Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, on a red-carpet visit to the United States, called on Tuesday for exiled former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor to be extradited home swiftly.
”I wish we had the luxury of time on this issue. But it has become an impediment to our being able to move forward to be able to pursue our development agenda,” she said after talks with United States President George Bush.
Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman to be elected head of state in Africa, received a hero’s welcome from the US president, who praised her as a ”pioneer” after talks in the Oval Office and held a luncheon in her honour.
Johnson-Sirleaf told reporters that Bush had pledged to consult with African leaders ”so that a fair decision is taken” on Taylor’s fate that would ensure ”the stability of Liberia”, which Taylor fled in 2003 for Nigeria.
Johnson-Sirleaf said that her government had held talks on the matter with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has come under increasing international pressure to allow Taylor to be tried for alleged crimes against humanity.
Obasanjo invited Taylor to Nigeria in order to bring an end to a 14-year-civil war which pitched the guerrilla chief turned elected ruler against two powerful rebel groups.
The UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone has indicted Taylor on charges of sponsoring rebels who waged a gruesome war in that country’s 1990s civil conflict.
”We hope action will be taken not only to ensure Mr Taylor the day in court which he has asked for or to ensure that he does so in an environment that is free and fair to him and that enables him the full right of self-defence,” said Johnson-Sirleaf.
”The longer we wait to bring this matter to closure, the more difficult it will be for us to move forward as a nation and as a people,” she said after meeting with Bush.
The US president hailed Johnson-Sirleaf as a political ”pioneer” and said her groundbreaking role ”requires courage, and vision, and the desire to improve the lives of your people”.
Johnson-Sirleaf thanked the United States ”for all the support that our country has received in making this important transition from war to peace”, and said she hoped Liberia would become ”the US success story in Africa”.
”We have taken the necessary first steps to restoring dignity to our people, starting to fix our economy, to get our international credibility and reputation back,” she said.
She also said she believed she had Washington’s support for lifting UN sanctions on Liberia.
Elected in November 2005 in a country devastated by 14 years of civil war, Johnson-Sirleaf (67) is a Harvard University-educated former World Bank economist, Liberian Cabinet member and senior United Nations administrator.
Her election was strongly supported by the United States, which last month renewed Liberia’s preferential trade status. – Sapa-AFP