From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Liberia Hit With UN Sanctions May 4, 2001 [As NATO completes the recolonization of western Africa] by DANIEL COONEY Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against Liberia on Friday for failing to sever its ties with rebels in Sierra Leone. Acting U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham, who is the current Security Council president, said the sanctions would go into effect May 7 and would ban the import of diamonds from Liberia and travel by senior Liberian officials. On Wednesday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the United Nations had received unconfirmed reports that Liberia was still supporting Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels. ''The sanctions are limited and are targeted to the leadership of Liberia,'' Cunningham said, adding that they are designed not to worsen the humanitarian situation in the country. ''The government of Liberia has a key role to play in a prolongation of the conflict and that's what the sanctions are intended to address.'' The Liberian government has said it was closing RUF offices, expelling all RUF members including notorious rebel leader Sam Bockarie, and freezing rebel assets. It also grounded all Liberian-registered aircraft and banned the import of all diamonds without proper certification, as demanded by the council. The Liberian government complained the United Nations ignored its efforts. ''We met all the demands but the United Nations did not send a team to verify our compliance,'' said Information Minister Reginald Goodridge, speaking in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. However, Annan said that reports from the United Nations and other agencies in the region indicated the government of Liberia was unable to prove that the RUF members had left Liberian territory and that other support had ended. Goodridge complained the United Nations did not wait to hear from a Liberian delegation led by Foreign Minister Monie Kapdan . The delegation left Thursday and had not arrived in New York when the decision was taken. ''We thought our delegation would have been given a chance to form a part of the discussion,'' Goodridge said. ''We don't understand why the rush.'' The Security Council authorized the diamond and travel sanctions on March 7, but delayed their implementation for two months in a final attempt to get Liberia to stop the military and financial support that has allowed the RUF to wage a decade-long war against the Sierra Leone government. The sanctions prevent Liberian officials and their spouses from traveling overseas and bar other countries from importing diamonds from Liberia -- a major source of funding for the rebel movement. Since 1991, the RUF has terrorized Sierra Leone, killing and mutilating tens of thousands of civilians in a struggle largely aimed at taking control of lucrative diamond fields. The United Nations has 12,160 peacekeepers in Sierra Leone -- its largest peacekeeping mission -- and the Security Council voted recently to boost the mission to 17,500 troops. Britain's U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said the sanctions were needed to end the conflict in the region. ''We have got to bring peace to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea,'' said Greenstock. ''We have a policy on that, that policy is to force the RUF to stop fighting.'' A peace accord in Sierra Leone, signed in 1999, collapsed last May when rebels kidnapped some 500 U.N. troops and advanced toward the capital, Freetown. The troops were subsequently released, and Foday Sankoh, the rebels' charismatic founder, was captured by pro-government forces. Since a new cease-fire was signed last November, fighting has subsided in Sierra Leone, and U.N. troops have deployed in some rebel-held areas. But the rebels have continued to block U.N. and government access to the lucrative diamond mines that have fueled their 10-year campaign, and are accused of cross-border raids in neighboring Guinea. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
