First, a Dutch court recently sentenced Gus Kouwenhoven, a Dutch businessman, to eight years in prison after being found guilty of smuggling arms into Liberia during the war. Kouwenhoven, however, was acquitted of war crimes charges. The prosecution and defense are both appealing the verdicts. This Reuters article says that Charles Taylor will be testifying for the defense in their appeal. Anyone have more information on this? Does Taylor have any incentive to testify on this guy’s behalf aside from old camaraderie?

Second, this Inquirer article talks about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s State of the Nation address. In her speech Sirleaf called for a review of the current constitution. According to The Inquirer, “among some of the possible issues for consideration are land reform, the election of Superintendents, City Mayors and other county officials as well as the tenure of the office of the President, Vice President and members of the National Legislature.” If anyone has seen the text of the speech, I am interested to know if she mentioned the provision in the constitution that prohibits people who are not of Negro descent from becoming citizens, even if they were born in Liberia.