UN lifts all of Liberia sanctions in sign of support for progress

UN lifts all of Liberia sanctions in sign of support for progress

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday, May 25 to lift the last remaining sanctions on Liberia in a sign of support for the government's progress toward peace after two civil wars, the Associated Press reports.

The resolution adopted by the UN's most powerful body terminated an arms embargo on armed groups and dissolved the council committee and its panel of experts that monitored Liberian sanctions.

Liberia was battered by civil wars that left 200,000 people dead and displaced half of the country's 3 million people.

The Security Council imposed arms and diamond embargoes on Liberia in 2001 to stop government revenues from those industries from being used to fuel the war and in 2003 it added a ban on a major export, timber. The timber sanctions were lifted in 2006 and the diamond sanctions in 2007, AP says.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the termination of the targeted sanctions, saying this "further signals the significant progress made by Liberia and the sub-region in maintaining stability," his spokesman said.

U.S. deputy ambassador David Pressman said Wednesday was a day to "celebrate" Liberia's transition toward peace and security and the council's role in helping to restore stability more than 12 years after the end of the country's "brutal civil war."

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