The News Review:

- Ghana sets an example
- A Protected Friend of Terrorism
- Reporters sans frontières – Sierra Leone
- Spicer security firm criticised by US auditors
- Regional News of Monday, 25 April 2005

Ghana sets an example
International Herald Tribune – Apr 26, 2005
that threatens to smoke the Ghana "smooth cayenne" variety out of Europe's supermarkets. But Ghana is a good kid in a really bad neighborhood. Its West African neighbors, from Liberia to Sierra Leone to Ivory Coast, have bred so much fighting in the last 10 years that they make Ghana seem like Iowa. Ghana does not have insurgents running around its hinterlands dressed in wedding gowns and wigs (like Liberia and Sierra Leone) or 8-year-old rebel soldiers toting machine guns (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast). It has had four successful elections since 1993, and has actually experienced a peaceful transfer of power between democratically elected governments, another rarity in the neighborhood. Indeed, it is becoming a haven for refugees who come not only from Ghana's unruly neighbors to the west, but also from other conflict zones in Africa. Last week, a group of refugees from Darfur, Sudan, showed up.

A Protected Friend of Terrorism
Washington Post – Apr 25, 2005
-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone to stand trial, he will never face punishment for the crimes he committed in the region at the cost of tens of thousands of dead and hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed. The mandate of the court, largely funded by the United States, expires at the end of the year. It was established to try those “most responsible” for the atrocities in Sierra Leone.

Reporters sans frontières – Sierra Leone
Reporters without borders – Reporters without borders (press… – Apr 25, 2005
The judge, Akiiki Kiiza, ruled on 22 April that the request was unacceptable because it was not signed by Kamara in person. In fact, the request was signed by his wife on 15 March using a power of attorney. Kamara’s lawyer, Joseph O. D Cole, has said he intends to appeal.

Spicer security firm criticised by US auditors
Ireland Online – Apr 25, 2005
âMr Spicer came to prominence in a 1999 report into the flouting of a UN arms embargo on Sierra Leone. A parliamentary committee attacked senior foreign office officials for treating the embargo in a âdisgracefully casual mannerâ. A company of which Mr Spicer was then a director, Sandline International, had been supplying arms to the deposed President of Sierra Leone, Ahmad Kabbah. Mr Spicer said he had been acting with the knowledge and support of the British government. He also intervened in Papua New Guinea in 1997 and the army there subsequently launched a coup.

Regional News of Monday, 25 April 2005
ghanaweb.com – Apr 25, 2005
He will be the Special Guest at the celebration of the Sierra Leone’s Independence Anniversary and address a meeting of the Ghanaian community. Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, and some chiefs will accompany the Asantehene. According to a programme released from the Sierra Leone High Commission in Ghana, Otumfuo Osei Tutu would visit an ancestral site where the late Otumfuo Osei Agyeman Prempeh I was confined after his arrest by the British. Otumfuo Osei Tutu is also expected to travel to Bo, the second city and capital of the Southern Province, to meet traditional rulers and speak on “Paramount Chieftaincy as an instrument for the promotion of Peace, Security and Unity in the Locality” He returns to Ghana on Monday, May 2.