UN Security Council members agree that the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor should be moved from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands, but are still debating several issues including who should pay the costs, the council president said on Friday.
Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya (王光亞) scheduled closed-door consultations last Monday on the draft resolution that would give a green light to the transfer and said he expects it to be adopted early next week.
"As far as the political issue is concerned, I think there is agreement that he is going to be moved to The Hague," Wang said. "Now, it's only the technical side, how the resolution will look ... [so] there will be no misunderstandings, no concerns."
Taylor went into exile in Nigeria in August 2003 -- five months after his indictment by the Special Court in Sierra Leone -- as part of a deal that helped end Liberia's 14-year civil war.
Last month, Nigeria bowed to international pressure and said it would hand Taylor over to the UN court. Within days, the warlord turned president disappeared, but he was captured on March 28 after one day on the run by Nigerian police as he was trying to slip across the border of Nigeria and Cameroon.
Taylor is now being held in the penitentiary in the compound of the UN-backed court in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The Security Council resolution was drafted in response to a request from the Special Court in Sierra Leone to move Taylor's trial out of West Africa on security grounds. He faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to his backing for Sierra Leone rebels who terrorized victims by chopping off their arms, legs, ears and lips.
The draft resolution welcomes the willingness of the government of the Netherlands to host the Special Court at The Hague to try Taylor. It also welcomes the willingness of the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, to allow the Special Court to use its facilities to detain and try the former Liberian leader.
The resolution states that the costs of trying Taylor in the Netherlands "are expenses of the Special Court," which is funded by voluntary contributions. It reiterates an appeal to UN member states "to contribute generously" to the court.
The Netherlands underlined in a March 29 letter to the Security Council that all costs as a result of Taylor's trial must not only be expenses of the Special Court but "that no additional costs shall be incurred by the Netherlands without its consent."
Wang said some members of the International Criminal Court -- which the US opposes -- are concerned "that maybe in the future there will be some disputes or disagreements on the cost of the trial" and want the cost issue clarified further in the resolution.
A UN appeal for US$25 million to fund the Special Court for Sierra Leone this year has so far received only US$9 million in pledges and just US$6 million in funding, which is expected to run out soon.
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