[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.