Peftiev sold weapons to the Ivory Coast

• 19.04.2012, 12:48

The UN Security Council considered the report of its experts on the illegal supply of arms in the Ivory Coast.

The U.N.'s arms embargo and ban on diamond exports should stay in effect in Ivory Coast — more than a year after the regime of Laurent Gbagbo was toppled — because of ongoing violations, the president of the U.N. Security Council said Wednesday.

The council was examining a report by its experts that cited gun-running into Ivory Coast from Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Senegal from munitions companies and suppliers in countries as far-flung as France, Belarus and Romania up until Gbagbo's ouster last year.

Rice said several council members expressed a desire to scale back the embargo and other actions over time as the security situation improves under current President Alasanne Ouattara.

Ivory Coast was plunged into chaos after former strongman Gbagbo lost a 2010 election to Ouattara and refused to step down. The U.N. says at least 3,000 people were killed.

The U.N. has also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on political figures for violating human rights. That includes Gbagbo, who was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity.

Gbagbo has vowed to fight charges of murder, rape and other crimes allegedly committed by his supporters.

Former allies of Gbagbo are running guns from nearby countries, the report by Security Council experts said.

Some of the weapons were bought from Romania, the report said. Other trading partners were the companies Bel Tech Export, based in Belarus, and UAZ-CI, which is owned by the Tunisia- and Latvia-based Atlantis Corp., the report said.