Liberia still too 'fragile' to lift sanctions, Security Council President says

The President of the United Nations Security Council today said the security situation in Liberia was too fragile to lift sanctions imposed in 2001.

Ambassador Ismael Abraão Gaspar Martins of Angola, this month's President of the Council, told the press after a closed-door meeting the situation in Liberia "is still fragile."

Instead, he said, the Council had asked its sanctions committee "to do a more thorough and more comprehensive review," of the security situation in Liberia for further examination by the full 15-member body.

The sanctions are aimed at blocking arms imports to Liberia, diamond exports, and the travel of senior members of the government.

On 1 October the United Nations took over control of 3,500 soldiers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), stationed in Liberia since the government and rebels signed a ceasefire in August. The troops are the vanguard of what will eventually swell to a 16,000-strong UN peacekeeping operation.

Although the troop strength has increased with the addition of a battalion from Bangladesh, a UN spokesman in New York said Thursday the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) "is still not in a position to deploy troops throughout Liberia."

The spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said UNMIL "reports that the overall security situation in Monrovia is stable and improving, while the situation in other parts of the country, particularly in the areas still controlled by the two major rebel groups, remains volatile."

In Liberia, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative, Jacques Paul Klein, noted "with great concern and dismay" reports of skirmishes between various warring factions, and of serious atrocities against civilians in the western county of Nimba. Mr. Klein said in a statement that it was clear that the fighting is between former Liberian Government militias and fighters from the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL).

Mr. Klein said that atrocities being committed against civilians constituted war crimes, for which all perpetrators would be held accountable, "since there is no amnesty for such crimes."

UNMIL is keeping a record of all those who commit atrocities against civilians for possible future prosecution, Mr. Klein added.