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Liberia Ready to Allow UN Troops to Monitor Its Borders
The Liberian government Wednesday announced that it is ready to allow the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to monitor Liberia's borders for evidence of arms or diamonds trade, according to reports reaching here from Liberia's capital Monrovia.
"We are proposing to the Secretary General Kofi Annan to extend UNAMSIL's mandate in Sierra Leone to Liberia," Lewis Brown, President Charles Taylor's adviser on political affairs, was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Liberian Mines Ministry said the government has imposed a ban on the exportation of diamonds for a period of 120 days with immediate effect.
The statement said the ban would "allow the government of Liberia (to) put in place a certificate of origin (system) for diamonds which is internationally verifiable and transparent".
The latest moves of the Liberian government is regarded as an effort to prove that it has pulled out its support for the Sierra Leonean rebels after the U.N. Security Council last month announced a two-month postponement to impose sanctions on the west African country.
However, Sierra Leone and Guinea had called the UN Security Council for sanctions on Liberia, saying that Liberia is going on with its support for Sierra Leone's rebels as well as armed rebel groups in Guinea. The UN Security Council is musing on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Liberia.
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