Liberian Timber Profits Finance Regional Conflict

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(From: Blobal Witness)
Subject: FW: Global Witness Report and Press Release : Latest Liberia "outages"

Liberian Timber Profits Finance Regional Conflict
Immediate Release: 4 May 2001

Recent Global Witness investigations have found that two individuals 
involved in the illicit arms and diamond trade to Sierra Leone, also hold 
high-ranking positions within the Liberian government body assigned to 
oversee Liberia's million dollar timber industry. The link between the 
Liberian timber industry and the war in Sierra Leonian is now plain to see. 
The United Nations Security Council must urgently reconsider the imposition 
of a total embargo on Liberian timber exports and immediately implement the 
diamond embargo.

  *      Gus Kouwenhoven, identified by the UN Expert Panel Report as 
"responsible for the logistic aspects of many of the arms deals," (1) is on 
the board of directors of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the 
Liberian government regulatory body assigned to monitor forest practices 
and exports.

*       Talal El-Ndine, identified by the Expert Panel Report as the 
individual who personally pays "Liberians fighting in Sierra Leone 
alongside the RUF, and those bringing diamonds out of Sierra Leone," (2) is 
also on the board of directors of the FDA.

These ties show that it is now probable that profits accrued from the 
export and sale  of Liberian timber are being used to train and arm the 
notoriously brutal Sierra Leonian rebel group, the Revolutionary United 
Front (RUF). These practices can continue because millions of dollars are 
being made through the international marketing of valuable Liberian timber.

The FDA bi-annual report, covering the period from January to June 2000, 
showed that China imported 46.4% (worth an estimated 13 million USD) of 
total Liberian timber exports while France imported 17.9%(3) (worth an 
estimated 7 million USD). These dramatic figures shed light as to the 
possible reasons why both countries were the principal objectors to timber 
sanctions being placed on Liberia in March 2001.

Global Witness research and investigations in French sea ports in late 
March 2001 show that Liberian timber is flooding into France. "We are 
concerned over the possibility that the French government is putting 
commercial interests before the urgency of putting an end to this brutal 
conflict that has already claimed thousands of lives", said Alex Yearsley 
of Global Witness "both France and China now have a responsibility to 
ensure to the international community that this is not the case."

  Notes to the Editor:
1+2. Report of the Panel of Experts appointed Pursuant to UN Security 
Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19 in Relation to Sierra Leone.

3. Liberia exported 13,251,996.47 FOB (USD) to China and 7,385,373.78 FOB 
(USD) to France. Other countries listed as importing timber from Liberia 
were: Italy, Korea, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Germany, Indonesia, India, 
Netherlands, Thailand, Portugal, Tunisia, Holland, Britain, Senegal, 
Belgium and Ivory Coast.




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*                         --------                                   *
Everytime somebody keep silent when faced with tyranny, someone else dies 
(Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for Literature)
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