OWN CORRESPONDENT, United Nations | Friday
CANADA has proposed that the UN Security Council create a team of experts to permanently monitor the sanctions regime applied against diamond and weapons smuggling that funds armed conflicts.
The best way to ensure a follow-up of UN sanctions is “establishing a permanent office … to monitor the sanctions,” Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Paul Heinbecker, told reporters on Thursday.
As head of the UN sanctions committee on Angola, Heinbecker presented a report by independent experts outlining violations of international sanctions by the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Earlier this week, another independent UN panel recommended a total embargo on diamonds coming from Liberia, accusing Monrovia of complicity in the diamond and arms trafficking that sustains the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Another panel is investigating the looting of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo by its neighbours.
“The same people are operating in Sierra Leone and in Angola and you can be sure that they are also operating in the Congo,” the Canadian ambassador said.
“There are considerable overlaps and it would make a lot of sense for the UN to give itself the capability to look at it generally rather than crisis by crisis,” he added.
Heinbecker gave the Security Council a draft resolution on Tuesday on a tracking system for precious goods that incorporates a similar French proposal, diplomats said.
Unlike Canada’s insistence on enforcing the sanctions regime, France wants to restrict the traffic of precious goods during armed conflicts.
The idea is to create “a permanent tool” to track diamond and weapons smuggling operations that finance conflicts in Africa, said French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte. – AFP