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UN Sanctions Rack Liberians: President
Liberian President Charles Taylor has said the United Nations sanctions on Liberia for allegedly fomenting war in neighboring Sierra Leone have been racking his countrymen, according to reports reaching here on Wednesday from the country's capital Monrovia.
"Sanctions are terrible. It hurts our people. We are beginning to see the effects. As a result of the sanctions, the Liberian government is losing income due to the ban on exportation of diamonds," Taylor was quoted by his own radio station Kiss FM as saying on Tuesday.
The president said that 1.5 million Liberians, about half the population in the west African country, will be affected by the diamond ban.
Taylor currently tops a list of 130 people barred from foreign travel, which was published by the U.N. on Tuesday.
The U.N. Security Council alleged that Liberia is involved in gun-running and diamond smuggling with rebels of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, who have been fueling war in that country for a decade.
However, Taylor argued in the radio that the accusation against Liberia by the international community is intended to destabilize his government, making it ungovernable and causing chaos in the country.
The U.N. additional sanctions on Liberia came into force on May 7 because the U.N. said that Liberia did not do enough to avoid being sanctioned.
The 12-month sanctions ban Liberia's diamond exports and restrict foreign travel by its senior officials, is aimed at punishing Liberia and Taylor in particular. The U.N. imposed an arms embargo on the west African country on March 7.
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