The News Review:

- Liberia challenges warrant for president
- POLITICS: PEACEKEEPERS TREAD CAREFULLY IN LIBERIAN CAPITAL.
- Union Wants Taylor Sent to Sierra Leone
- New refugee route set up
- UN: Refund $28 Billion to Nigeria for Peace Keeping.

Liberia challenges warrant for president
Dispatch Online – Aug 7, 2003
“Liberia contends that the arrest warrant of Charles Taylor violates customary international law and impugns the honour and reputation of the presidency and its sovereignty,” according to an ICJ statement. The UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone charged Taylor in June with atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war and issued an international arrest warrant against him. Liberia has asked the ICJ, the highest judiciary organ of the United Nations set up to deal with disputes between states, to declare that the indictment of Taylor failed to respect the immunity from persecution that Taylor enjoys under international law as a head of state. In a separate letter the lawyers acting for Liberia at the ICJ, Dutch attorney Michael Wladimiroff and his British colleague Steven Kay, say they have requested that the court take so-called provisional measures “to restrain and prevent any state from acting upon the indictment and the arrest warrant” while the complaint is being reviewed. The Special Court set up by the Sierra Leone government is backed by the United Nations but is not an official UN war crimes tribunal… The Special Court set up by the Sierra Leone government is backed by the United Nations but is not an official UN war crimes tribunal. “The Special Court for Sierra Leone cannot impose legal obligations upon states that are not parties to the agreement of January 16, 2002, between Sierra Leone and the United Nations, that established the court. The Special Court is not an organ of the United Nations and is not an international criminal court,” Kay and Wladimiroff wrote. The two attorneys are experts on international law and war crimes and were appointed to assist judges at the UN war crimes court in The Hague with the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. Wladimiroff was sacked by that court last year but Kay is still involved in the Milosevic trial. The ICJ said on Tuesday that Liberia’s complaint had been transmitted to the government of Sierra Leone. They said they were waiting to see if the authorities there recognised the jurisdiction of the World Court in this case.

POLITICS: PEACEKEEPERS TREAD CAREFULLY IN LIBERIAN CAPITAL.
Free with registration – Interpress Service – AccessMyLibrary.com – Aug 7, 2003
“My soldiers are up to the task,” remarks Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Mudamayo, commanding officer of the Nigerian-led regional peacekeeping force known as ECOMIL. “I think that the people of Liberia have suffered for far too long. It is time to end the carnage” Mudamayo told IPS when leading the first batch of 300 or so troops to Liberia from neighboring Sierra Leone this week. The exact number of Nigerian troops that will.
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Union Wants Taylor Sent to Sierra Leone
highbeam.com – Aug 7, 2003
find AP Online articles. <p>00-00-0000<BR>Dateline: ABUJA, NigeriaA journalists union is challenging Nigeria’s offer of asylum to Liberian.
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New refugee route set up
BBC News – Aug 7, 2003
The government has agreed to accept 500 refugees from west Africa under a scheme run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And around 50 Liberians who fled to Sierra Leone to escape fighting in the country 13 years ago are currently being interviewed and may make up the first batch of refugees coming to the UK under the scheme. Those accepted are expected to arrive in Britain in October, paving the way for more refugees to use this resettlement scheme as an official route. The aim is to prevent refugees using illegal people traffickers.

UN: Refund $28 Billion to Nigeria for Peace Keeping.
Free with registration – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Aug 7, 2003
UN: Refund $28 Billion to Nigeria for Peace Keeping. (07-AUG-03) Asia Africa Intelligence Wire.