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UN Proposes Tougher Arms Embargo Against Taliban
A new United Nations monitoring mechanism has been proposed to strengthen the international arms embargo against the Taliban and keeping track of terrorist camps in Afghanistan.
The proposal, on which members of the UN Security Council held a day-long debate Tuesday, is contained in a report submitted by a group of experts set up by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the request of the Security Council, according to a press release here.
The five-member group recommended the creation of a UN office that would employ teams to work with various border control and counter-terrorism services in the six states neighboring Afghanistan, said the press release.
It said that the office would also employ specialists in combating illegal arms and drugs trafficking, money laundering and terrorist activities.
While elaborating the report, Ambassador Alfonso Vladivieso of Colombia, chairman of the Council's sanctions committee on Afghanistan, urged the Council to respond quickly to the recommendations of the group, saying "we must act as soon as possible."
At the close of the debate, Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury of Bangladesh, the current rotating president of the Security Council, said the 15-member U.N. body would "consider the recommendations contained in the report by the committee of experts for action."
The U.N. sanctions against the Taliban were originally imposed under a U.N. resolution adopted in October 1999, to prompt the hand-over of Saudi dissident Usama bin Laden to face trial in the United States on terrorism charges and the closure of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
The measures, tightened in last December, include an arms embargo, diplomatic sanctions and a flight ban which exempts humanitarian goods.
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