Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, wanted for war crimes by a UN-backed court, has "disappeared" from his residence in Nigeria which terminated his asylum three days ago, the Nigerian government said on Tuesday.

"President Olusegun Obasanjo has approved the constitution of a panel of inquiry to look into the circumstances of the disappearance on Monday night ... to ascertain whether he escaped or was abducted," it said in a statement.

The five-man panel, including a retired police chief and a representative of the United Nations Development Program in Nigeria, will also identify "those responsible for his disappearance ... (and) recommend appropriate sanctions against those found culpable," it said.

The statement issued by secretary to the government of the federation Ufot Ekaett added the panel will have two weeks from Thursday, the date of its inauguration, to submit its investigating report to Justice Minister Bayo Ojo.

Nigerian presidential spokeswoman Oluremi Oyo said that those guarding Taylor in the southeastern Nigerian city of Calabar have been arrested. Nigerian police put the number of the arrested at 22.

The prosecutor of the special court in Sierra Leone, Desmond de Silva, slammed Taylor's disappearance as "an affront to justice" and urged west African leaders to take all necessary steps to locate him.

"Today marks a step back on the road to accountability and justice. Charles Taylor is now an international fugitive," Silva said in a statement.

"As I have always stated, Charles Taylor is a threat to the peace and security of west Africa. His disappearance now from under the eye of a regional superpower only heightens that threat and puts the whole region on the highest alert," he added.

The sudden disappearance of Taylor came on the eve of Obasanjo's visit to Washington, where he is due to meet President George W.Bush on Wednesday, who has been pressing for the handover of the 58-year-old ex-warlord.

Amnesty International in a statement called for an independent and impartial international commission of inquiry to be jointly established by the UN and the African Union to determine the circumstances of Taylor's reported escape, and establish responsibility for the lapse in security.
 
"Allowing Charles Taylor to escape trial would be a human rights scandal and a slap in the face for the thousands of victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murders, amputations, rapes, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers that took place during the conflict in Sierra Leone," said Kolawole Olaniyan, director of Amnesty International's Africa Program.

Taylor's exile to Nigeria was part of the August 2003 peace deal which ended 14 years of civil war in the west African country and put in place a two-year transitional government until 2005.

But by then, Taylor had been indicted on 17 counts by the special court in Sierra Leone, for crimes against humanity and war crimes for fueling the civil war there, when he allegedly supported rebels against the Sierra Leonean government in return for "bloody diamonds."

Nigeria, which initially vowed to protect Taylor with all its might, chose to agree to hand him over to a democratically-elected government of Liberia in late 2004, under the pressure of the US government.

At the weekend, Obasanjo told Liberia's new leader Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that "Liberia is free to take former president Charles Taylor into its custody," but Johnson-Sirleaf wants her predecessor sent directly to the special court.

Meanwhile, Obasanjo dismissed a request from the court to arrest Taylor to prevent his escape. His spokeswoman Oyo said that Taylor "is not a prisoner" and free to leave.

The official News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday quoted one of Taylor's daughters, Desirer, as saying that she was with her father "this morning." One of his male relations, however, confirmed that Taylor had gone into hiding, the report said. It also quoted residents of Calabar that they sighted him at a supermarket in the city on Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2006)