The UN Security Council extended on Thursday the sanctions imposed on Cote d'Ivoire for another year, including an arms embargo and a ban on any state importing rough diamonds from the West African country.
Unanimously adopting resolution 1893, the council also renewed targeted sanctions restricting the travel of individuals that threatened the peace process in the country.
The council pledged to review these measures no later than three months after the holding of open, free, fair and transparent presidential
elections, which were originally scheduled as far back as 2005 but are now slated for the end of next month.
In addition, the council's resolution called on the UN peacekeeping operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI), and the French force that supports it,
to fully uphold the enforcement of the arms embargo on the country, which has been split for more than seven years between the government-controlled south and the rebel Forces Nouvelles-held north.
The council demanded that all Ivorian parties provide unhindered access to the Group of Experts established to monitor the sanctions, and extended the mandate of that group for another year.
The arms embargo was first established by the Security Council in November 2004 in response to violent disruptions to the peace process by the Ivorian parties. Cote d'Ivoire has been split since September 2002 after rebels launched a failed coup and seized the northern half.
In a report released this week, the experts said that despite the arms embargo, northern and southern Ivorian parties are rearming or re-equipping with related material.
In particular, they voiced concern about the "systematic transfer of weapons and ammunition" from neighboring Burkina Faso to the Forces
Nouvelles-controlled north of the country, which may be linked to cocoa smuggling.
The report noted with concern that the absence of effective border controls allows rough diamond trade in Cote d'Ivoire to extend into Burkina Faso and Mali.
It also noted that northern Cote d'Ivoire currently bears more resemblance to a warlord economy than to a functioning government
administration.
Largely independent military 'zone commanders' of the Force Nouvelles
control and exploit natural resources, providing both motive and means to sustain territorial control in northern Cote d 'Ivoire, the report said.
In Thursday's resolution, the council warned that the situation in the divided West African nation continues to pose a threat to international peace and security for the region, and noted with concern continuing human
rights violations against civilians, including numerous acts of sexual violence.
Cote d'Ivoire's UN Ambassador Alcide Djedje said the purpose of sanctions was to ensure that countries, parties, entities or individuals
change their behavior and that enforcement actions should be accompanied by specific deadlines and be subject to periodic review.
Djedje said he was disappointed that the resolution did not meet the expectations of his government, as it had expected a clear commitment by the council to lift sanctions after the presidential elections.
"The fact that the resolutions are succeeding and are very similar
since 2004, while the situation has steadily improved in Cote d'Ivoire, shows the anachronism of today's decision to maintain the sanctions for
another year," the ambassador said.
He said his government would now take steps at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union to have the sanctions against individuals lifted immediately and the arms embargo lifted three months after the presidential elections.