Global Policy Forum

Liberian Ex-President Exercises Influence from Nigeria

By Emily Wax

The words painted on this town's (Owensgrove, Liberia) welcome sign, "Charles in Charge. Our Beloved," offer a surprising message, considering that former president Charles Taylor, an indicted war criminal, fled into exile in Nigeria last month.

From a luxury villa in the coastal Nigerian city of Calabar, Taylor is still trying to run Liberia, staying in close touch with his former colleagues in government and the military, according to Western and Liberian officials.

The officials have accused him at news conferences and in interviews of violating stipulations of his asylum agreement: that he not travel, give interviews without the government's permission, participate in Liberian politics or receive visitors from Liberia. They say Taylor controls the government's army, keeping in cell phone contact with commanders, and receives ministers. He is also accused of collecting millions of dollars in kickbacks from Liberia's black market cell phone, fuel and generator businesses.

"Charles?" said Cecil Brandy, the minister of agriculture and a Taylor defender. "Oh, he's still in charge. I'm going to see him next week. What's wrong with that? We got business to contend with."

But Taylor, who told the nation, "I will be back" as he left on Aug. 11, is meddling so much that Jacques Klein, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative for Liberia, said he is keeping track of which Liberian ministers pay Taylor a visit. Klein also accused Taylor of continuing to extract funds from the country.

"Taylor is clearly rebuilding his network. He is like a vampire. Until you drive a stake in his heart, he won't die," Klein said. "At some point the Nigerian president will have to ask himself if Taylor is behaving himself or not."

Liberian troops reattached the metal billboard extolling Taylor -- torn down when he left the country -- to the side of a bridge last month in this town 45 miles east of Monrovia. In the town, Gen. Coocoo Dennis, a member of Taylor's inner circle, was sitting on a plastic chair and clutching a Thuraya satellite phone recently, guarding what he said was rightfully Taylor country. "He tells us to move the front lines, we are going to listen," he said. "He tells us to sit, we sit. There's no debate about that." Asked what business Taylor was conducting, Dennis said, "Yes, business, like running this country." But it was unclear what Taylor was trying to do besides raise money.

On his way out of the country, Taylor took $3 million earmarked for his fighters, Klein said. Taylor's antiterrorism unit is still demanding taxes from civilians, looting and raping and charging informal tolls around Monrovia at government-run checkpoints, civilians report.

Moses Blah, a member of Taylor's army who became president when Taylor stepped down, is reportedly taking orders from Taylor about what to do with remaining government funds, according to Western and Liberian officials who are in touch with people close to Blah.

A transitional government scheduled to take over in October is working in the safety of Accra, Ghana's capital, in order to avoid problems with Taylor's senior leaders, high-ranking officials in the new government said. The United States circulated a draft resolution to Security Council members on Monday that asks for as many as 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed in October. A 3,250-member Nigerian-led West African force has been in the country since last month.

"Everyone knows Taylor's guys are a very serious problem still on the ground in Liberia," said a member of the new government who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We are worried about a coup or anything to delay the new government coming in. He could come back and be president again some day. Who knows? It sounds crazy, but we are dealing with a crazy person."

Taylor is facing trial for crimes against humanity by a special U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone, where he orchestrated a war to take control of the country's rich diamond fields. The court produced a 15-page indictment in March detailing charges that include mass murder, kidnapping, rape and forced conscription of child soldiers into the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel force backed by Taylor that was known for amputating arms and legs. In Sierra Leone, which is recovering from a 10-year civil war, people said they were worried that Taylor would never face justice.

"He's like Saddam Hussein," said Olayinka Creighton-Randall, who heads the Campaign for Good Governance in Freetown, the capital. "You know he's gone, but he's not dead. It would be naive to think he's not a real player in the picture. Taylor needs to be brought to justice. Until that man gets justice we won't have peace in West Africa."

Nigeria does not have an extradition treaty with Sierra Leone. In Freetown, officials in the special court are hoping that pressure from other countries as well as from Nigerians, who have protested Taylor's presence, will lead Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to hand Taylor over to the court. They hope that Taylor's violations of his agreement with Obasanjo to stay out of politics will force the issue.

"This is a case that Taylor must answer to," said Peter R. Chaveas, U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone. "It's so critical to establish precedent that people who act with impunity cannot get away with it. This has implications for not only all the brutalities but for wider society in West Africa." Human rights attorneys and Western diplomats say privately that Taylor probably won't face justice in the courts.

On Sept. 11, thousands of young people marched through the traffic-clogged, hilly streets of Freetown to call for justice for Taylor. "We believe that if we let Taylor get away with this, warlords will continue to run all over Africa," said Daniel Macauley, a youth activist with No Peace Without Justice, an international human rights group. "Everyone knows Taylor is still trying to run Liberia, right now. What kind of message is this sending to other dictators in Africa and around the world?"

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