LIBERIA: The Netherlands is considering a request from Sierra Leone's special court to host the war crimes trial of Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor.
Taylor was arrested in Nigeria while trying to flee the country on Wednesday and transferred to the United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone to be tried on charges of crimes against humanity.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague yesterday confirmed it had been asked to provide facilities for the trial.
Dirk-Jan Vermeij, spokesman for the Dutch foreign ministry, added: "The special court in Sierra Leone has asked The Netherlands to host Charles Taylor's trial. The Netherlands is willing to agree under certain conditions.
"The request mentions the other tribunals in The Hague and says that holding Taylor's trial outside Sierra Leone could help stability and peace in the region."
Taylor (58) fled Liberia three years ago as rebels closed in on the capital Monrovia.
He was offered exile in Nigeria as part of a rapidly brokered deal that ended 14 years of civil war.
All along, Nigeria's president Olusegun Obasanjo has made it clear that the man blamed for sinking West Africa into anarchy would be handed over to the Sierra Leone court only at the request of a democratically elected Liberian government.
That request was made earlier this month by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was sworn in as Liberian president in January.
Yesterday, she added her support to moving the trial. "We still expect a resolution from the Security Council that will allow a change in venue to a more conducive environment, such as the international court at The Hague," she said in a radio address.
She has had to step carefully around the issue since coming to power for fear of provoking thousands of former soldiers who remain loyal to Taylor.
Moving the trial would help defuse tension as well as providing a more secure setting.
The Hague has experience of hosting several high-profile tribunals, including the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which tried former president Slobodan Milosevic until his death on March 11th.
Observers also fear that the relaxed and relatively open regime of the Sierra Leone court may offer the former rebel leader a second chance to make a break for freedom.
Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian villa on Monday following Nigeria's announcement that it would be effectively ending his asylum status. He was arrested on Wednesday close to the border with Cameroon, travelling with a trunk-load of cash.
He faces 11 counts of war crimes, including responsibility for murder, rape and mutilation relating to his alleged role fomenting war in Sierra Leone.