Irish troops play role in ex-warlord’s capture

ELITE Irish troops with the UN were involved in the capture and detention yesterday of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, while he was trying to flee from Nigeria.

Members of the Defence Forces 94th Infantry Battalion Quick Reaction Force serving with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) escorted Taylor from the capital Monrovia to the UN Special Court in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he is wanted for war crimes.

More than 100 Irish troops provided a robust security presence during the operation, a spokesperson for the defence forces said.

Taylor vanished on Monday from the Nigerian villa where he had been living since 2003, prompting an international outcry. He was taken into custody by border guards in northern Nigeria as he tried to cross into Chad.

Nigerian government spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode said: “Our security teams moved fast. We looked for Charles Taylor, we apprehended Charles Taylor when he was intending to leave the country, and we are in the process of repatriating Charles Taylor back to Liberia ... I suppose there is a good deal of relief everywhere.”

The capture shows that Nigeria is living up to its responsibilities, he added.

A senior Nigerian government official said UN troops, including Irish soldiers, would take charge of Taylor in Liberia. There are 15,000 UN peacekeepers in the country.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, on a state visit to the US, ordered an investigation into how Taylor was able to elude his security detail, and promptly had the guards arrested. The probe should be finished in about two weeks, said Mr Fani-Kayode.

In a news conference before his meeting with US President George W Bush, Mr Obasanjo said he viewed Taylor’s Monday night disappearance with “utter dismay” but felt “vindicated” now that he had been captured.

“Those who said that (Nigeria may have helped Taylor escape) are wrong and should apologise. Mr Taylor is neither a friend of the president of Nigeria nor that of its people.”

Mr Obasanjo said Taylor and his wife were captured in a village on Nigeria’s border with Chad early yesterday morning.

Mr Bush, appearing with Mr Obasanjo after the pair’s meeting, said Taylor’s quick capture was “a signal of your (Obasanjo’s) desire to have peace in your neighbourhood”.

The 58-year-old former Liberian leader had been living in a villa in Calabar since August 2003 as a guest of the Nigerian government. Nigeria granted asylum to Taylor under an agreement that helped to end Liberia’s 14-year civil war. He was not held under house arrest.

On Saturday, the Nigerian government gave permission for Liberian authorities to take him back to Liberia.

Taylor was Liberia’s president from 1997 until he was forced from office in 2003. A court in neighbouring Sierra Leone indicted him on 17 counts of alleged war crimes after accusing him of supporting rebels in that country who were committing atrocities against civilians.

The former warlord has said he is willing to go before a war crimes tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands, but did not want to be tried in Sierra Leone.