Liberia: Guinea Flouts Arms Embargo

Embargoed for Release:
November 5, 2003
At 00:01 GMT
(For Wednesday's Newspapers)

Liberia: Guinea Flouts Arms Embargo
U.N. Security Council Member Facilitates Atrocities

(New York, November 5, 2003) - The government of Guinea violated the
United Nations arms embargo on Liberia and supplied weapons that
Liberian rebels used to commit atrocities, Human Rights Watch charged in
a briefing paper released today. On Thursday the U.N. Security Council,
of which Guinea is an elected member, is due to review the sanctions
regime on Liberia, which is in force until May.

"It's appalling that Guinea-a current member of the Security Council-has
flouted the arms embargo on Liberia," said Lisa Misol, arms researcher
with Human Rights Watch. "The Security Council must hold Guinea
accountable for this major breach."

The briefing paper, Weapons Sanctions, Military Supplies, and Human
Suffering:
Illegal Arms Flows to Liberia and the June-July 2003 Shelling of
Monrovia, documents the bloody assault on Liberia's capital, Monrovia.
The Guinea-backed rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and
Democracy (LURD), fought forces loyal to Liberian President Charles
Taylor. In the final offensive in July, LURD indiscriminately shelled
civilian areas. Scores of people were killed, and at least 2,000
more-overwhelmingly civilians-were injured.

Human Rights Watch investigated the supply of the mortar rounds fired by
LURD, which accounted for many of the casualties, and found that the
rebel offensive was possible only because fresh arms supplies arrived
through Guinea. Guinea's Ministry of Defense ordered mortars and other
ammunition from Iran and arranged their onward transport to LURD.

"Guinea has blood on its hands," said Misol. "By supplying munitions to
the Liberian rebels, it not only breached an arms embargo, but also
became complicit in egregious violations of the laws of war."

One of the areas of central Monrovia hit worst in the shelling was the
U.S. Embassy compound, where thousands of displaced people sought
refuge. The U.S. government traced some of the mortar rounds to Guinea,
which is a recipient of U.S. military aid. Human Rights Watch called for
a suspension of U.S. and other military assistance to Guinea, in light
of its longstanding ties to LURD and reports that arms continue to flow
across the Guinea border for use by the rebels-despite the embargo.

On Thursday the Security Council will discuss a report by a U.N. panel
of experts investigating sanctions-busting in Liberia. The panel
repeatedly has raised suspicions about Guinea's role in the Liberian
civil war. In the briefing paper, Human Rights Watch directly implicates
Guinea's Ministry of Defense in illicit arms supplies to Liberia.

The former government of Charles Taylor and a second rebel group, the
Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), both of which like LURD have
a dismal human rights record, also were able to obtain weapons despite
the arms embargo, often with the help of regional allies. In August a
flight carrying an arms shipment for Taylor's government was intercepted
in Monrovia. The seized container was recently opened, and more than 22
tons of small arms and munitions were found.

"The Liberia example shows that arms embargoes are only as good as their
enforcement," Misol noted. "Liberia's fragile peace depends on a
reinvigorated response to sanctions-busting on all sides."

A peace deal for Liberia was signed in August after Taylor left for
exile in Nigeria. A transitional government of national unity took power
in Liberia on October 14. The warring factions have committed to disarm,
but skirmishes have broken out and the potential for renewed hostilities
remains.

The full text of the Human Rights Watch briefing paper is available at
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/arms/liberia/index.htm.

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Lisa Misol: +1-212-216-1265
In London, Alex Vines: +44-207-957-5713
In Brussels, Jean Paul Marthoz: +322-732-2009 (French)

--
Jeff Scott, Ph. D.
Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
Phone: +1-212-216-1834
Fax: +1-212-736-1300
http://www.hrw.org/africa/index.php
en français, http://www.hrw.org/french/africa/