The UN Security Council voted unanimously to send Charles Taylor, the former Liberian President, to the Hague to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor is being accused of using Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front to commit acts of murder, rape, and mutilation, as well as drugging and using children as combatants.
UN officials fear that holding the trial in Sierra Leone would cause a ground swelling of support and dissent, which could cause even greater unrest in the region. The Netherlands had previously stated that they would not jail Taylor if he were found guilty, but Britain offered a prison cell in order to broker the move to the Hague.