Taylor's day of reckoning gets closer

[Jake Cepheus]

Taylor trial may be out of Africa



By Joseph Winter

BBC News



Liberia's former President Charles Taylor is finally in a detention centre in Sierra Leone, three years after a warrant for his arrest was first issued by a UN-backed war crimes court.



However, for security reasons, the trial might in fact take place in The Hague, rather than in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown.



US President George W Bush supports a change of venue and the Dutch foreign ministry says it has received a formal request from the Special Court for Sierra Leone.



Human rights groups accuse Mr Taylor of being responsible for wars and instability across West Africa in the 1990s.



They say he retains the ability to mobilise a fighting force of armed young men, as he has in the past, which could threaten the new-found peace in Sierra Leone and Liberia.



His presence in Freetown could prove a magnet for such a guerrilla army, which would have little chance of reaching The Hague.



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Controlling forces





The Sierra Leonean Revolutionary United Front rebel group, which Mr Taylor is accused of arming in exchange for diamonds, was guilty of horrendous atrocities: murder, rape and the systematic mutilation of tens of thousands of civilians by hacking off their feet or hands with machetes and axes.



Lamin Jusu-Jarka, chairman of Sierra Leone's War Affected Amputee Association, had both his arms hacked off during the conflict.



He says he would be happy as long as Mr Taylor faces justice, wherever that may be.



"That man is a great enemy to our country. If people see him here, they will want to kill him," said Freetown taxi-driver Gibrilla.



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