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/ 10 October 2005
Liberians go to the polls on Tuesday in the country’s first general elections since civil war was brought to a halt in 2003. About 1,3-million registered voters — out of a population of 3,5-million — will queue on October 11 to choose a president from 22 candidates.
Since the start of a United Nations disarmament programme in Liberia in December 2003, much attention has been paid to the painfully difficult process of reintegrating the country’s rebel troops into society. Another — and equally important — operation is also underway, however: the reform of Liberia’s police force, blamed for a significant number of human rights abuses during the country’s civil war.
Fourteen years of war have brought about a near-terminal decline of public services in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. As a result, the streets are littered with household waste, shrapnel, carcasses, rubble and scrap that are an eyesore at best — at worst, a dangerous pollutant of underground water sources.
The journey back to normal life was never going to be an easy one for the ex-combatants of Liberia’s civil war. But, it could be argued that women fighters face a particularly tough challenge. Many women and girls found themselves caught up in the conflict — both as combatants and victims of sexual abuse by fighting groups.
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/ 9 February 2004
When former Liberian president Charles Taylor took up Nigeria’s offer of exile last year, he left behind a country where the flow of information had slowed to a trickle — particularly in rural areas. Taylor had withdrawn the frequencies of private radio stations and had subsequently banned them.
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/ 30 January 2004
For many people, photographs of crazed child soldiers operating under the influence of drugs were amongst the defining images of Liberia’s civil war. These pictures no longer occupy the front pages of newspapers –- but the problem of drug addiction on the part of youthful combatants persists.
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/ 28 January 2004
Liberia’s hopes for peace were rekindled last October when a power-sharing transitional government took office with a mandate to run the country until elections in 2005. But, with just over a 100 days having passed since the inauguration, has the new government lived up to expectations?
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/ 15 January 2004
Public confidence in Liberia’s banks appears to be at a new low, with many people now opting to keep their money elsewhere -– some in foreign accounts. The latest blow to the banking sector comes with the liquidation of the Italian-owned Liberia Trading and Development Bank (Tradevco).
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/ 6 November 2003
Liberia has developed a programme to disarm some 40 000 combatants whose future seems uncertain after 14 years of a brutal war. Analysts say the move seeks to help Liberia to put the war — that forced virtually all of the country’s 3,5-million people to flee for their lives — behind it and build a lasting peace.