leone until Taylor faces the Special Court,” Arbour said, ”the pressure on President Obasanjo to turn over Taylor to the Special Court is not targeting the Nigerian leader unfairly.”
Commenting on the report by Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Arbour said it contained ”fundamental and important recommendations” and called for the ”speedy establishment of an independent, representative and credible National Commission for Human Rights.”
The UN Human Rights Commission has implemented several human rights projects in the country, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
It was the second time in six years that a UN human rights commissioner visited the west African state. – Sapa-AFP