Government continues campaign for sanctions against Liberia

Guinea’s government continued to press this week for the imposition of sanctions against Liberia. UN Security Council Resolution 1343, adopted on 7 March, provides for sanctions but gives Liberia until May to avert them by ending all support for rebel groups fighting the governments of neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone. Guinean Foreign Minister Camara Adja Mahawa Bangoura told the diplomatic corps on Wednesday: “I am calling on your respective countries not only to support Resolution 1343, but also to see to its entire implementation.” Bangoura, whose remarks were carried on Radio Guinea, said her government also wanted “the extension of these sanctions to Liberian timber and rubber, which are also equally important sources of funding”. Liberia’s government said this week that it had complied with the resolution.