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Sanctions lifted in Sierra Leone

By Greg Barrow
BBC correspondent at the United Nations


United Nations Security Council diplomats say they have agreed to lift sanctions on conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone.


Profits from diamond sales have fuelled wars in Africa
The move is a sign that the government in Freetown is making progress in controlling an illicit trade that once threatened to tear the country apart.

The sanctions that were imposed three years ago aimed to restrict the use of profits from the sale of diamonds to fund the purchase of weapons that would in turn escalate the civil conflict in Sierra Leone.

The Security Council appears to have decided that now it is up to the Sierra Leonean Government to take on the task of controlling the illegal trade, as it no longer poses a threat to international peace and security.

Controls on the sale of conflict diamonds are by no means perfect, one diplomat said.


But the current situation is a vast improvement on that of three years when the sanctions were first imposed.

The government in Freetown is still expected to receive bilateral assistance on this front from organisations like the World Bank.

Taylor's war crimes

The UN decision came just as the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal issued an indictment for the Liberian President, Charles Taylor.

He stands accused of bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone during the worst years of civil war in the 1990s.

He has been accused of arming brutal Sierra Leonean rebel groups in exchange for diamonds mined from the north of the country.

President Taylor was attending peace talks in Ghana when the indictment was issued, but left before being served with a warrant for his arrest.