22 May 2000
Jesse Jackson Concludes West Africa Mission with Stop in Mali
(Discusses Sierra Leone crisis with President Konare) (720) By Jim Fisher-Thompson Washington File Staff Correspondent Bamako, Mali -- The Reverend Jesse Jackson concluded a three-nation diplomatic mission to West Africa May 21 after holding what he said were productive discussions with President Alpha Oumar Konare and other Malian officials about regional solutions to the breakdown of peace in Sierra Leone. Jackson, the special envoy of the president and the secretary of state for the promotion of democracy in Africa, told journalists traveling with him: "I came to Mali to visit President Konare because he is head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the organization in which we invest so much hope" for peace in Sierra Leone. Commenting on America's part in the peace process, Jackson said U.S. policy envisions a partnership role in regional peacemaking and enforcing efforts, to be matched with U.S. logistical help and support. "We may help in buttressing ECOWAS capacity with money and equipment," he said, "but in the final analysis it is Africans who will have to get the Lome Peace Accord back on track." Jackson and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Howard Jeter, who accompanied him on the trip, were hosted at a luncheon by Prime Minister Mande Sidibe and later also spoke with Minister of Foreign Affairs Modibo Sidibe and Malian Ambassador to the United States Cheick Oumar Diarrah. Jackson said he sounded out President Konare for his analysis of the Sierra Leone crisis and the urgent need to free the remaining 300 U.N. peacekeepers still held hostage by Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF); Sankoh was captured late last week by Sierra Leonean police. Konare, Jackson said, agreed that freeing the hostages was central to getting the peace accord back on track. And the Malian added that "however you view Sankoh, he is a factor in solving the hostage crisis. His public safety must be assured and due legal process guaranteed because his voice is one of the voices RUF needs to hear in the hostage negotiations." Jackson also said Konare "unequivocally" supports Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Kabbah's expressed view that Sankoh should undergo "the full force of the law" if an investigation determines that he (Sankoh) was behind the outbreak of RUF violence that abrogated the Lome Peace Accord, signed last year. Jackson acknowledged that "we have no power to determine the timetable" for the release of the U.N. hostages, adding that Liberian President Charles Taylor could prove to be a critical figure in gaining their release. It is important, the envoy explained, that Taylor be encouraged and supported in his endeavors. Throughout his mission, which began May 17, Jackson stressed that the release of the U.N. peacekeepers is the essential first step in getting the Lome Peace Accord back on track. This should be accomplished with no "linkage" to the fate of Sankoh, whom Jackson characterized as a warlord with no agenda beyond plundering diamonds and other resources in Sierra Leone. Regarding the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Jackson said it should be the collective, lead organization to insure peace in Sierra Leone, for without it, the entire West Africa region will remain insecure. The organization is to hold a critical meeting about the Sierra Leonean situation in Abuja in about a week. Jackson said Konare will seek to gather support among the ECOWAS nations for a proposal Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made to Jackson when the two met last week in Benin City. According to Jackson, Obasanjo pledged that Nigeria would put more troops into Sierra Leone "under a [broader, less restrictive] U.N. mandate" if it received logistical support and helicopter gunships from the international community. "Obasanjo has made a genuine commitment to expanding Nigeria's role in bringing peace and security to Sierra Leone," Jackson said, "but he will not go back in and allow his troops to be target practice for RUF." Jackson returned to Washington on May 21 without Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeter, who remained in the region to continue diplomatic efforts aimed at getting the peace process back on track. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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