| |
Contributions from
the Column
Monitor
Development finance: New confidence in emerging markets
WHO Commission: patents harm health
Increasing arms expenditure
Too early to lift Liberia embargo, says NGO
Somalia: Mogadishu’s new rulers
GTZ gets more business from abroad
What the UN wants the world to know more about
Drug eradication: The limits of „alternative development“
07/2006
|
|
Too early to lift Liberia embargo, says NGO
The organisation Global Witness, which deals with war economies and the illegal exploitation of natural resources, has spoken out against lifting the embargo on diamonds and tropical timber from Liberia too hastily. A report presented by the organisation at the beginning of June claims that it is still too early to discontinue sanctions. The Liberian government has taken significant steps to take control of the diamond and timber sector, but has not yet met the conditions that the UN Security Council tied to lifting the embargo. The government does not yet have full control over the country’s exploitation of diamond and timber resources; parts of which, like some rubber plantations, are still in the hands of former civil-war combatants. Neither the government nor the UN mission in Liberia currently has a strategy in place to change this deplorable state of affairs. “UN sanctions should not be regarded as a punitive measure, but as a mechanism that can provide a breathing space to enable the government to complete the reform process,” maintains the report. (ell)
On the internet:
http://www.globalwitness.org
|
