SECURITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON LIBERIA MEETS WITH PANEL OF EXPERTS APPOINTED

BY RESOLUTION 1579 (2004) PRIOR TO PANEL’S TRAVEL TO LIBERIA

The Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1521 (2003) concerning Liberia held its fifth meeting on Friday, 4 February 2005.  At the meeting, the Committee’s incoming Chairman, Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Løj (Denmark), welcomed the members of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to resolution 1579 (2004), who introduced the Panel’s programme of work for its current mandate, which runs through 21 June 2005. 

At the meeting, the members of the Panel of Experts described to the Committee their approach to fulfilling the tasks assigned to them by the Security Council in paragraph 8 of resolution 1579 (2004), which include, among other things, the following:

-- to conduct a follow-up assessment mission to Liberia and neighbouring States, in order to investigate and compile a report on the implementation, and any violations, of the measures imposed by resolution 1521 (2003) (arms embargo, travel restrictions affecting individuals designated by the Committee, and prohibitions on the import of Liberian diamonds, round logs and timber products);

-- to assess the impact and effectiveness of the targeted assets freeze imposed by paragraph 1 of resolution 1532 (2004);

-- to assess the progress made towards meeting the conditions for the lifting of the measures, as set out in paragraph 5, 7 and 11 of resolution 1521 (2003);

-- to assess the humanitarian and socio-economic impact of the measures imposed by paragraphs 2, 4, 6 and 10 of resolution 1521 (2003).

The members of the Panel of Experts will be travelling to Liberia in the coming weeks, where they will hold meetings with individuals inside and outside the National Transitional Government and visit a number of relevant sites with a view to effectively carrying out their mandate.  In that connection the Committee wishes to emphasize that the role of the Panel is to fulfil the tasks set out in paragraph 8 of resolution 1579 (2004).  The members of the Committee also wish to underscore that it is within the mandate of the Committee to consider the reports of the Panel of Experts and to subsequently convey the views of the Committee to the Security Council.  Decisions related to the lifting or the continuation of the measures imposed by resolutions 1521 (2003) and 1532 (2004) fall solely within the purview of the Security Council.

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