DATE=2/7/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SIERRA LEONE/DISARMAMENT (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258923
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations is nearly doubling its
peace keeping presence in Sierra Leone and is ordering
U-N troops to use force, if necessary, to prevent
rebels from stopping them or seizing their weapons.
The six thousand U-N troops already in the West
African nation are supposed to be overseeing rebel
disarmament. But instead, correspondent Nick Simeone
reports they at times have been forced to surrender
weapons to combatants holding out against a peace
agreement signed last year.
TEXT: The war in Sierra Leone may have ended but
parts of the country remain too dangerous even for
armed United Nations peace keepers. Thousands of
additional U-N troops are now set to pour into the
country.
But Phillip Winslow, a U-N spokesman in Sierra Leone's
capital, Freetown, says some of the six thousand U-N
soldiers already on patrol have not been able to fully
deploy because Revolutionary United Front rebels are
not abiding by last July's peace agreement.
/// FIRST WINSLOW ACT ///
Over the past week, there have been two
incidents where two of our contingent patrols, a
group of Kenyans and a group of Indians, were
conducting reconnaissance patrols into the
eastern part of Sierra Leone. This is a very
key area of course because of the diamonds. Our
reconnaissance patrols were blocked on two
occasions and turned back by local R-U-F people.
/// END ACT ///
As of late last month, only an estimated 13-thousand
combatants out of a total of about 45-thousand
fighters were reported to have disarmed. And, in many
places, lawlessness and banditry have replaced
fighting, meaning aid agencies are still are unable to
get to people in need. The group Care is just one aid
organization that has had to curtail relief efforts
because of continuing rebel activity. Jonathan Napier
is Care's deputy director in Freetown.
/// NAPIER ACT ///
I think getting full and unimpeded access to
particularly rebel held R-U-F areas continues to
be a problem. The security situation varies
within R-U-F areas but certainly not all R-U-F
areas are considered safe and are not considered
to be areas where we would get unimpeded access
in terms of being able to provide targeted
humanitarian assistance.
/// END ACT ///
The new, expanded U-N peace keeping mission in Sierra
Leone has the power to fight back if challenged,
something U-N troops have been reluctant to do so far.
/// OPT ///
Again, the U-N's Phillip Winslow.
/// SECOND WINSLOW ACT ///
Some of the young former rebels who are in
different parts of the country simply aren't
getting the orders or are choosing not to obey
the orders of the R-U-F leader, Foday Sankoh who
is now in Freetown. Foday Sankoh has in fact
committed himself to the peace process and he
has said on numerous occasions he has ordered
his people to disarm and not to interfere with
our movements. The word has not gotten all the
way around yet and there's some local R-U-F
people upcountry who prefer not to listen to
him.
/// END ACT ///
/// END OPT ///
Last July's peace agreement ended eight years of civil
war in Sierra Leone that killed tens of thousands of
people - and left countless others without limbs. But
even though the fighting has stopped, U-N human rights
experts say rebel atrocities against civilians have
continued. (Signed)
NEB/NJS/TVM/gm
07-Feb-2000 17:05 PM EDT (07-Feb-2000 2205 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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