POLITICS: Anan Appeals To Sierra Leoneans To Back Peace Effort

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jul 9 1999 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General, Kofi Anan, ended a one-day visit to Sierra Leone this week, urging the people of Sierra Leone to support the government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, in its quest, to end the conflict in the West African country.

Accompanied by his wife, Anan arrived in the capital Freetown, less than 24 hours after a peace deal was signed between the government and rebels in the Togolese capital of Lome on Wednesday.

Brokered by Togolese President Gnassinege Eyadema, the deal provides for a power-sharing arrangement, between the Sierra Leonean belligerents.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Presidents of Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Liberia, as well as by officials of the United Nations, and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

The deal marks an end to eight years of bloody civil strife that has ravaged the country, displaced a quarter of Sierra Leone’s 4.5 million population, and left more than 30,000 dead, since 1991.

During his visit, Anan held over an hour’s closed door meeting with government officials, on the vital task of the implementation of the Lome accord and the way forward.

Afterwards, he addressed a news conference, urging Sierra Leoneans to back Kabbah’s peace efforts. “We, Africans, should take the initiative to solve our problems, and we can only hope that donors would help us to achieve this,” Anan told journalists at the Presidential Lodge in Freetown.

He also addressed the burning issue of disarmament of combatants and their reintegration into society, which appears to worry the civilian population in the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown.

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which is the main rebel Movement, and the former Sierra Leone Army (SLA) have, between them, more than 20,000 combatants. Anan said the two groups should be demobilised for peace to hold in Sierra Leone.

“I have held consultations with military commanders of ECOMOG (the Nigerian-led West African Peacekeeping force) and UN military observers, on this crucial issue and we hope to move the process forward and quickly too,” he said.

ECOMOG has deployed more than 14,000 troops in Sierra Leone to prop up the government of Kabbah against the RUF and its ally, the SLA.

According to the Lome Peace Accord, four cabinet positions would be given the rebels, plus control of strategic resources (diamond, gold, bauxite), and all combatants including more than 30,000 civil militia fighters, on the government side, would be demobilised.

Addressing UN staff, Anan said urgent steps would be taken to deliver relief aid to civilian population behind the rebel lines by helicopters. As for the tens of thousands of refugees in neighbouring countries, Anan said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is working on modalities for their early repatriation.

“The UN is prepared to work with the government and people of Sierra Leone in the area of post-war reconstruction,” Anan said, adding, “International support would be solicited to facilitate the process.”

Anan also visited a west Freetown camp for civilian amputees whose limbs were hacked off by rebels. He also took a tour of the scarred city to assess the extent of destruction of war and how tens of thousands of displaced persons are living at camps under difficult circumstances.

Although Anan’s visit is viewed in Freetown with optimism among a large section of the society, some critics still welcome the whole peace process with cautious optimism. Rebels still hold as hostages more than 3,000 civilians, mostly children and women.

The UN has promised to send more peace-keepers to beef up the 40-member monitoring team and open the corridors for humanitarian relief distribution to vulnerable communities behind rebel lines.

And, as a gesture for peace, President Kabbah has set in motion the legal process of releasing dozens of those charged or convicted for treasonable offences, in the spirit of national reconciliation.