Liberia proposes U.N. monitor its diamond trade

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Threatened with U.N. sanctions over allegations that it trades arms for illicit diamonds, Liberia proposed Wednesday that the United Nations take control of its entire diamond trade.

Liberian Foreign Minister Monie Captan told CNN that Liberia will ask the United Nations to deploy monitors and to establish a certification system to keep illegal diamonds out of Liberia's legitimate diamond business.

Efforts to reach U.N. officials for comment were not immediately successful.

Captan said an additional offer by President Charles Taylor on Tuesday -- to open up his personal financial records to U.N. investigators -- is evidence that the country is willing to cooperate in stemming the trade in rough diamonds smuggled by Sierra Leone rebels.

Captan, who will appear at an open Security Council meeting to be convened on Thursday to consider the issue, said his country "has been demonized" and unfairly targeted by countries that are seeking to impose sanctions against the Taylor regime.

Captan included the United States in that category.

In December, a U.N. report linked the Liberian president to the guns-for-diamonds trade to rebels in Sierra Leone. Captan questioned the objectivity of that report.

"When you accuse a country of selling $200 million worth of diamonds and you can show no money trail, then you have to ask, what is the credibility of that report?," he said.

"Is the U.N. interested in apportioning blame or is it interested in putting in place a mechanism that would address the concerns that we all have, that can lead to peace and stability in the region," Captan said.

Captan told CNN that Liberia would be willing to accept U.N. monitors at its airports, seaports and borders to stem diamond smuggling.

The foreign minister met Wednesday morning with Bangladeshi Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, head of the U.N. sanctions committee on Sierra Leone diamonds. Captan said he laid out his proposals for U.N. monitoring of the Liberian diamond trade, which he will present formally to the Security Council on Thursday.

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