Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has disappeared from his villa in Nigeria where he has lived since going into exile in an internationally-brokered peace deal in 2003 that brought Liberia's civil war to an end. The disappearance comes on the heels of Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's formal request to Nigeria for Taylor's surrender. Nigeria's behavior in the aftermath of the request was erratic; although Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo agreed to end Taylor's exile, a spokesperson then noted that President Johnson-Sirleaf "is free to come and take President Taylor into her custody." (Note that if the offer were legitimate, this could qualify as an invitation for intervention and constitute consent to the Liberian use of force within Nigeria for the purpose of capturing Charles Taylor. I won't even begin to delve into the human rights issues that would arise with his forcible extradition without a treaty, though.)
President Obasanjo is scheduled to visit Washington tomorrow; allow me to join the chorus of voices calling for President Bush to cancel their meeting unless Taylor is located and re-arrested.
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