October 12, 2001
Fresh U.N. sanctions on Liberia could harm hundreds of thousands of poor Liberians and do serious damage to the West African nation's already ailing government and economy, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Liberia is already struggling under a U.N. embargo on diamond exports and a travel ban on President Charles Taylor and his associates, and additional measures would hit hard at jobs, social services and government spending, said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
His report to the 15-nation Security Council looked at possible bans on Liberian timber and rubber exports and restrictions on its ship registry.
It concluded each of these would affect the country's poor the most, ''given that their resilience and coping capabilities are next to exhausted.'' The existing sanctions took effect on May 7.
The Security Council approved them after an expert panel concluded Liberia was fueling civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone through a deadly arms-for-diamonds trade with the rebel Revolutionary United Front.
Annan's report said a ban on Liberian timber trade could destroy as many as 10,000 relatively well-paid jobs, depriving some 90,000 to 95,000 people of their primary means of support.
It also would deprive the government of about 9 percent of the national budget, which could lead to income tax hikes, higher prices on imported goods and an inability to pay government workers, the report said.
A ban on Liberian rubber exports would hit the working population harder, costing an estimated 25,000 jobs and depriving some 225,000 people of their primary means of support. It would put about as big a dent in government revenues as would a timber ban, Annan reported.
While restrictions on Liberia's ship registry would affect fewer than 100 jobs, it would hit the national budget harder, as fees from the 1,600 ships currently flying the Liberian flag amount to $18 million a year, the report said.
Liberia is one of the world's poorest nations and the existing sanctions regime has already triggered hoarding, discouraged investment and weakened the Liberian dollar, driving up the cost of imported goods such as rice and medicines, Annan said.
Any tightening would do more harm to exchange rates and further cut into savings and investment, he said.
The impact is exaggerated by an aggressive Liberian public relations campaign blaming the sanctions for the country's economic and political woes, Annan said. ''Even critics of the Liberian government believe that the government campaign is effective.''
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