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Nigeria Says Ex-President of Liberia Has Disappeared

Published: March 29, 2006

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, March 28 - The former president of Liberia, Charles G. Taylor, vanished Monday night, two days after the Nigerian government said it would end his asylum and allow him to face an indictment by an international court here.

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Nic Bothma/EPA

Charles G. Taylor, the former president of Liberia, had disappeared Monday.

Mr. Taylor, the warlord-turned-president who unleashed a series of civil wars that engulfed much of West Africa in the 1990's, killing more than 300,000 people, disappeared from the seaside villa where he had been living in exile, according to a statement released Tuesday by Nigeria's government.

His sudden disappearance was a huge setback for the court, which is trying those suspected of atrocities in Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war, and a major embarrassment for the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, just as he left for the United States to meet with President Bush. It was unclear late Tuesday whether Mr. Taylor fled to escape prosecution or had been abducted.

''Taylor's disappearance is a disgrace,'' said Corinne Dufka, head of the West Africa office of Human Rights Watch, ''not only for the victims for the brutal war in Sierra Leone, but also for efforts to establish the rule of law in West Africa.''

Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said during a press briefing on Tuesday that Mr. Taylor's disappearance would not relieve the Nigerian government of its responsibility to turn him over to the special court in Sierra Leone. ''We expect the government of Nigeria to fulfill this commitment,'' he said.

Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, called on all countries in the region not to harbor Mr. Taylor, a United Nations spokesman said.

The news that the man who terrorized much of this region for more than two decades might be on the loose inspired dread, anger and awe. On the streets of Monrovia, Liberia's capital, rumors of a coup or an attack by Taylor supporters, several of whom hold seats in Liberia's newly elected Parliament, were rampant.

''Many people are frightened,'' said Cholo Brooks, a Liberian journalist, in a telephone interview from the capital. ''They are worried he might cross over to Ivory Coast and use it as a base to cause havoc in Liberia.''

In Sierra Leone, Desmond de Silva, the prosecutor of the international court waiting to try Mr. Taylor, called the disappearance ''an affront to justice.''

''Charles Taylor is a threat to the peace and security of West Africa,'' Mr. de Silva said in a statement. ''His disappearance now from under the eye of a regional superpower only heightens that threat and puts the whole region on the highest alert.''

Human rights advocates and politicians had harsh words for Nigeria's president for failing to arrest Mr. Taylor despite his long history of eluding capture. ''Mr. Obasanjo is a key and influential player in Africa who should be promoting justice and stability instead of undermining it,'' said Ms. Dufka, who had urged Nigeria to tighten security around the house where Mr. Taylor and his entourage were living.

The development seemed bound to further undermine Nigeria's position as a regional power broker and enforcer of democratic norms, a role it played in helping to end the Liberian conflict in 2003 by accepting Mr. Taylor and in defusing recent crises in Togo and Ivory Coast.

But its influence has been waning as troubles at home have nipped at Mr. Obasanjo's globetrotting heels. A militant uprising in the oil-rich Niger Delta has slashed Nigeria's oil output, while sectarian violence killed more than 100 people last month. Speculation that Mr. Obasanjo will run for a third term despite a constitutional term limit has also heightened political tensions.

Mr. Taylor fled Liberia as a rebel insurgency tried to remove him from power in 2003, taking refuge in Nigeria after Mr. Obasanjo brokered a peace agreement. Mr. Taylor was already under indictment for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war, but the Nigerian government said it would turn Mr. Taylor over for prosecution only if requested by an elected Liberian government.

Liberia's new president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said in an interview with The New York Times before her inauguration in January that Mr. Taylor's fate was a relatively low priority, given the myriad problems facing Liberia and the fragility of the peace there.

But under intense political pressure on a visit to the United States earlier this month, including a threat by Congress to withhold aid to Liberia if she did not act, she asked Nigeria to hand Mr. Taylor over.

Kayode Fayemi, a Nigerian political analyst who has worked with Ms. Johnson Sirleaf to secure peace in Liberia, said the United States might have made matters worse for Liberia by pushing the country to deal with Mr. Taylor before it was ready.

''She was actually literally harassed to do what she did,'' Mr. Fayemi said. ''This is now going to make the situation much more complicated and so much worse.''

K. A. Paul, an evangelical Christian who has acted as a spiritual adviser and spokesman for Mr. Taylor, said Tuesday that he had spoken to one of Mr. Taylor's aides and had been told that Mr. Taylor was in hiding somewhere in West Africa.

Backed by Libya and others, Mr. Taylor incited a civil war in Liberia in 1989, which spread to neighboring Sierra Leone. He is accused of trading guns with the rebels seeking to topple Sierra Leone's government.

Katharine Houreld contributed reporting from Lagos, Nigeria, for this article.