    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 3 (Monday, January 21, 2002)]
    [Pages 81-82]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Letter to Congressional Leaders on Continuation of the National
    Emergency With Respect to Sierra Leone and Liberia

    January 15, 2002

    Dear Mr. Speaker:  (Dear Mr. President:)

        Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d))
    provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless,
    prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President
    publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice
    stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the
    anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent the
    enclosed notice, stating that the Sierra Leone and Liberia emergency is
    to continue in effect beyond January 18, 2002, to the Federal Register
    for publication. This is the first renewal of the Sierra Leone and
    Liberia emergency.

    [[Page 82]]

        The national emergency declared with respect to Sierra Leone on
    January 18, 2001, as expanded on May 22, 2001, with respect to Liberia,
    has not been resolved. The national emergency, as expanded, was declared
    to deal with the threat posed to United States foreign policy by (1) the
    insurgent Revolutionary United Front's (RUF) illicit trade in diamonds
    to fund its operations and procurement of weapons in the brutal, decade-
    long civil war in Sierra Leone; (2) the RUF's flagrant violation of the
    Lome' Peace Agreement of July 7, 1999; (3) the RUF's attacks on
    personnel of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone; and (4) the
    actions of the Government of Liberia in support of the RUF. These
    actions and policies are hostile to U.S. interests and pose a
    continuing, unusual, and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of
    the United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is
    necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to
    Sierra Leone and Liberia and to maintain in force the sanctions imposed
    in response to the threat posed by the actions and policies of the RUF.
         Sincerely,
                                                    George W. Bush

    Note: Identical letters were sent to J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the
    House of Representatives, and Richard B. Cheney, President of the
    Senate. This letter was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on
    January 17.