UN sanctions come into force

New UN Security Council sanctions against Liberia were scheduled to enter into force on Monday after Monrovia failed to show that it had complied with the Council’s demands that it stop supporting and trading with Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Council President James Cunningham of the United States told reporters in New York on Friday that Council members had concluded, in a closed-doors meeting on the UN Secretary-General’s report on Liberia, that the Liberian government had not taken sufficient steps to comply. The new sanctions include a ban on direct or indirect import of all rough diamonds from Liberia, and a travel ban on senior government officials and their spouses. Cunningham said the sanctions were aimed at Liberian leaders and not the people. On 7 March, the Council gave Liberia two months to show it had severed links with the RUF. Liberia said that, to this end, it had expelled RUF officials, frozen their accounts in Liberian banks and placed a moratorium on the import of diamonds from conflict regions. Monrovia also says it has banned the export of Liberia’s own diamonds. The private Kiss FM radio in Monrovia quoted President Charles Taylor as saying on Saturday that the sanctions would have a “negative impact on the West African subregion”, AFP reported. He described the measure as “unjust and illegitimate” and said it was taken without consideration of the views of the OAU and the Economic Community of West African States.