Government grounds aircraft

Liberia has grounded all aircraft registered in the country until their owners provide proof of being in compliance with state regulations and the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, according to news reports. The Ministry of Information, which announced the restriction, urged aviation authorities worldwide to help Liberia enforce the grounding order. The Ministry of Transport has also revoked the appointments of agents who had been acting on behalf of government in the registration and inspection of aircraft. One prominent agent mentioned in a UN report on illegal arms and diamonds operations in Sierra Leone is Kenyan national Sanjivan Ruprah. He was authorised in November 1999 by the Liberian Minister of Transport to act as the global civil aviation agent for the Liberian Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority, the UN report said. The government’s action follows publication of the report, that identified Liberia-registered aircraft as being active in the illegal transport of arms bound for Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone. The report, released in December 2000, noted that many of the aircraft bearing the Liberian registration, EL, were based in Angola, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Rwanda, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. “Many aircraft flying under the Liberian flag, therefore, are apparently unknown to Liberian authorities and are, therefore, never inspected or seen in the country,” the UN report said. A Liberia watcher told IRIN on Monday that the government’s action was a two-pronged response to the UN report: to discredit that part of it that directly implicates President Charles Taylor in diamond dealing, and another part that the government felt accuses third parties of involvement. “The problem with this kind of approach is that it puts the government in a Catch-22 situation,” the analyst said. “Implementing some of the report’s recommendations is a tacit admission of its conclusions while failure to do could attract more punitive sanctions.”