A former Liberian rebel leader accused of commissioning killings and recruiting child soldiers during a bloody civil war in the 1990s arrived in his West African country a free man late on Friday after being deported from the United States. George Saigbe Boley, 62, was targeted by the first removal order made by a US immigration court using the 2008 Child Soldiers Accountability Act, which allows a resident to be deported if they have recruited and used child soldiers.
Boley is the former leader of the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), a faction that fought against ex-President Charles Taylor's forces and some of whose members were accused of atrocities at Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "George Boley's removal is a major step in addressing the serious human rights abuses Mr Boley perpetrated in Liberia in the 1990s," US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton said in a statement. "The United States has always welcomed refugees and those fleeing oppression, but we will not be a safe haven for human rights violators and war criminals."
But it was not clear whether Boley, who upon arrival in Monrovia drove away with his lawyer and sister after clearing immigration formalities, would face any legal action in Liberia. Boley, who studied in the United States during the 1970s and is married to a US woman, spent two years in detention before his deportation.
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