Liberian defense minister claims warlord killed

MONROVIA, Liberia -- Liberia's defense minister said his troops killed a notorious Sierra Leone warlord, but a war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone expressed doubt Tuesday that Sam Bockarie was really dead.

The U.N. Security Council, meanwhile, voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo against Liberia and threatened to ban its lucrative timber trade unless the government stops supporting rebel groups that are destabilizing the region.

Defense Minister Daniel Chea said Bockarie, a rebel leader during Sierra Leone's civil war, was shot late Monday while entering Liberia from neighboring Ivory Coast.

Bockarie "crossed into the town of Bolay, we tried to apprehend him, he resisted and killed one of our soldiers, so we brought him down," Chea told The Associated Press.

At a morgue in Monrovia, an Associated Press reporter was shown a body resembling Bockarie with a bullet wound in the chest and a bloody mark on the left cheek.

Officials of Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal, which has accused Liberia of harboring Bockarie, expressed doubt about Chea's report.

Bockarie "has been in Liberia since April 27, 2003. So how can he enter Liberia if he is already there?" said chief war crimes investigator Alan White.

White said he had information showing Bockarie had been guarded by several dozen bodyguards in Liberia as late as Tuesday.

The tribunal indicted Bockarie, top official in the former rebel Revolutionary United Front, for his involvement with brutal crimes against civilians during Sierra Leone's 1989-1996 civil war. Rebels killed and maimed tens of thousands of men, women and children, including chopping off hands, feet, lips and ears.

Last week, the court accused Liberia of harboring Bockarie and warned President Charles Taylor he could be indicted unless he turned Bockarie over.

In its resolution, the Security Counciluncil approved a one-year extension of the arms embargo, a travel ban on senior Liberian officials and a prohibition on the import of Liberian diamonds.

The council also banned imports of logs and timber products originating in Liberia, but delayed the ban's start for two months to give Taylor's government an opportunity to stop supporting rebel groups and violating the arms embargo.

Human Rights Watch said Monday that full-scale conflict has returned to Liberia during the last few months, with rebels controlling about 60 percent of the country. It urged the council to extend sanctions and condemn Taylor's government and neighboring Guinea and Ivory Coast for supporting rebels.

A recent report from a U.N.-appointed panel of experts monitoring Liberian sanctions also expressed concern the Liberian conflict was spilling into neighboring countries.

"Armed youths from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and now Ivory Coast ... have joined armed groups in Liberia and in western Ivory Coast," the panel said. "The region is awash with weapons."

The Security Council approved arms and diamond embargoes and a travel ban in May 2001 after determining Taylor's government helped rebels in Sierra Leone fight the government there.