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UN c
hief Kofi Annan's special representative in Liberia, Jacques
Klein, yesterday said he would recommend the immediate lifting of
UN sanctions imposed on the regime of former Liberian president
Charles Taylor.
Klein told reporters that the sanctions, which included an arms
embargo and had been imposed on Taylor's administration since 2001,
should be lifted to allow the country to rebuild after years of
bitter fighting.
"The process of healing in Liberia must begin now," he said.
"I will try to go back to the UN (Security Council) and get them
lifted as quickly as possible," he said.
But he expressed concern that the number of west African Ecomil
peacekeepers deployed here for little over a week were woefully
inadequate for the task ahead.
"To be candid, we don't have the amount of troops we need. We have
on the ground some 770 Nigerian soldiers who are almost overwhelmed
by the task they have been asked to do," he said.
The eventual number of peacekeepers is estimated to go up to
between 3 000 and 5 000 but Klein said there was a "pressing need
to install a permanent task force".
He said that a UN assessment team would be brought in next week to
look at the situation on the ground and report to the UN Security
Council.
Klein stressed that Liberia, devastated by 14 years of almost
constant conflict, should now try to rebuild as soon as
possible.
"All Liberians have a role to play. Guns must be put aside. This
message must be understood on both sides," he added.
The UN Security Council in May extended the two-year-old sanctions
on Liberia for another 12 months.
The sanctions also include a ban on trade in rough diamonds and
restrictions on air travel by senior Liberian government and
military officials and their wives.
Resolution 1478, adopted unanimously by the 15 UN Security Council
members in May, also extended the sanctions to include a ban on
exports of unsawn timber, a prime source of revenue for the Taylor
government.
The sanctions were originally imposed in 2001 to force Taylor's
erstwhile government to stop its support for the rebel
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone.
They were renewed a first time on May 5, 2002.
The RUF gained notoriety for its brutality in the civil war in
Sierra Leone, which was formally declared ended in January last
year.
Taylor, who on Monday stepped down as the Liberian president and
fled into exile in Nigeria, had strenuously denied allegations that
he had funded and armed the RUF rebels in return for the so-called
"blood diamonds" they mined.
Klein also said that Taylor, a brutal warlord who has been indicted
for war crimes by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone, could do great
damage to the ongoing peace efforts from exile.
"My concern is actually that Taylor with a cellphone is still a
government in exile," he said, adding that the former president
should abide by the conditions imposed by Nigeria, which offered
him asylum, and remain completely apolitical. – Sapa-AFP.
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