Monrovia

Sanctions against former Liberian president Charles Taylor and his entourage are impairing his ability to defend himself against war-crimes charges, his lawyer said on Wednesday. The sanctions are having a ”chilling effect” as witnesses sympathetic to Taylor are afraid to come forward, said the lawyer.

The Liberian government has lifted a self-imposed moratorium on the mining, sale and export of diamonds that had been in place for six years, officials said on Saturday. Deputy Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy Kpandeh Fayia said that, ”as of Monday, people can start applying for mining, selling and broker licences” for the stones.

The world’s largest charity hospital ship docked in Liberia on Wednesday to begin a mission to bring free healthcare to Africa. The 80-bed Africa Mercy, a former Danish rail ferry converted into a hospital ship, will spend several months treating patients in Monrovia port before moving on to Sierra Leone.

A Liberian Cabinet minister has resigned following the publication of pictures showing him having sex with two unidentified women, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said. Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Willis Knuckles tendered his resignation on Sunday, Johnson-Sirleaf said in statement.

Thousands of Liberians on Monday lined the road from airport to the seaside capital, Monrovia, to welcome their leader back from a donors’ conference where she secured a massive debt-relief deal. Villagers and residents of small towns along the 50km road from Roberts International Airport came out to praise President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for a "job well done".

Thousands of cheering Liberians lined the streets of the capital Monrovia on Thursday to greet Chinese President Hu Jintao, who pledged more than -million to aid recovery after one of Africa’s most ruinous civil wars. China has been offering low interest loans, debt relief and other incentives to increase its influence on the world’s poorest continent.

The first 100 troops of Liberia’s new army graduated on Saturday, as the country’s vice-president called for a new relationship after decades of military rule and civil war. About 500 people attended the passing-out parade at a Monrovia barracks of the troops, resplendent in new uniforms paid for by the United States government.

Liberia’s defence minister said on Friday an exiled confidant of former president and warlord Charles Taylor was plotting to assassinate top government officials and called for international help tracking him down. Benjamin Yeaten, Taylor’s former chief of staff and one of his most feared fighters, is believed to be armed, somewhere in West Africa, Defence Minister Brownie Samukai said.

Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was on Tuesday to start recording evidence on war-time atrocities committed over more than two decades of successive conflicts, its chairperson said. ”We will open our offices today [Tuesday] all over Liberia, and our workers will receive statements from the public,” Jerome Verdier, TRC head, said. Several hundred people have been trained to document evidence from both victims and perpetrators.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz wrapped up a visit on Saturday to the war-shattered West African nation of Liberia, where he has praised economic progress led by the country’s new head of state, but warned there is ”a lot of work to do”. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office in January after winning elections that made her Africa’s first democratically elected female president.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has painted a gloomy picture of the war-battered country’s health sector, press reports said on Friday, with the country now having just 34 doctors, or just one per 80 000 people. In the late 1980s, there were 400 doctors, she was quoted as telling a just-concluded meeting of aid donors.

Liberia will not be seeking fresh aid from donors at a conference it is hosting but ideas on how to hasten its post-war reconstruction, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Wednesday. ”We are not going to ask for pledges,” Johnson-Sirleaf told delegates from major international financial organisations in the capital, Monrovia.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has dismissed several government officials in a bid to fight corruption, press reports said on Monday. In her inaugural speech last January, Johnson-Sirleaf had pledged to ”make corruption the number-one enemy” of her government.