Liberia: Security Council Decides To Maintain Sanctions

Despite appeals from the top U.N. envoy to Liberia and the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) to lift embargoes on diamonds and timber, the U.N. Security Council decided that peace in the West African country was still too fragile to lift the sanctions. "The members of the council emphasized that continuation of the measures on Liberia was not meant to be punitive for the NTGL and the Liberian people, but to ensure that the peace process was irreversible," said the council president for June, Ambassador Lauro L. Baja Jr. of the Philippines.