RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Journalists Challenge the Asylum Offer for Taylor

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jul 29 2003 (IPS) - Liberians are waiting anxiously for embattled President Charles Taylor to go into exile so as to spare them from further bloodshed.

More than 600 people – mostly civilians – have died since rebels, seeking to topple Taylor, began their assault on the capital Monrovia last month.

Following international pressure to step down, Taylor accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria. But Nigerians are bitter. Many remember how their fellow citizens were murdered by Taylor and his henchmen during Liberia’s first civil war, which ended in 1996.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, who extended the offer of the asylum early this month, said Taylor’s exit would ”save Liberia from further bloodbath”.

The bad relations between Nigerians and Taylor heightened in 1995 after Taylor’s rebel forces advanced near Liberia’s presidential palace in their bid to overthrow President Samuel Doe. They were prevented by the Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG). His supporters saw ECOMOG’s intervention as a hindrance to Taylor’s ascension to power.

And soon Nigerians living or visiting Liberia became a target of Taylor and his ragtag rebel soldiers.

Those who lost their lives include Nigerian journalists, Chris Imodibe and Tayo Awotusi, who were killed, while covering the war in that country.

Nigerian journalists have not forgiven Taylor for murdering their colleagues.

Smart Adeyemi, President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), says the NUJ has asked its lawyer to file a suit against Obasanjo for granting asylum to Taylor.

”Taylor killed the two Nigerian journalists in the course of covering the civil war in Liberia. We believe our nation should not be a safe haven for Charles Taylor. If President Obasanjo grants asylum to Taylor in Nigeria, it would send wrong signals to the international community that Nigeria is protecting a warlord,” Adeyemi argued.

”Taylor is not a leader that any Nigerian will be proud of to see enjoying political asylum in this country,” he said.

The Iviukhua community in Edo State, north of Lagos, where one of the journalists, Modibe hailed, demanded the release of their son’s remains for proper burial. They called on Taylor to apologise before enjoying any asylum in Nigeria.

In a letter dated Jul. 17, a copy of which was sent to President Obasanjo, leaders of Iviukhua – Jafaru Athekamhe and Kennedy Izuagbe – said Imodibe was a shining hope cut down by Taylor and his men.

”Charles Taylor must pay a personal visit to our community, Iviukhua, to tender an unreserved apology to our people for murdering our son simply because he was a Nigerian,” they said.

Adeyemi said Taylor must clear himself of the allegations levelled against him by the UN-backed Special War Crimes Court for Sierra Leone.

Taylor has been indicted by the court for atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s ten-year civil war, which ended in 2001. He was the main benefactor of Sierra Leone’s rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which chopped off people’s limbs and ears.

Nigeria’s ambassador to Britain, Christopher Kolade told the British Broadcasting Corporation that Taylor would not be protected by the government of Nigeria if the war crimes court insists on his prosecution. He said Nigeria has no intention to protect Taylor against the charges levelled against him.

”The objective of giving Taylor asylum in Nigeria is to bring peace to Liberia and the neighbouring countries. Nigeria believes that as long as Taylor and his supporters remain in that country, the objective of bringing peace cannot be achieved,” he argued.

The envoy’s position is, however, not in line with that of President Obasanjo, who while announcing the offer at a news conference in Monrovia, warned the international community against asking him to hand over Taylor.

”The condition for offering asylum to Taylor is that Nigeria will not be harassed by anyone for inviting Taylor … not by any organisation or country for showing this humanitarian gesture,” said Obasanjo.

Already 3,000 Liberians have fled to Nigeria. Some 2,097 have joined their counterparts in Oru Refugee Camp, Western Nigeria, bringing the number of Liberians in that camp to 4,380.

The refugees left behind chaos, with civilians trapped in Monrovia calling for international peacekeepers to protect them.

Bowing to pressure, the United States gave a 10-million-U.S.-dollar grant to Nigeria for the deployment of Nigerian troops in Liberia, according to the UN Secretary General’s office Tuesday.

The first batch of Nigerian peacekeepers – 1,300 of them – is expected in Monrovia on Wednesday, according to Brigadier-General Festus Okonwko, the Nigerian officer who is expected to lead the troops. They will be joined by 1,950 peacekeepers from other west African countries.