Is Gray Davis with him?
By Tim Butcher in Freetown
The Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 13/08/2003)
Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, moved in to a luxury villa in Nigeria yesterday but a bleak high-security compound awaits him in Sierra Leone if war crimes investigators manage to bring him to justice.
Taylor and his entourage were installed in three large hilltop residences overlooking the Cross River estuary in the port of Calabar, once known for exporting slaves.
"No problem. I am OK," was all Taylor said to journalists when he arrived in the early hours of the morning.
Hundreds of miles away in Sierra Leone, the United Nations has opened the detention centre it hopes will soon imprison Taylor. His last days would be spent behind two high screens of razor wire at a detention centre for those accused of war crimes.
Built on a steep hillside of volcanic rock in a suburb of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, the jail is part of high-profile attempt to persuade victims of the country's brutal civil war, in which Taylor played a major part, that justice is being done.
With the first eight alleged war criminals already occupying cells, the sound of justice was replaced by the din of seasonal rain beating on the bright blue tin roof yesterday.
Workmen were busy on buildings that will include two courthouses where the accused will be tried for crimes including rape, torture and murder.
Inside the security fence, the detention centre comprises two blocks of nine cells each, with dining and recreation areas, an exercise yard and a space for prisoners to pray.
Armed guards patrol outside, reinforced by a large armoured personnel carrier painted in white UN livery.
But while the building work is nearly finished on the complex, the legal work will continue for some time.
"I am going to be patient but it is crucial that the international community preserves the principle that impunity for war crimes is not an option," said David Crane, the prosecutor for the special court in Sierra Leone.
"If they allow Charles Taylor a pass on this, they will have undermined all that has been done in international criminal justice since the Nuremberg trials."
He said Nigeria, which granted Taylor asylum, had clear obligations as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions either to try him for the alleged war crimes or hand him over to the special court.
"A year ago almost to the day I turned up in this country for the first time with just three suitcases and pretty much nothing else," said Mr Crane.
"We did not even have a telephone or a computer but within seven months the first indictments were out and we are ahead of schedule, thanks to the dedication of an amazing staff, most of whom are Sierra Leonean."
In Liberia, rebels pledged to begin withdrawing from the capital, Monrovia, today after meeting the commander of a US task force anchored offshore. "We're packing to leave," a spokesman said, but such promises have not often been kept.
Taylor's successor, Moses Blah, begged Washington to send US marines ashore. "Please come to Liberia and save us because we are dying," Mr Blah said. "We are hungry."