Renewed fighting delays election process.

PositionLiberia

The Security Council on 30 August expressed concern over a serious deterioration in the situation in Liberia and, in a statement by Council President Yuliy Vorontsov of the Russian Federation, urged the Liberian parties to resolve their differences as soon as possible by political means.

On 26 August, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali had reported (S/1994/1006) that the situation in that West African nation had worsened as factions continued to hold territory and commit atrocities against civilians. Disarmament had virtually stopped and there was no clear prospect of elections, he said.

A peace agreement to end the three-and-a-half year civil strife in Liberia had been signed on 25 July 1993 in Cotonou, Benin, by the three parties to the conflict--the Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU), the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), and the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO). Its implementation was primarily assigned to the Military Observer Group (ECOMOG) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The UN was called upon to verify the impartiality of its various implementation procedures through the UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL).

UNOMIL had been set up on 22 September 1993 and was the first UN peace-keeping operation established in cooperation with a peace-keeping mission already set up by another organization. ECOWAS has been overseeing the formulation of the 1991 Yamoussoukro IV Accord, described in the Cotonou Agreement as "the best framework for peace in Liberia".

Six months after the seating of the Liberian National Transitional Government (LNTG) on 7 March, the Government had not been fully installed, Mr. Boutros-Ghali reported. Sessions of the Council of State and Cabinet, though frequent, provided little progress, as the members seemed to reflect the views of the parties which had nominated them, as opposed to working as a unified executive.

A "Liberian National Conference" had been convened to seek a consensus on the strategy for disarmament and a date for elections. While it was not the conference that the Security Council had asked the LNTG...

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