Tag Archives: liberia

Good news as Charles Taylor found guilty

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th April 2012 - 9:55 am

Good news for international justice with the first conviction by an international court of a former head of state since the Nuremburg trials:

International judges have found former Liberian leader Charles Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes during the Sierra Leone civil war.

Taylor, 64, has been on trial in The Hague at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone for almost five years…

Taylor was convicted on 11 counts including terror, murder and rape. (BBC)

His original indictment set an important precedent as he was a current head of state at the time. His conviction now sets another welcome …

Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged charles taylor and sierra leone | 1 Comment

Government gives £16m to help with Ivory Coast refugee crisis

By Mark Pack | Wed 30th March 2011 - 8:57 am

Some good news from the government on the unfolding international crisis that almost no-one in Britain is interested in, namely the Ivory Coast. The Department for International Development (DfiD) is giving £16m in emergency aid to help deal with the large numbers of people fleeing the violence.

Many of them are crossing the border to Liberia, a country itself struggling to recover from its own violence. As The Guardian reported,

Last week the UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres,visited Liberia and warned that the influx of refugees threatened the country’s eight years of peace, following a civil war that left

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