The detention of Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, and his delivery to the UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone is a breakthrough, both for the cause of international justice and for co-operation between responsible African governments.

Elsewhere, efforts to bring to account the leaders with the greatest burden of guilt for atrocities committed in civil conflicts or under tyrannical regimes have been frustrated, notably by the death in custody of Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, before be could be convicted, and years of unsuccessful attempts to try Chile's Augusto Pinochet. Mr Taylor's appearance in the dock next week, charged with instigating crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone's decade of civil war, will be a welcome sign that the net is closing in.