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Published 14th April 2006

Vol 47 No 8

Liberia

Taylor's trajectories

The coming trial will set a world precedent and embarrass politicians in Africa and the West

As daylight faded, the United Nations helicopter carrying Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor came in low and fast over the hills of Freetown, depositing the Liberian warlord president-turned-fugitive inside the compound of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The touchdown on 29 March was another blow against presidential immunity and a boost to the international justice system. The trial's outcome and consequences may prove as unpredictable as the prisoner.

Courting disaster

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Arrogance and ineptitude may allow the warlords to get away with murder

When Liberia's ex-President Charles Ghankay Taylor finally arrived at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, he joined nine other indicted war criminals, both rebel commanders whom he is...

The accused

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The main point of the United Nations-backed Special Court was to try 'those with the greatest responsibility' for the ten-year war that left 50,000 people dead and half...

A shortage of sparkle

Efforts to clean up Congo's mining business before the elections are being derailed

Unlike the billion dollars' worth of diamonds that leave Congo each year, the prospects for cleaning up its mining business before this year's national elections are far from...

Identity crisis

Plans for new voters' cards and a new electoral register provoke yet another political deadlock

A row between Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and President Laurent Gbagbo about identity cards and the electoral roll goes to the heart of the political crisis (AC...

Third term unlucky

The mathematics - let alone the politics - are against another term for President Obasanjo

It was a bizarre political week, even by Nigeria's historically high standards. President Olusegun Obasanjo's advisors openly demanded the immediate resignation of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar after he publicly...

New politics at last

Parliament has reconvened with another set of politicians ready for a fresh start

A new political order may emerge as parliament reassembles for a new four-week term. Amid last year's chaos, President Bingu wa Mutharika's nervous government suspended parliamentary sittings for...

Pointers

Foreign funds

Disquiet is growing over President George Bush's policy in Somalia amid reports of an executive security order to arm a local 'antiterrorist alliance' in contravention of the United...

The inspectors call

There was a 'deliberate and concerted effort' to award a US$10-million pre-shipment inspection contract in September 2005 to Switzerland's Société Générale de Surveillance and Britain's Intertek International in...

Shutting up shop

The decision by US-based risk consultants Kroll to shut down their Africa practice on 3 April appears to have been taken, oddly enough, because the US$1.9 billion company...

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