"Liberia continues to consolidate its progress and the Security
Council has determined that the criteria for lifting the sanctions have
been met, allowing us to fully terminate the (sanctions) regime," he
said.
The United Nations logo is displayed on a door at U.N. headquarters in New York February 26, 2011.
The United Nations Security Council voted on Wednesday to end sanctions and an arms embargo on Liberia, citing the West African country's successful stabilization more than a decade after a 14-year civil war that killed nearly 250,000 people.
The unanimously adopted resolution by the 15-nation council welcomed "the sustained progress made by the government of Liberia in rebuilding Liberia for the benefit of all Liberians."
U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations David Pressman
welcomed the move, saying the targeted sanctions on key individuals,
the arms embargo and a ban on the export of Liberian timber and rough
diamonds had contributed to Liberia's stability.
"Liberia
continues to consolidate its progress and the Security Council has
determined that the criteria for lifting the sanctions have been met,
allowing us to fully terminate the (sanctions) regime," he said.
Washington
wanted to see Liberia continue to strengthen its security agencies to
ensure better arms flow monitoring and border patrols, he added.
The
decision formally dissolves the U.N. Liberia sanctions committee and
panel of experts that monitored implementation of the arms embargo and
other measures, most of which had been in place since 2003.
The U.N. first implemented a type of arms embargo for Liberia in 1992.
Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor,
began the 1989-2003 civil war in the nation, which was founded by
descendants of freed American slaves. He was sentenced in 2012 to 50
years in prison for his role in atrocities committed in neighboring
Sierra Leone during its 1991-2002 civil war.
The Security Council last year lifted a travel ban and asset freezes on individuals deemed a danger to Liberia's stability.
The United States lifted its own economic sanctions on Liberia in November.
Concern
about the use of Liberian "blood diamonds" to help fund the civil war
helped inspire the creation of the U.N.-backed Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme, a program to certify the origins of diamonds that
was set up in 2002 following devastating civil wars in Angola, Sierra
Leone and Liberia. The system has made it far more difficult to traffic
in conflict diamonds.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon also welcomed the end of sanctions on Liberia, calling it
another signal of progress made by Liberia and the sub-region in
maintaining stability, spokesman Farhan Haq said.
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