World's worst war criminal arrested!

As I wrote earlier, the Liberian government had asked for the country's former dictator, Charles Taylor, to be extradited from Nigeria, where he was staying in exile. There was a disagreement between the Nigerian and Liberian governments. The Nigerians wanted Liberia to come to Nigeria and collect the world's worst* war criminal. themselves but the new democratically-elected Liberian president wanted the former warlord shipped directly to the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, which indicted him for war crimes committed in that country.

(*Worst, as distinct from most infamous. Though one could make a plausible argument that this dishonor goes to the Lord's Resistance Army's barbaric Joseph Kony in northern Uganda, I'd give the nod to Taylor because his actions have ruined more lives in more countries.)

During the brief diplomatic spat, Taylor managed to escape from his heavily guarded compound in southeastern Nigeria. I guess Nigerian insecurity forces have gained more experience in the last 40 years harassing political activists and extorting bribes at road checkpoints than in actually keeping tabs on truly dangerous people.


Taylor tried to cross the border in northeast Nigeria into Cameroon. He managed to pass through immigration but not customs.

"He passed through immigration but when he reached customs they were suspicious and they insisted on searching the jeep, where they found a large amount of US dollars," explained an official.

This incident epitomizes the dysfunction of the Nigerian state. Immigration didn't notice he was the most wanted criminal in the country whose flight received international publicity but once they noticed huge sums of money involved, that sure got their attention!

After his arrest, Taylor was put on a plane and sent back to Liberia, who will hand him over ot the UN Special Court.

Poetic justice has been served, I suppose. If Taylor hadn't been so greedy, he would be still be free to terrorize a region.


Update: Underscoring the continuing danger of the former warlord, the Special Court's prosecutor charged that Taylor was still trying to have Guinean leader Lansana Conté assassinated.