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Liberian Govt. Urges UN to Review Travel Ban List
The Liberian government Wednesday called on the United Nations to review a list of 130 people restricted from traveling abroad under sanctions to punish Liberia 's leaders for fomenting war in neighboring Sierra Leone in the interest of diamonds, according to reports reaching in Lagos.
"The government of the Republic of Liberia has called upon the U.N. Security Council committee...to act to suspend the list...and to undertake a review," a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying in the capital of Monrovia.
The statement said the list, published last week and topped by President Charles Taylor, was based on out-of-date information and "fraught with numerous inaccuracies", adding that the government had sent a letter to the head of a U.N. panel monitoring the sanctions to claim the list was inaccurate.
The list of officials banned from traveling abroad also included Taylor's wife, son and two ex-wives as well as government officials, military commanders, businessmen and foreign nationals involved in gun-running.
The U.N. Security Council has imposed the sanctions on Liberia, including an arms ban and an embargo on diamond exports, saying that Liberia is involved in gun-running and diamond smuggling with rebels of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone that has been fueling war in that country for a decade.
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