Security Council wants review before sanctions can be lifted

The United Nations Security Council has called for "a more thorough and more comprehensive review" of the fragile security situation Liberia before sanctions that were imposed in 2001 can be lifted. Ismael Abraão Gaspar Martins of Angola, the Security Council president for November, told reporters in New York on Thursday that the organisation's sanctions committee had been asked to review the situation and present its findings to the full 15-member Council. Two years ago, the United Nations banned illicit diamond sales by Liberia, imposed an arms embargo and blocked travel by key officials of Liberia's former government led by Charles Taylor. The measures were taken in response to Liberia's alleged support for rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone. In May this year, the Security Council extended the sanctions for a further 12 months and added a new ban on timber exports, saying Taylor's government had failed to fully comply with its demands and had continued to violate the UN arms embargo. Taylor's government was angered by the decision. It said the Council decision was "puzzling, unfair, wrong and double standards targeted at destroying Liberia." The panel of UN experts that recommended the extension said Chinese timber companies were involved with the Liberian government and armed rebels in violating the arms embargo through a network of Serbian arms dealers, using fake documents. A rebel assault on the capital Monrovia and mounting international pressure forced Taylor to resign and leave Liberia for exile in Nigeria on 11 August. The rump of his government signed a peace agreement with two rebel movements a week later and a broad-based transitional government was sworn in on 14 October, with a mandate to organise elections in 2005. To restore security in the war-ravaged country, the UN approved a 15,000-strong peacekeeping force. So far, about 5,000 troops have arrived in the country. These are mostly deployed in and around the capital, Monrovia. A UN spokesman in New York, Stephane Dujarric, said on Thursday that while the overall security situation in Monrovia was stable and improving, the situation in other parts of the country, particularly in the areas still controlled by the two major rebel groups, remained volatile. "UNMIL is still not in a position to deploy troops throughout Liberia," Dujarric said.