POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: Scaling Down of UN Peacekeepers Causes Anxiety

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Sep 25 2002 (IPS) - This week’s decision by the UN Security Council to scale down the size of its peacekeeping force has been received with mixed reactions by ordinary Sierra Leoneans.

‘‘The real test for peace in this country is for the foreign troops to pullout completely. After all, the Sierra Leonean army has been retrained and well equipped to take care of the country’s security. So why still keep UNAMSIL troops here?” says local journalist Jia Kangbai, referring to the UN mission, known as UNAMSIL.

His colleague, Musa Samura, a resident of Freetown, the capital, says: ‘’ The earlier they (UN peacekeepers) go the better for us all. They have grabbed all our women and seem to be holidaying. After all, there is no war in Sierra Leone now.”

But Kumba Sokoneh, who is from the country’s war-ravaged diamond capital, Kono, says ‘‘The Pakistani contingent of UNAMSIL has made life easier for us. They provide us with medical facilities, build roads and schools and even occasionally help with food in Kono”.

A UN statement, Tuesday, said ‘‘The force will be cut down by about 4,500 over a period of eight months and the phased withdrawal will continue gradually as time goes on”.

The United Nations maintains a force of 17,500 troops drawn from more than seven countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, and it is the largest peacekeeping force anywhere in the world.

‘‘By 2004, we would have reduced our troop strength to just 500 … when we are sure there is no more threat to the peace process in Sierra Leone,” Oluyemi Adeniji, UN Secretary General’s special representative to Sierra Leone, told journalists before flying off to New York this week.

The Security Council also has approved extension of the mandate of UNAMSIL by six months.

The UN force was instrumental is ending hostilities that saw some of the most horrific atrocities committed against civilians by Sierra Leone’s belligerents.

Last month, President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah wrote to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asking for a ‘more cautious’ phasing out of the peacekeepers, so as not to ‘repeat the mistakes of the past’. Kabbah referred to the pullout of regional peacekeepers, known as ECOMOG in 1998, which plunged Sierra Leone back into a round of hostilities, and also the threat from neighbouring Liberia, which is currently engulfed in a civil war.

Adeniji said on Wednesday that combatants from Liberia cross over into Sierra Leone under the guise of refugees fleeing fighting in Liberia. He also spoke of the presence of former Sierra Leonean rebels in Liberia who may be sneaking back into Sierra Leone to disrupt the current climate of peace.

Unconfirmed reports say the UN has been spending 700 million U.S. dollars a year since UNAMSIL arrived in Sierra Leone two years ago.

In the early stages of their operations, UN troops faced tremendous resistance from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels who then controlled about half of the country, including the diamond-rich regions. Some 500 of their troops were held hostage by the rebels, who had to be persuaded to disarm and demobilise, after their leader, Foday Sankoh, was arrested and imprisoned.

UN troops have constructed hospitals, bridges and other community infrastructure, wherever they are. Their relationships with the local communities, which are amicable, would also be missed.

But the departure of UN peacekeepers, whether gradual or otherwise, coming on the heels of an earlier pullout of British forces from Sierra Leone is bound to leave a security vacuum in the volatile country.

The reintegration of more than 60,000 ex-combatants into society, who had disarmed and demobilised earlier this year, is only half-way through and the Sierra Leonean army, which has been known to be less loyal to the civil government, is yet to assert its full authority over the country’s borders.

Analysts believe the now battle-tested UN forces are acting as a checkmate to potential outbreak of fighting in the war-ravaged country.

Therefore, their pullout, as Adeniji said, ‘must be à gradual’ ..