April 23, 2002
The UN Security Council (UNSC) said on Monday that it would review sanctions against the Liberian government by 6 May after further discussions within the UN Sanctions Committee on Liberia.
The Committee briefed the UNSC on Monday on the findings of a panel of experts mandated to probe the Liberian government's compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1343 of March 2001 under which sanctions were imposed on Monrovia for its links with the former rebel Revolutionary United Front in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
The panel recommended the maintenance of an arms embargo imposed during the 1990s at the height of Liberia's civil war and extended by Resolution 1343 because, it said, there was credible evidence that the government was buying weapons in violation of the restrictions. It, however, recommended the review of other sanctions such as a travel ban on top Liberian officials.
The Committee, which was set up under resolution 1343, is scheduled to hold further discussions on the Liberian government's compliance with or violation of the resolution before reporting again to the UNSC.
Liberia sent a team to the UN headquarters in New York to attend the Security Council hearings, news agencies reported. Foreign Minister Monie Captan, who led the team, was quoted by PANA as saying there was "no justification" for continuing the sanctions and that "any consideration of sanctions would undermine the Security Council's credibility in the eyes of the Liberian people".
Meanwhile BBC reported an outbreak of fighting in Belefanai, northwestern Liberia, over the weekend. It said 6,000 people who had been living in camps after fleeing previous fighting between government and rebels, fled the weekend skirmishes.
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