Liberian ex-president faces trial in the Netherlands

LIBERIA’S former President Charles Taylor, accused of fomenting bloody wars across West Africa, is set to go trial in the Hague for the mayhem wrought during his years in power.

Taylor, presented in handcuffs on Wednesday to the UN-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone, is charged with 17 counts of crimes against humanity.

The special tribunal for Sierra Leone yesterday asked the Netherlands to host Taylor’s war crimes trial

A spokesman for the Hague-based International Criminal Court said if the UN asked it to host the trial, “the ICC will have to consider it”.

Taylor’s first court appearance is still expected to be in Sierra Leone, perhaps as early as today. He will be the first African head of state to face an international war crimes tribunal.

Taylor’s 1989 insurgency in Liberia - which killed 200,000 - helped tilt the region into crisis.

Romeo Snehtie, 39, from Liberia said: “The mayhem and destruction he brought has to be accounted for... We will remember him as a leader who was strong but who did not use his might for the improvement for the Liberian people.”

Liberia, once among the richer countries in West Africa, is now one of its poorest. The capital, Monrovia, has not had government-supplied electricity, water or sewerage for more than a decade.

Taylor helped pioneer the use of child soldiers, often kidnapped from their parents and drugged. His fighters still are believed to roam Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast.