AU: Lift sanctions on Liberia

2005-07-25 14:08

Addis Ababa - The African Union commission recommended on Monday lifting United Nations economic sanctions against Liberia to help finance reconstruction, despite widespread government corruption.

Later on Monday, the AU's second most important decision-making body, the peace and security council, was to discuss a new report, containing the recommendation.

AU commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said in the report new thinking on the sanctions was needed to allow the government to use its natural resources to revive the economy.

"This is to allow the state to avail itself of its resources in one form or the other to rebuild its structures of governance and be in a position to provide basic services and ensure the human security of its people," he said.

Some restrictions would still be needed to ensure any revenue raised by lifting the embargo would not be used to buy new weapons, the report said.

In June, The United Nations security council voted to extend sanctions on Liberian diamonds, timber trade and an arms embargo for six months, until December 21, saying the country's transitional government had failed to control illicit trade in its valuable resources.

"Widespread corruption"

The council approved the bans in May 2001 after determining that former President Charles Taylor had helped rebels in Sierra Leone fight the government there. Taylor fled into exile in Nigeria in August 2003, paving the way for the transitional government.

Self-serving former warlords make up much of Liberia's transitional government, which is "saddled with widespread corruption", Konare said in the report.

Liberia's judiciary is "rife with favouritism and prejudice" and some of the newly trained police force is also corrupt, he said.

Founded by freed American slaves in the mid-19th century, Liberia, with a population of 3.5 million people, is struggling to recover from nearly 14 years of warfare that ended with Taylor's fall.

- AP