The News Review:

- Liberia (Human Rights Watch, January 29, 2004)
- Rich Nations Shun African Peacekeeping, Says UN
- Liberia | Of killers and clowns | Economist.com

Liberia (Human Rights Watch, January 29, 2004)
hrw.org – Jan 29, 2004
The Commission should also urge the Nigerian government to hand over to the Special Court for Sierra Leone former president Charles Taylor, indicted for war crimes in association with his support of Sierra Leonean rebels; and urge the U. Security Council to ensure that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) deploys rapidly country-wide to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians. Background In the second half of 2003, a peace agreement between the Liberian government and two rebel insurgencies, the departure into exile of former President Charles Taylor and the deployment of the first tranche of a mandated 15,000-strong U.

Rich Nations Shun African Peacekeeping, Says UN
Sudan Tribune – Jan 29, 2004
He said the reluctance also arises from concerns over who will command those troops, since most western nations do not want their troops to come under African or Asian authority. In its annual report released Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the major world powers have not given the United Nations the capacity to respond effectively to Africa’s wars. “And though Africa’s former colonisers have sent troops in recent years to areas ravaged by conflict — including the 2,000-member British intervention in Sierra Leone and the ongoing French engagement in Cote d’Ivoire since late 2002 — the major powers have repeatedly made it clear that they will not make the necessary commitment to prevent the massive human rights violations in Africa that result from conflict,” it said. peacekeeping operations, five are in Africa: the U.

Liberia | Of killers and clowns | Economist.com
economist.com – Jan 29, 2004
In order to gain access to it please either Log in, Activate your complimentary web account if you are a print subscriber, or Subscribe now Liberia Nation-building in Liberia Jan 29th 2004 From The Economist print edition WITH his comic wooden glasses, baggy britches, oversized shoes and white-painted face, Boutini the clown seems an unlikely front man for a disarmament campaign. But in Liberia, many of the soldiers who need to be disarmed are children. At a “sensitisation” meeting last weekend in Bo Waterside, a sleepy town on the border with Sierra Leone, Boutini reduced a gaggle of ex-fighters to giggles with his slapstick routine. Then he urged them to “Hand in your guns”. After 14 years of on-off civil war, Liberia is probably west Africa’s most destitute country. But since its chief warlord, President Charles Taylor, was toppled, it has had a chance to recover. With two rebel groups threatening his capital (and his life), and America ordering him out, Mr Taylor fled to Nigeria last August.