22 June 2000
African States Want Sankoh Tried for Reopening War in Sierra Leone
(Security Council, ECOWAS discuss situation at U.N. on June 21) (700) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The U.N. Security Council and the representatives of West African states are in agreement that Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh should be tried for reopening Sierra Leone's eight-year-old civil war, diplomats said June 21. The council met privately for several hours with members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ministerial mediation and security committee, headed by Malian Foreign Minister Modibo Sidibe and ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate. Topics discussed included the restoration of peace in Sierra Leone, dealing with RUF, the relationship between the country's diamond industry and arms purchases for the rebel groups, and dealing with those RUF forces who took hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers hostage -- some still being held -- and resumed fighting the government. The Security Council is currently drafting three separate resolutions on Sierra Leone. They concern strengthening the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to 16,500; controlling diamond exports and arms imports; and establishing some type of court to try Sankoh and other possible war criminals. "We are not opposed at all to any judicial process which will bring to court those who have been responsible for the violation of the Lome peace accord," Kouyate told journalists after the meeting. "We are in total agreement with both the government of Sierra Leone and the Security Council." ECOWAS has already sent a team into Sierra Leone to investigate the resumption of hostilities and violations of the Lome peace accord, Kouyate said. The Lome accord "is very clear," he said. "The atrocities committed before July 1999 as stipulated in Lome have to be granted immunity. We are not talking about immunity" for acts committed after July 7. British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said that it was clear from the discussion that the African leaders "want Foday Sankoh tried, not to spirit him away and have a compromise [made] of it. They want him tried if the charges are as they look at the moment." Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah already has written to the United Nations asking for help in setting up a war crimes tribunal that would incorporate elements of a national court and an international tribunal to try rebel leaders. U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke told the council June 20 that "some form of extension of the international war crimes umbrella to cover these odious people must be undertaken." The United States "is committed to the rapid creation of a vigorous internationally backed mechanism or the extension of the existing mechanisms to address these grave acts of inhumanity," he said. The United States delegation is in charge of working on the court resolution in the council, diplomats said. Kouyate also said that the ECOWAS countries' pledge of 3,500 troops to UNAMSIL is "very, very vibrant." They currently are discussing with the United Nations how to "get adequate logistic and financial support." In a statement to the press, Council President Jean-David Levitte of France said that "it was the common position of members of the Security Council and members of the ECOWAS delegation that the terms of the Lome Agreement have been flouted by the violation of the cease-fire, the attacks on UNAMSIL, and the taking of hostages. With the help of appropriate inquiries those identified as responsible should be brought to justice." The two groups "condemned the continued detention by the RUF of ... peacekeepers of the Indian contingent of UNAMSIL and the denial of freedom of movement to a large number of other United Nations personnel in the east of the country," Levitte said. "They demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all United Nations personnel detained or surrounded, recalled the mandate given by the heads of state and government of ECOWAS to the president of Liberia to obtain the release of the remaining hostages, and called on all leaders in the region to ensure this is brought about speedily," the president said. (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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