Editing History of Liberia (section)

===UN timber embargo and arrest warrant against Taylor===
[[File:Buduburam-refugee-camp.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Buduburam]] [[refugee camp]] west of [[Accra]], Ghana, home in 2005 to more than 40,000 refugees from Liberia]]
On March 7, 2003, the war tribunal [[Special Court for Sierra Leone]] (SCSL) decided to summon Taylor and charge him with [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]], but they kept this decision and this charge secret until June that year.<ref name="NRC 5-6-2003">{{cite news| newspaper=NRC Handelsblad|language=nl|location= Nederlands |date= June 5, 2003}}</ref>

Due to concerns over the lack of social, humanitarian and development use of industry revenue by the Liberian government, the UN Security Council enacted a 10-month embargo on timber imports from Liberia on July 7, 2003 (passed in Resolution 1478).
<ref name="UNSC resolutions 2003">{{cite web|title=UNSC Resolution 1478|website=UN Security Council|url=https://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_resolutions03.html|access-date=2008-07-24|archive-date=November 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115045826/http://www.un.org/docs/sc/unsc_resolutions03.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

By mid-2003, LURD controlled the northern third of the country and was threatening the capital, MODEL was active in the south, and Taylor's government controlled only a third of the country: Monrovia and central Liberia.

On June 4, 2003, ECOWAS organized peace talks in [[Accra]], Ghana, among the Government of Liberia, civil society, and the rebel groups LURD and MODEL. On the opening ceremony, in Taylor's presence, the SCSL revealed their charge against Taylor, which they had kept secret since March, and also issued an international arrest warrant for Taylor.<ref name="NRC 5-6-2003"/> The SCSL indicted Taylor for “bearing the greatest responsibility” for atrocities in Sierra Leone since November 1996. The Ghanaian authorities did not attempt to arrest Taylor, declaring they could not round up a president they themselves had invited as a guest for peace talks.<ref name="NRC 5-6-2003"/> The same day, Taylor returned to Liberia.