UN renews DRC arms sanctions
2006-08-01 08:31
New York - The United Nations security council on Monday renewed for another year an embargo on weapons destined to foreign and domestic armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The resolution, adopted unanimously, extended until July 31 2007 the embargo on weapons headed to fighters in eastern parts of the country.
The measure also asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to renew for the same period the mandate of a group of country experts charged with overseeing the embargo.
The resolution also asked the experts to include in an upcoming report, due on December 20, recommendations on measures to be taken to halt the illegal exploitation of the DRC's natural resources to fund the armed groups in the country: diamonds, leather, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium, niobium and tantalum.
The council resolution also subjected political and military leaders who had enlisted child soldiers or who had committed human rights violations to individual sanctions such as travel bans and the seizure of assets.
Such sanctions had so far been imposed on political and military leaders of armed groups or the DRC militias who stood in the way of disarmament and the voluntary re-integration of their fighters into society.