Liberia: Security Council reviews sanctions, discusses draft text for Monday's vote

After meeting in closed-door consultations to review the sanctions imposed on Liberia for its support for the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone and other armed groups in the region, the United Nations Security Council today said it had also discussed a draft resolution that it intended to vote on next Monday.

During the consultations, the Council heard a briefing by a senior UN official on the latest report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Liberia’s compliance with the measures imposed by the Council in March 2001 by resolution 1343, Council President Kishore Mahbubani said in a statement to the press after the meeting.

In the report, the Secretary-General, in part, says that while the Mano River Union countries have been holding a series of meetings to find a permanent solution to the region's crisis, greater efforts are still needed to restore lasting peace in Liberia,

Mr. Annan reports that starting with a summit in February of the leaders of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which was hosted by Morocco, several other meetings at the technical and ministerial levels have also been convened and that a second Rabat summit meeting has reportedly been scheduled for this month.

Moreover, efforts are being made to find a solution to the current fighting within Liberia with a view to achieving national reconciliation and, ultimately, lasting peace in the country, Mr. Annan says. He notes that a pre-reconciliation conference was held in March, under the auspices of ECOWAS, between Government representatives and members of opposition political parties, civil society and religious and community leaders, in preparation for a full-fledged national reconciliation conference in Monrovia in July.

"Much remains to be done to restore sustainable peace in Liberia, whose stability is essential for the stability of the wider Mano River Union," the Secretary-General writes. "I have no doubt that the Council, as it considers the appropriate follow-up to resolution 1343, will take stock of developments and strive towards consolidating the momentum that the Rabat summit, in particular, seems to have generated."