UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 21 (AP) – Evidence of Liberian President Charles Taylor’s involvement in illegal diamond and arms trafficking with Sierra Leone’s rebels is “100 percent” solid, the top diamond expert on a U.N.-appointed panel said Wednesday.
The panel called Tuesday for an embargo on all diamonds from Liberia until it demonstrates that it is no longer involved in trafficking gems from Sierra Leone – and trafficking arms to the war-ravaged West African nation.
Taylor on Wednesday insisted his administration was not involved in any diamond smuggling or gun-running for Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebels, with whom he has close ties.
But the panel’s report accused the Liberian president of actively fueling the nine-year civil war in Sierra Leone, and with a small coterie of officials and businessmen, of controlling “a covert sanctions-busting apparatus that includes international criminal activity and the arming of the RUF.”
“The sanctions-busting is fed by the smuggling of diamonds and the extraction of natural resources in both Liberia and areas under rebel control in Sierra Leone,” it said. “In addition, the sovereign right of Liberia to register planes and ships, and to issue diplomatic passports, is being misused in order to further the operations of this group.”
Ian Smillie of Canada, the diamond expert on the five-member panel, was asked Wednesday how strongly the panel believes in the evidence implicating Taylor.
“One hundred percent on both sides – the business of diamonds going out through Liberia … and the weapons going into Sierra Leone,” he said.
Smillie spoke outside the Security Council where the report had been expected to be formally introduced to the 15 members by Bangladesh’s U.N. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, chairman of the committee monitoring sanctions against Sierra Leone.
But in an indication of the sensitivity of the report’s findings, Ukraine objected, saying it wanted more time to study the report, western diplomats said. Chowdhury expressed disappointment that the report would not be presented at an open council meeting, complaining that this “works against transparency and openness.”
Ukraine is a major producer of weapons and its state-owned export company, Ukrspetsexport, is cited in a case study in the report of how shipments of arms got from Ukraine into RUF hands via Burkina Faso and Liberia. The report makes clear, though, that the company only sold the weapons after Burkina Faso’s defense ministry provided an end-user certificate.
One of the key recommendations of the report, however, could be troubling for Ukraine. It suggests that the Security Council consider slapping an embargo on weapons exports from specific producer countries, such as those in eastern Europe, to areas under regional or U.N. embargoes to stem the flow of arms.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, the current council president, was sympathetic to the Ukrainian request, diplomats said. “The committee on sanctions has to discuss it first and then the council would be ready to
receive the report as soon as the committee is ready,” he said.
The United Nations has banned diamond exports by rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone in a bid to strangle their ability to finance two of Africa’s most brutal conflicts. It put the spotlight on so-called “blood diamonds” earlier this year in a groundbreaking report that accused the presidents of Burkina Faso and Togo of accepting diamonds from Angola’s UNITA rebels in exchange for weapons or fuel. Both denied the allegations.
In July, the United States and Britain charged that the presidents of Liberia and Burkina Faso were helping Sierra Leone’s notorious rebels sell diamonds and buy sophisticated weapons.
Asked whether the panel found evidence against any other West African leaders, Smillie said: “We know Burkina Faso was part of the arrangement in breaking the arms embargo against Liberia. At what level that took place, I don’t know. Obviously, it had to happen at a fairly high level. You don’t fly a (plane) … used as a presidential jet by Charles Taylor … into Burkina Faso eight times, load it up with weapons, and fly out without a lot of people knowing at a very high level.”
Security Council consideration of the report is not expected immediately.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock didn’t say specifically that Liberia should be sanctioned for its behavior but said “if there are countries that are resisting the control of illegitimate activity, then I think the council will want to take action.”
A U.S. official said the report lays the groundwork for sanctions.
The panel called for all Liberian-registered aircraft to be grounded until they can be checked for their safety records and their registration since such aircraft were found to have been largely responsible for bringing weapons to the rebels.
“The Liberian government itself says that it doesn’t know about more than two-thirds of the aircraft that are flying around on its registry. There’s something seriously wrong with that,” Smillie said.
