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UN: SECURITY
COUNCIL REQUESTS PANEL TO ASSESS SITUATION IN LIBERIA:
21/6/2007 (MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 21
June 2007 –
The Security Council yesterday called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to
set up a panel of financial and diamond experts to renew investigations of
whether UN sanctions against Liberia are being broken after learning of
“credible allegations” that the notorious former president Charles Taylor
may still have access to considerable wealth.
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In a unanimous resolution,
the Council asked Mr. Ban to establish a panel of up to three members to
carry out a follow-up assessment mission in Liberia and neighbouring
countries to determine the effectiveness and impact of the measures
introduced against Mr. Taylor and others.
A Council
resolution in 2004 ordered all governments to freeze the assets of Mr.
Taylor and his immediate family and barred them from using
“misappropriated funds and property” to obstruct the restoration of
peace and stability in the region.
The panel, which
must be set up within a month, is expected to draw “as much as possible on
the expertise” of the existing panel of experts, whose mandate expired
yesterday, which monitors Liberia.
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That
group, in a report released earlier this month, found there are “credible
allegations” that Mr. Taylor – who is facing war crimes charges before the
Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) – has investments in Nigeria that have
been unfrozen. Mr. Taylor has called on the SCSL to cover his legal costs at his
trial, claiming he is indigent.
The
panel report also noted allegations “of a large sum of money being with
Charles Taylor at the time of his arrest in Nigeria” last year and his
continuing ties to a cell phone company in Liberia. It added that the Nigerian
Government had not allowed the panel to pursue the allegations and Liberia has
not adopted laws authorizing a freeze.
But in
its resolution yesterday, the Council lauded the “sustained progress” made
by the Liberian Government since January 2006, when the inauguration of a
democratically-elected president, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson, capped the peace
process envisaged in a 2003 peace accord ending the country’s bloody civil
war.
The
Government has made great strides “in rebuilding Liberia for the benefit of
all Liberians, with the support of the international community,” the 15-member
body noted.
The new
experts’ panel is also expected to probe the Government’s compliance with
the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, a mechanism introduced to prevent
so-called “blood diamonds” from reaching international markets.
Meanwhile,
the Council extended the mandate of the Group of Experts monitoring the arms
embargo in Côte d’Ivoire until 31 October, determining that the situation
there still constitutes a threat to regional peace and security.
This
Group was created in early 2005 to gather and analyze information on arms caches
and flows in the region, and was asked by the Council yesterday to submit a
written update before 15 October.
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Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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