UN sanctions on Liberia to be renewed

2003-05-06 09:19

New York - The security council is expected to adopt a resolution on Tuesday to renew UN sanctions against Liberia for 12 months, the British ambassador to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock, said on Monday.

Greenstock emerged from council consultations to tell reporters he had just submitted a draft resolution "that is expected to be adopted tomorrow, Tuesday," hours before the sanctions expire at midnight New York time.

The sanctions include an arms embargo, a ban on dealing in rough diamonds, and restrictions on air travel by senior Liberian government and military officials and their wives. They would be renewed immediately for 12 months.

The draft resolution, made available to AFP, would broaden the scope of the sanctions to include a ban on trade in Liberia's unsawn timber, a prime source of revenue for the government of President Charles Taylor. The ban would take effect on July 7 and run for 10 months.

The sanctions were originally imposed in 2001 to force Taylor's government to curb support for the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone. They were renewed on May 5 last year.

The draft text would also extend the sanctions to include the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd), a guerrilla group seeking to topple Taylor, with the support of neighbouring Guinea.

The council met to discuss a report by a panel of experts who declared that the conflict in Liberia itself now threatened several neighbouring countries.

"The region is awash with weapons," the report said, adding that several firms which it had accused of sanctions-busting in Liberia "have also delivered weapons to its neighbours, including conflict-torn Ivory Coast".

Greenstock said the proposed renewal of sanctions "is not just a signal of continuing criticism of Liberia - although that is necessary while Liberia has not yet fulfilled the requirements of the resolution".

It was "also a call to Liberia to look forward, to think positively, pursue the dialogue" with the United Nations, he said.

Human Rights Watch endorsed the renewal of sanctions, saying "the Liberian government and rebels have not stopped committing abuses in Liberia or in neighboring countries."

In a statement in New York, the director of HRW's Africa Division, Peter Takirambudde, said the group had documented numerous human rights abuses against civilians by the Liberian government and rebel groups in the past year.

These included summary executions, recruitment of child soldiers, sexual violence, looting of civilian property, and forced labour, he said.

"Liberian and Sierra Leonean combatants have also been implicated in serious human rights abuses across the border in western Ivory Coast," the statement added.

Greenstock is due to lead a delegation of council ambassadors on a week-long mission to West Africa, starting on May 15.

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast are among the seven countries on the ambassadors' itinerary. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA