POLITICS: U.N. Chides Liberia for Violating Arms Embargo

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 30 2002 (IPS) - Liberia has violated a United Nations arms embargo using a complex ploy of disguising weapons shipments as mining equipment bound for another country, says a 64-page report released on Wednesday.

The clandestine shipments, which included the delivery of more than 200 tons of weapons in six Ukrainian-crewed cargo aircraft between June and August this year, came mostly from Yugoslavia.

The weapons included rotor engines and spare blades for military helicopters, hundreds of missile launchers, thousands of automatic rifles, an assortment of machine guns and over 1.2 million cartridges, said the report by a four-member panel of U.N. experts

”To avoid detection of these arms transfers and to obtain clearance for the flights, a sophisticated trail of double documentation was set up,” the experts said.

The arms were officially destined to Nigeria but were diverted to Liberia using false ”end-user certificates”, which usually accompany weapons shipments. The illicit arm deals involved a non-existent Nigerian company and a number of middlemen and brokers.

All 200 tons of military equipment were described in the cargo manifest as ”mine drilling equipment”.

After nearly eight years of factional fighting, Liberia held its presidential and legislative elections in July 1997, followed by the installation of a new government in August.

Charles Ghankay Taylor was elected president and his National Patriotic Party won 21 of the 26 Senate seats, and 49 of the 64 seats in the House of Representatives.

In his inaugural address, Taylor emphasised reconciliation, the protection of human rights, national unity and the urgent need to rebuild Liberia’s war-shattered economy.

But Taylor has been accused of funding and arming the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel group trying to oust the democratically elected government in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

”They enjoy the patronage of the Liberian government and continue to play an important part in Liberia’s military capability,” the experts said.

In December last year, Liberia announced a national budget of about 92 million dollars for 2001-2002. According to the Liberian government and the International Monetary Fund, military spending accounts for about 50 percent of the budget.

Officials of the Liberian Mission to the United Nations were not available to comment on the report.

Last year the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding that the government of Liberia ”immediately cease” all financial and military support for the RUF and other armed rebel groups in the region.

Liberia’s arms purchases are being funded mostly from diamonds illegally extracted from Sierra Leone and whose sales are banned by the United Nations.

The Security Council imposed sanctions on Liberia in 1992 but these were strengthened in 2001 to include, among others, a ban on travel outside the country by all senior government officials.

In its 57-year history, the United Nations has imposed sanctions on 13 member states: Afghanistan, Angola, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa (during the apartheid regime), Southern Rhodesia, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia (a second time after its break-up).

Of these, sanctions have been fully lifted only in the case of Haiti, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and the former Yugoslavia.

A recent study, The Politics of Sanctions, by the International Peace Academy, the Centre for International Studies and Research and the Royal Institute of International Affairs says that a notable development in recent years is the establishment of sanctions committees, panels of experts and humanitarian impact assessments to review sanctions regimes.

But ”much of the implementation depends, however, on domestic enforcement, which has been largely unregulated”, the study said.

A 274-page book titled The Sanctions Decade, published by the New York-based International Peace Academy last year, called for a new U.N. policy on sanctions.

"Sanctions too often suffer from poor design, loose commitment from member states, inadequate monitoring, and lax enforcement," it said.

In its study on Liberian sanctions, the panel of experts say that the arms embargo on Liberia should continue and be regularly monitored for violations.

But the United Nations has said it does not have the staff or the logistical support to monitor any of its sanctions regimes, except Iraq.

The panel has also recommended that the embargo should be extended to all armed non-state actors in the region, including rebel groups.

POLITICS: U.N. Chides Liberia for Violating Arms Embargo

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 30 2002 (IPS) - Liberia has violated a United Nations arms embargo using a complex ploy of disguising weapons shipments as mining equipment bound for another country, says a 64-page report released on Wednesday.
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