Liberia’s war-wearied civilians fear a return to hostilities as politicians squabble within the transitional government and the United Nations takes its time in deploying peacekeepers around the country. At the centre of this concern is the jostling for government posts. The scramble continues ever since the businessman-turned politician Gyude Bryant was sworn-in as chairperson of the power-sharing transitional government last October under a peace agreement signed in Ghana in August.

Nearly 3,000 registered Liberian refugees have returned from neighbouring countries spontaneously since December, but with the capital Monrovia still in ruins, most have sought shelter in camps for displaced people, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said. It reported a noticeable increase in the number of refugees returning spontaneously from Sierra Leone since last week via the Mano river bridge crossing at Bo Waterside.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for the urgent restoration of public services in Liberia's shattered towns and cities to reduce pollution and improve public health. In its first proper post-conflict assessment report in Africa, UNEP also called for tight controls on logging, which has removed vast swathes of forest cover, and poaching, which has seriously endangered the country's rich wildlife.

Armed militias continue to violate human rights and international humanitarian law, despite the progress being made to end Liberia's 14-year conflict, a human rights lawyer says. "The rebels are engaged in a new wave of violence, extorting, abducting and harassing the civilians," said Dempster Browne, chairperson of the Monrovia-based National Commission on Human Rights.

The "Chronicle" newspaper has been brought before the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in the capital, Monrovia, in an action for "damages for injury to reputation". Philip Keikpo, former business manager of exiled former president Charles Taylor, is claiming US$5 million for a front page lead story entitled, "How Taylor Diverted Millions", published in the 23 January 2004 edition of the "Chronicle".

In a 4 February 2004 letter to Liberian President Gyude Bryant, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed its concern over the recent criminal charges brought against journalists working for the private weekly newspaper "Telegraph". On 16 January, editor-in-chief Philip Moore Jr., managing editor Adolphus Karnuah and sub-editor Robert Kpadeh Jr. were arrested and brought to the Magistrate Court in the capital, Monrovia, where they were charged with "criminal malevolence".

Ten days after calling for Gyude’s Bryant’s removal as head of the transitional government, Sekou Conneh, leader of the LURD rebel movement, has changed his mind. Conneh, whose own leadership of LURD is challenged by a faction supporting his estranged wife, told IRIN in an interview that he did not have any "personal problem" with Bryant as leader of Liberia's broad-based transitional government.

As the international community meets in New York on 5 and 6 February to discuss post-conflict reconstruction in Liberia, Amnesty International has urged that good governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights are given the highest priority. "Protracted conflict has not only destroyed the social and economic fabric of Liberia, it has also eroded the most fundamental human rights," Amnesty International said. "Unwavering political commitment and prompt, generous and sustained funding are needed to meet the ambitious plans for the next two years - not least for the protection and promotion of human rights," Amnesty International added.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a veteran Liberian politician and former UN official, has taken on a task which many regard as impossible - ridding her country of its deeply ingrained and all pervasive corruption. Johnson Sirleaf, who came a poor second to Charles Taylor in the 1997 presidential election, has just been appointed chairman of a Commission on Good Governance by Liberia's transitional government.

International donors gathering at the United Nations this week can best help Liberia by pledging funds to rehabilitate its tens of thousands of child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released on Monday. The 43-page report, “How to Fight, How to Kill: Child Soldiers in Liberia,” documents how more than 15,000 child soldiers fought on all sides of the Liberian civil war, and that many units were composed primarily of children. The report argues that establishing a firm peace in the West African nation will depend on the successful reintegration of child soldiers into civil society.

Liberia is a collapsed state that has effectively become a UN protectorate, says a report released last week by the International Crisis Group (ICG) ahead of a donors conference. “The 5-6 February donors conference is an opportunity to focus on the long-term strategies, real money and hard thinking required to pull Liberia out of crisis and develop a government that can handle reconstruction. The immediate concern is the security situation, which demands concentrated efforts on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of fighters (DR)," said the ICG.

The MODEL rebel movement has backtracked on its call for the removal of Gyude Bryant as the head of Liberia's transitional government. At the same time, a powerful dissident faction within the LURD rebel movement has also rejected demands by LURD leader Sekou Conneh that Bryant should step down.

Liberia's interim justice minister has rejected the idea of a war-crimes court for the West African nation, saying it would do nothing to promote reconciliation after 14 years of bloodletting. Justice Minister Kabinah Janneh's refusal is significant in part because Nigeria has indicated it might turn over ousted Liberian President Charles Taylor, now living there in exile, if Liberia had such a court. A war-crimes court "will not help peace in the country; it will not foster the kind of reconciliation we need," Janneh, a former rebel leader, told The Associated Press.

The new UNICEF Representative in Liberia says her priority would be directed toward children's education. Upon Ms. Angela Kearney's arrival in the Country Tuesday, she said, "I will support the Ministry of Education for the children to go to school," adding that UNICEF would, in collaboration with the Education Ministry, have to build schools, playgrounds, and other facilities for the smooth learning process of children.

The wife of the leader of Liberia's most powerful rebel movement announced Tuesday she was taking charge, backed by dozens of guerrilla commanders in ousting a husband whose ambitions she said were endangering the nation's hard-won peace. In a family feud with West Africa's stability in the balance, warlord Sekou Conneh frantically took to state radio to insist it was only a marital squabble and he was still in command.

Fighters who took part in Liberia's armed conflict have been raping and looting civilians in areas that lack international peacekeepers, despite a ceasefire and peace agreement in the country, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released ahead of a major international donors' conference on Liberia in early February. "Despite the peace accords, civilians in rural Liberia are still being raped, looted and forced to work for fighters from all the warring factions," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division. "More peacekeepers are needed to stem the violence and ensure that the disarmament program is successful."

After days of drifting on high seas, more than 200 Liberian refugees have been rescued from their stalled boat and repatriated to Liberia. A Dutch ship under the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) picked up the refugees who had been stranded for days off Liberia's Atlantic coast. Their self-chartered boat had developed technical problems near the south-eastern city of Harper after leaving Ghana, where most of them had been living in Buduburam camp.

"On my second trip up country, a group of armed militia pulled a hitchhiker out of my car and shot him on the spot. They said he was a deserter. On my third trip I saw the beginning of a gang rape; 20 armed men ripping a woman's clothes off and dragging her into a shed." Although it appears the 14-year civil war is now over, the rebel groups that fought Taylor are engaged in their own power struggle; and as Radio Netherlands Vincent ‘t Sas found out when he travelled to Liberia, savagery and fear still rule parts of the West African nation.

The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said on Wednesday it was talking with the authorities in neighbouring countries to prevent Liberian combatants from crossing the border with their weapons to escape disarmament. UNMIL Deputy Force commander Major General Joseph Owonibi told reporters that a delegation from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) would arrive in Monrovia on Saturday to discuss ways of preventing weapons from crossing the border.

Recent security incidents in Liberia have led humanitarian agencies, including UNHCR, to temporarily reassess some operations in the country, including the relocation of displaced people near the capital, Monrovia. Over the last two days, there have been reports of random shooting, banditry and looting of humanitarian supplies in various areas of Liberia, caused by former combatants dissatisfied with the terms of an ongoing disarmament programme.