Security Council wants total break with RUF rebels

The only way to ensure and maintain lasting peace in Sierra Leone is for Liberia to stop supporting the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a UN panel of experts said on Monday. The panel's chairman, Martin Ayafor, told the UN Security Council that implementing its earlier proposals would help further the peace process in the Mano River region, which consists of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. He was presenting the report of the panel, which investigated violations of the UN arms embargo against Liberia. When the panel began its investigation in mid-April there were active hostilities in the Mano River region, Ayafor said. Six months on, the situation has improved, but there is still active conflict in Lofa County, northwestern Liberia, and the possibility of Sierra Leone lapsing back into conflict if the RUF refuses to release its hold on some of the best diamond areas, he added. Disarmament is due to begin in mid-November in eastern Sierra Leone's diamond districts of Kenema and Kailahun. The panel, which was appointed by the UN Secretary-General, has also been investigating violations of the international ban on the export of Liberian diamonds and on travel by senior officials of the Liberian government. The Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Ed Tsui, also told the Council that the fragile situation in Liberia could be worsened if sanctions were not accompanied by an increased donor response. He added that the Council should take into account the effect the sanctions will have on the most vulnerable Liberian people. Liberia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Monie Captan, said the experts' report was devoid of any substantive relevance, and covered activities that preceded the adoption of UN resolution 1343. It did not address in any meaningful way the question of compliance by the government nor did it concentrate on the measurable progress made to achieve the objectives of the resolution, Captan said. The sanctions imposed under resolution 1343 are aimed at forcing Liberia to sever links with the RUF.