UN Extends Panel's Mandate on Sanctions Against UNITAThe United Nations Security Council Thursday extended for another six month the mandate of the U.N. monitoring mechanism on sanctions against the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).The monitoring mechanism was set up by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July last year to investigate UNITA's alleged violations of the sanctions. The monitoring mechanism said in a document released Wednesday that sanctions continue to play an important part in the efforts to resolve the Angola conflict. The document recommends tighter regulations to contain the activities of arms brokers and calls for an international register of companies involved in sanctions busting. It notes that although UNITA's diamond trading has been driven deeper underground by the sanctions, there are still major weaknesses in the system to control diamond trading, in part because of the many available routes that traders can use. The Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions against UNITA since 1993 to limit its ability to pursue its objectives by military means. |
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