afrol News, 27 April - The Danish government this week formally turned down a petition from the UN to house Liberian ex-Dictator Charles Taylor if he is convicted for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone in an upcoming trial. The Dutch government has ordered that prison facilities outside the Netherlands must be found for Mr Taylor before the trial can commence in The Hague. Also Sweden and Austria have said "no". Finland may now turn out to be Mr Taylor's destination.

"We are pretty sceptical towards that," Denmark's Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller told the Copenhagen parliament earlier this week, after having been asked whether Denmark would offer the UN prison facilities for Mr Taylor if convicted. The government would tell the UN "it should try other destinations," he added.

The UN, which supports the special Sierra Leone war crimes court that is trying Mr Taylor, on Sunday had asked the Danish government to receive the Liberian ex-President in case of a prison sentence. On Tuesday evening, however, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and politely told him Danish prisons would not be at the disposal in this special case.

The Copenhagen government on several occasions has offered the UN system to house war criminals convicted in international courts, as in the case of the ex-Yugoslavia war crimes court. "We stand by our international engagement," emphasised Minister Møller. However, in the case of the Sierra Leone special court, Sweden and Austria had earlier given guarantees and Mr Møller held these two countries should no take on responsibilities.

The UN earlier this month had been in contact with both the Stockholm and the Vienna governments, but both backed down from their earlier support and asked Mr Annan to find other host countries for Mr Taylor. Denmark was thus seen as an alternative solution. Mr Møller pointed out that Austria and Sweden had signed agreements with the Sierra Leone court and lamented their negative answers.

Sweden's transitional Foreign Minister Carin Jämtin on 12 April told the national news agency TT that her country had not given a definitive "no" to the UN. "We can neither answer yes nor no at the moment," she said referring to the fact that Mr Taylor had yet to be tried and claiming it was "an unusual case" that a country was asked to provide prison facilities for a person that had not yet been convicted. The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs used the same arguments when turning down the UN petition on 6 April.

Sweden and Austria however ignored the fact that the Dutch government had asked for guarantees that Mr Taylor would not be left to The Netherlands if the Liberian ex-leader was to be put on trial in The Hague. The special court in Sierra Leone and the UN had asked the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands to host the trial against Mr Taylor, fearing that his prolonged stay in Sierra Leone could cause civil unrest in the country and neighbouring Liberia.

Mr Taylor still remains in Sierra Leonean detention after he was extradited from his Nigerian exile last month. The Liberian will not be let to enter Dutch soil before the Amsterdam government has received guarantees from a third country willing to receive him after a possible conviction.

It is no speculated that Finland, another Scandinavian country, may be willing to receive a convicted Taylor. Finland yesterday was mentioned as a possible destination by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. The Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja today however told the press in Croatia that the UN yet had to contact Finland on the matter. He however did not rule out that Finland could be willing to provide prison facilities.

By staff writers

© afrol News

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