Meeting to prepare for weapon destruction

The presidents of Nigeria and Liberia have asked ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate to make preparations for the destruction of 30 containers of arms and ammunition seized at the end of Liberia’s civil war, the community said in a statement on Monday. Kouyate will attend a meeting about this on Thursday in Monrovia. The arms destruction falls within the framework of moratorium on the import, export and manufacture of light arms in West Africa which was adopted at an ECOWAS summit on 31 October 1998, ECOWAS said. The moratorium aims principally to reduce the proliferation of such weapons which pose a threat to the stability of the region. Liberian President Charles Taylor announced last Thursday in a nationwide address that a special committee would be set up to implement the decision to destroy the weapons. The weapons were collected from various Liberian warring factions after the civil war by ECOMOG and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). The arms are stored in the former ECOMOG base in Monrovia.