UN sanctions committee chairman ends visit

The Chairman of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone, Hans Dahlgren, ended a four-day assessment tour of the country today (Thursday) designed to guage the effectiveness of sanctions against rebels, UN officials in the country said in a statement sent to IRIN. Dahlgren met President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, his deputy, other Sierra Leonean officials and the ECOMOG commander to discuss ways of tightening the arms, petroleum and travel embargoes on the ousted military junta and their families. There have been recent reports of white helicopters supplying arms to the rebels who operate mostly in northern and eastern Sierra Leone. Some government officials told Dahlgren the names of former junta members should be circulated and old passports issued by them retrieved, as a way of making the embargoes more effective. When ECOMOG restored Kabbah to power in February the UN lifted most sanctions on the current administration. Dahlgren left today for Liberia, which ECOMOG officials say has been supplying the rebels with arms. While Kabbah avoided naming any country, UN officials said, ECOMOG commander Major General Timothy Shelpidi told Dahlgren that Taylor should be confronted with the truth of his support for the rebels. Resident ministers and members of civil society in the Sierra Leonean towns of Bo and Kenema also told Dahlgren that Taylor should be urged to cooperate in controlling arms in the region, UN officials said. They called on the UN to establish a buffer zone between Sierra Leone and Liberia and monitor the situation at these borders and with Guinea.