Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Friday that Monrovia had no intention, nor is it required, to pay the legal fees of indicted war crimes suspect Charles Taylor. The former Liberian leader is standing trial at the United Nations-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the decade-long Sierra Leone conflict.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and footballer George Weah, her main rival in the country’s recent elections, met on Monday to discuss ”peace and stability”, the government announced on Tuesday. It was the first time Weah and Johnson-Sirleaf had met for face-to-face talks
Just months after winning Liberia’s presidential election, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has scored a masterstroke at the start of her mandate by ably negotiating the transfer of Charles Taylor to Freetown to stand trial, observers in the region said. After taking office in January, Johnson-Sirleaf initially decided not to involve herself in the problem posed by the former Liberian president.
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered the arrest of aides to former Liberian president Charles Taylor, fuelling Tuesday’s rumours that Liberia’s former head, now living in exile in Nigeria, has escaped from his residence in the southern town of Calabar. Remi Oyo, spokesperson to Obasanjo, said that the Nigerian government had ordered the aides’ immediate arrest.
Charles Taylor, Liberia’s exiled former warlord and president wanted internationally on crimes against humanity charges, was set to return on Saturday after Nigeria agreed to his extradition. Taylor (58) gained notoriety for plundering his own West African state, encouraging rebellion in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire and making Guinea anxious about its own potential for revolution.
A spokesperson for Liberia’s government on Saturday denied the president issued an extradition request for exiled ex-warlord Charles Taylor. Taylor’s wife, Jewel, said her husband received a copy of a letter on Friday purportedly from Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf asking Nigerian head of state Olusegun Obasanjo to extradite Taylor.
Twelve years after rebels butchered thousands in tiny Kpolopkpalah in central Liberia, Martha Yarkpawolo spends her days sitting on the rock where so many were slain, singing sorrowfully. The trauma is still fresh for survivors of one of Liberia’s worst wartime massacres.
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/ 15 February 2006
Liberian politicians who fled into exile as a bitter war raged in the West African country are set to dominate the country’s first post-war Cabinet, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s appointments have shown. Of the 19 ministers Johnson-Sirleaf has already named, only six lived in Liberia before last year’s watershed elections.
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/ 2 February 2006
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf summarily sacked the whole staff of the country’s finance ministry during a short surprise visit as she embarked on an anti-corruption campaign. ”All employees of this ministry are hereby dismissed, and will have to apply to come back if they wish,” Johnson-Sirleaf told the employees.
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/ 31 January 2006
Members of Liberia’s outgoing transitional government have vacated offices to make way for elected successors, taking their computers, desks, chairs and even carpets with them, civil servants said on Monday. Ministers, their staff and parliamentarians as well have made off with a whole gamut of government property.
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/ 22 January 2006
Liberia’s new president says it is crucial the crisis in neighbouring war-divided Côte d’Ivoire be resolved soon, adding the conflict there threatens peace in her own country. ”Liberia’s peace is fragile,” Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said in an interview on Saturday, one of her first since being sworn in Monday as Africa’s first democratically elected female president.
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/ 16 January 2006
Thousands of women from all over the continent travelled to celebrate not only the inauguration on Monday of Liberia’s 23rd president, but also, more importantly, to witness the installation of Africa’s first-ever elected female leader, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who is expected to announce her Cabinet later this week.
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/ 13 January 2006
Former fighters of Liberia’s brutal war have given their battered capital city a vigorous clean up in preparation for next week’s official installation ceremony of Africa’s first democratically elected female president. The West African country’s transitional government has signed up hundreds of of ex-combatants to spruce up the city.
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/ 13 January 2006
Newly elected to the Liberian Parliament, the estranged wife of Liberia’s notorious former president Charles Taylor believes that attempts to bring him before the United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone would open a Pandora’s box.
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/ 23 November 2005
Election officials on Wednesday confirmed Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as the winner in Liberia’s post-war elections, making her Africa’s first-ever elected female President. With all ballots counted, election officials earlier said Johnson-Sirleaf received 59,4% of the vote to soccer superstar George Weah’s 40,6%.
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/ 18 November 2005
Presumptive president-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Thursday she is looking for a few honest men, and women, to form a government able to tackle the challenge of rebuilding war-torn Liberia. ”There are going to be three basic requirements: the requirement of competence; the requirement of honesty; and the requirement of the regard and protection of human rights,” she told reporters.
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/ 17 November 2005
Hearings into Liberian presidential candidate George Weah’s claims of vote fraud opened amid confusion on Wednesday, when his lawyers failed to deliver witnesses or documents to back up allegations he was cheated of a rightful win in November 8 polls. Weah’s supporters have held three days of mostly peaceful protests.
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/ 16 November 2005
Liberian officials on Wednesday opened hearings into claims of vote fraud made by trailing presidential candidate George Weah, who has urged his supporters to quell protests even as the government imposed a ban on demonstrations in the capital. Preliminary results showed that Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had won nearly 60% of votes.
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/ 14 November 2005
George Weah was on Monday to rally his supporters behind claims he was cheated out of a win in Liberia’s presidential vote, even as pressure mounted for him to concede and clear the way for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to become Africa’s first elected woman president.
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/ 13 November 2005
Supporters of Liberian presidential candidate George Weah, who appears destined for defeat at the hands of economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, took to the streets of Monrovia for a second day on Saturday. With more than 99% of votes counted, Unity Party candidate Johnson-Sirleaf has maintained a comfortable lead over Weah.
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/ 11 November 2005
Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf appeared poised on Friday to become Africa’s first democratically elected female president, claiming victory after results from most of the West African country gave her an apparently unbeatable lead. With almost 91% of ballots counted, the electoral commission said 67-year-old Johnson-Sirleaf held about 59% of Tuesday’s vote.
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/ 10 November 2005
Liberia’s top female politician took a strong early lead in a presidential run-off as her millionaire soccer-star opponent charged the vote was fraudulent, throwing uncertainty over elections that had raised hopes for peace in the war-ravaged nation.
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/ 9 November 2005
Liberians crowded around radios on Wednesday awaiting results from the presidential run-off between a millionaire soccer star and the war-ravaged West African nation’s top female politician. Final results in the race between George Weah and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will not be announced for two weeks.
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/ 9 November 2005
War-ravaged Liberia voted to choose its first post-war president in a heated run-off pitting an international soccer star who dropped out of high school against the country’s Harvard-educated top female politician. With United Nations helicopters buzzing over the bombed-out capital, many prayed the vote on Tuesday would herald an era of peace.
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/ 8 November 2005
A soccer star vying to become Liberia’s first post-war president vowed to work for peace as he voted on Tuesday in a presidential run-off that many hope will herald a new era after a quarter-century of coups and conflict. George Weah and former finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf finished first and second, respectively, in the October 11 first round, which weeded out 20 other presidential candidates.
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/ 26 October 2005
A run-off to elect Liberia’s first post-war president was made official on Wednesday with the certification of votes that give footballer George Weah the edge over banker Ellen Johnson Sirleaf going into the November 8 polls. Weah, a high-school dropout with no political experience, has the numbers on his side to win in a landslide.
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/ 17 October 2005
Preliminary results released on Monday from Liberia’s vote last week maintained a lead for football hero George Weah but underscored the need for a run-off election for the presidency of the post-war elected government. With more than 90% of 3 070 polling stations reporting, Weah was in front with 28,9%.
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/ 16 October 2005
Hopes that former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s party would perform well on his behalf have been dashed by early results from last week’s vote, which could undermine his vow to return to Liberia instead of facing war-crimes charges. Taylor remains a mythic figure in his war-ravaged country two years since he fled into exile.
If Liberia had a lightbulb for everyone who has promised electricity as part of its reconstruction, the capital Monrovia would be lit up like Las Vegas, and not wreathed in perpetual darkness. As the electoral campaign for October 11 polls winds down, presidential candidates are stepping up their promises, committing to bring current and running water to the roughly one million residents.
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/ 15 September 2005
The candidate aspiring to be Liberia’s first elected woman president is canvassing for votes among a crowd of young men who make their living washing cars. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf wonders aloud why no women or girls are with them. ”Because this is a very hard job,” shouts one man.
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/ 2 September 2005
A wave of often serious crime by former fighters in Liberia has alarmed police and welfare officials, who say the ex-combatants are going back to armed tactics for lack of the post-war psychological help and education they need. Many youthful Liberians have grown up with nothing but violence and often drugs during conflict.
Liberian football legend turned presidential candidate George Weah is enjoying soaring popularity among young people, but this wanes among students trying to get an education. During visits to communities, 38-year-old Weah attracts large crowds of former combatants, peddlers, petty traders and football fans.