Fugitive Ex-Liberian President Is Captured at Nigerian Border

Looking unshaven and haggard, former Liberian President Charles Taylor was placed in a detention cell in Sierra Leone on Wednesday, after his early-morning arrest trying to flee Nigeria carrying large bags of cash.

He will be the first former African head of state to face international justice on war crimes charges, which include forced recruitment of child soldiers, as well as murder, rape, mutilation and sexual enslavement of civilians in a decade of civil war in Sierra Leone. More than 50,000 people were killed in the conflict, which ended in 2002.

Taylor’s arrest is a further sign that the international community is catching up with the leaders of West Africa’s bloodiest conflicts. Nine former leaders in the Sierra Leone conflict have been detained and await trial in that country. In addition, Thomas Lubanga, a former militia leader during the civil war in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, is facing judgment in The Hague.

A United Nations helicopter carrying Taylor, escorted by two other helicopters, landed in the compound of the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown at dusk.

Handcuffed and wearing a bulletproof vest over a white tunic, Taylor stepped out and was hustled into an SUV and driven about 100 yards to the door of the detention center.

As he emerged from the helicopter, about two dozen Sierra Leoneans on the roof of a nearby house cheered in apparent support of his arrest. Taylor gave no sign he had heard, nor did he answer a question shouted by a reporter.

Inside, away from reporters, a court official read him an amended 11-count indictment on war crimes for his role in the civil war in diamond-rich Sierra Leone, which neighbors Liberia. Taylor is due to appear in court in the coming days to enter his plea, but it will be months before he is granted a hearing.

The court’s original 17-count indictment, in March 2003, was reduced by the court this month to 11 counts, prosecutor Desmond de Silva said.

“This will ensure a more focused trial,” De Silva said in a statement. “The thrust and gravity of the former indictment is in no way diminished.”

Analysts said Taylor’s arrest was a boost for West African stability and would give Liberia the chance to break with its violent history.

President Bush welcomed Taylor’s arrest in comments to journalists with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in Washington. “The fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court of law will help Liberia and is a signal, Mr. President, of your deep desire for there to be peace in your neighborhood,” he said.

Bush added later that he hoped the U.N. Security Council would pass a resolution to place Taylor under the jurisdiction of The Hague in the Netherlands.

Taylor, who wore no disguise, was arrested after 5 a.m. in a Land Rover carrying two large sacks of currency, including American dollars, at Nigeria’s border with Cameroon, said Nigerian officials in the northeastern state of Borno.

Traveling in an entourage of several cars, Taylor passed through the Nigerian customs post but found the gate at the immigration post padlocked, according to reports from the scene. When immigration officials pounced, the other vehicles in the convoy fled, according to the reports.

Taylor’s capture, a day after he had disappeared, saved Obasanjo intense embarrassment in his meeting with Bush on Wednesday.

Obasanjo said he felt vindicated by the arrest, adding that there was no negligence by Nigeria. “If we had been negligent then Charles Taylor would have got away,” he said.

But some still raised questions about Nigeria’s role.

This month, Liberia’s recently elected president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, requested Taylor’s extradition from Nigeria, but Nigeria took no steps to detain him.

Mike McGovern, West Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the near escape was “very peculiar.”

“The fact he would be miraculously found in this way is also very peculiar.”

After 14 years of civil war in Liberia, Taylor accepted exile in Nigeria in 2003 and left power, vowing that he would return, “God willing.” He was accused by many of breaching the conditions of his exile by trying to interfere in Liberian affairs.

In the Freetown detention center, Taylor joined nine other detainees, some former allies and some enemies: three former leaders of the Sierra Leone Civil Defense Forces, three members of a former military junta and three leaders of the rebel Revolutionary United Front.

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Times staff writer Dixon reported from Johannesburg, South Africa, and special correspondent Nichols from Freetown. Special correspondent Alli Hakeem in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.