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A UN team of experts arrived in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on Sunday, on a week-long mission to verify the government’s compliance with a 2001 UN resolution to end its support to Sierra Leonean dissidents, news organisations reported.
The resolution called for Liberia to end its financial and military support to the now defunct Revolutionary United Front (RUF), expel its members from Liberia and outlaw their activities in the country. Sanctions imposed by the UN on Liberia included the extension of an existing arms embargo; a travel ban on senior government officials and their immediate families; and an embargo on the export of rough dimaonds.
The panel of experts, Atabou Bodian (Senegal), Johan Peleman (Belgium), Harjit Singh Sandhu (India) and Alex Vines (United Kingdom) will compile "a brief independent audit" and report their findings to the UN Security Council.
Some 1,000 placard carrying protesters, calling for sanctions to be lifted, met the UN team at Roberts International Airport, the BBC reported. The Liberian authorities have repeatedly claimed that they have abided by the resolution and that since the war had ended in Sierra Leone, the reasons for which the sanctions were imposed no longer existed.
The RUF waged a 10-year war with successive Sierra Leonean governments, which was formally declared over in January 2002.
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