A total of 45 names have been removed from the Al-Qaida/Taliban list, including 10 Taliban members and 35 Al-Qaida members, a UN official announced here on Monday, Xinhua reported.
The 488 entries long list, of which 142 are Taliban names and 346 Al-Qaida, contains all entities and individuals in relation to Al-Qaida and the Taliban, said Austrian UN Ambassador Thomas Mayr- Harting, chairman of the UN Security Council Committee established under Resolution 1267 on sanctions against Taliban and Al-Qaida members.
Mayr-Harting told a press conference here that his committee worked on reviewing the list over the last 18 months.
A thorough review of the list was necessary since 270 names have been on the list since 2001 without being reviewed, he said. "For 75 percent of the cases the committee was able to receive new information."
Eight deceased people were taken off the list, he said.
In order to remove a name after it has been listed, an approval of all 15 Council members is required.
Presumably more names will be removed since for 66 entries the final decision still has to be made, Mayr-Harting said.
To further improve the reviewing process, UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon last month appointed Canadian lawyer and judge Kimberley Prost as the new ombudsperson.
The 1267 Committee is regarded as a model regime for other committees concerning the quality of work they deliver, Mayr- Harting said.
The process to investigate if they are actually dead is time consuming and difficult and in a substantial number of cases the entries lack information, Mayr-Harting said.
Cases that have been taken to court were practically all Al- Qaida cases, he said, adding that the committee could not comment on specific cases, nor could they characterize the list.
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