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03/29/2006:

"Taylor vanishes after call to face war crime trial"

The exiled former Liberian president Charles Taylor has gone missing in Nigeria, just as a prison cell at Sierra Leone's war crimes court was being readied for his imminent arrival.

His disappearance is a major embarrassment for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who arrives today in Washington where he will have to answer to US critics who have pushed for Taylor's handover for years.

The Nigerian authorities, who have been overseeing Mr Taylor's exile for almost three years, said yesterday that he had disappeared on Monday night from his riverside villa in the south-eastern city of Calabar.

The UN secretary general Kofi Annan said he intended to contact the Nigerian government for answers. "It would be extremely worrying if indeed he had disappeared because the Nigerian government had indicated it will co-operate with his transfer to Liberia and to the court," Mr Annan said.

"If he is not where he normally stays, where is he? Has he been moved elsewhere by the authorities? Did he vanish?"
independent.co.uk