The Hindu : Liberia to ignore ban

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 28, 2003

International

International

Liberia to ignore ban

Monrovia (Liberia): The Liberian President, Charles Taylor, has said he will flout a U.N. Security Council arms embargo, arguing that if others ``are engaging in pre-emptive acts,'' then the United Nations can't prohibit him from buying arms to defend his war-riven west African nation. ``In this day and age, when people are engaging in pre-emptive acts based on perceptions, no one can tell Liberian people not to exercise their legitimate right to self-defence,'' Mr. Taylor told reporters on Wednesday, in a clear reference to the war to disarm Iraq of any weapons of mass destruction, led by the United States and Britain without U.N. Security Council approval. Citing a right to national self-defence he said was explicit in the U.N. charter, Mr. Taylor said he would ignore the Security Council measure and purchase war materiel to fight rebels who have sought his ouster for three years. The threat posed by the country's insurgents ``is not a possible danger, but it is a clear and ... present danger,'' Mr. Taylor said.

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