This is a very interesting development. The question is whether Ghana will
arrest Charles Taylor and han him over.

-----------------------

Arrest warrant for Liberia leader
Liberian President Charles Taylor has been indicted for war crimes by a
United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone.
Mr Taylor is currently in neighbouring Ghana, where peace talks with rebels
started on Wednesday.

A warrant for his arrest has been served on the Ghanaian authorities and
sent to Interpol, said the court's chief prosecutor, David Crane.

Mr Taylor is accused of being the principal backer of Sierra Leone rebels
during a brutal 10-year civil war which ended in 2002.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone accuses Mr Taylor of crimes against
humanity and violations of international humanitarian law.

However, Ghana's interior and foreign ministers have both told the BBC that
they have not officially been asked to arrest Mr Taylor.

The BBC's Paul Welsh at the peace talks in Accra says Mr Taylor strode
confidently onto the platform to take his place next to South African
President Thabo Mbeki.

Mr Taylor is already the subject of UN sanctions for his alleged role in
the civil war, in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

Many more had their limbs hacked off with machetes.

Sanctions

The BBC's World Affairs correspondent, Mark Doyle, says that under
President Taylor the country has become something of a pariah state.


The UN has imposed sanctions against the leadership because of their role
in the recent war in Sierra Leone, and there have been allegations of
Liberia's involvement in diamond trafficking.

The UN renewed the sanctions last month, widening them to include the
logging industry - the largest source of government revenue.

The head of the UN refugee agency, Ruud Lubbers, has called for the
president's removal from office.

Mr Taylor, in turn, says the Liberian rebels are former warlords who have
also committed gross human rights violations.


Compromise

Our correspondent says that the peace talks in Ghana have been overshadowed
by Mr Taylor's indictment.

Several African leaders are there but neither rebel group has yet arrived,
he says.


Western and African diplomats say Mr Taylor had agreed to take part in the
talks because of the huge gains made by the rebels in recent months.

But he says the talks - brokered by the Economic Community of West African
States (Ecowas) - are about compromise, not about his standing down.

The latest in the country's long history of civil wars began in 1999, when
a group called the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd)
accused Mr Taylor of dictatorship and launched a rebellion in the north.

The fighting spread to other parts of the country. Now Lurd rebels hold
more territory than the government and can even launch attacks on Monrovia.

Mysterious death

The head of the former Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front rebels,
Foday Sankoh, is among the nine people previously indicted by the Special
Court.

Seven of these are in custody.

Last month, the court urged Mr Taylor of harbouring one of Mr Sankoh's
deputies, Sam Bockarie.

Shortly afterwards, the Liberian authorities said he had been killed in a
shoot-out with their forces.


TAYLOR TIMELINE
1989: Launches rebellion
1991: RUF rebellion starts in Sierra Leone
1995: Peace deal signed
1997: Elected president
1999: Lurd starts rebellion to oust Taylor

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/2961390.stm

Published: 2003/06/04 13:35:23 GMT

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