UN panel to present findings on 11 April

The United Nations panel of experts appointed in March to assess Liberia’s compliance with Security Council resolutions to end support to Sierra Leonean dissidents, will present a report of its findings to the UN Secretariat on 11 April, a member of the panel told IRIN on Friday.

The four member panel was due to leave on Friday the Liberian capital, Monrovia, after completing a one week visit. "It was a short mission but we were able to meet almost everybody we wanted to meet, from ministers to civil society members, militias, miners and security personnel. Now we are going to start writing the report", Harjit Singh Sandhu of India said.

Other members of the panel are Atabou Bodia of Senegal, Johan Peleman of Belgium, and Alex Vines of the United Kingdom. Sandhu said it was too early to discuss their preliminary findings.

The panel was appointed on 8 March by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, following a Security Council decision to conduct an independent audit of the Liberian government’s observance of the resolutions, which called on the West African country to end financial and military support to the now defunct Revolutionary United Front (RUF), expel the rebels, and outlaw their activities.

The Liberian authorities have repeatedly claimed that they have abided by the resolution and that since war had ended in Sierra Leone, the resolutions which led to the UN imposing sanctions on their country, were no longer justified.

UN sanctions imposed on Liberia in 2001 included the extension of an arms embargo, a travel ban on senior government officials and their immediate families, and an embargo on the export of rough diamonds.

The panel arrived in Monrovia, on 31 March and was met at the airport by some 1,000 placard-carrying protesters, calling for the sanctions to be lifted, news agencies reported.