Security Council Sending Mission to Sierra Leone
(Holbrooke part of 10-member delegation to assess situation) (480)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The Security Council is planning to send 10 of its
members on a seven-day mission to Sierra Leone to assess the full
dimension of the situation before making any further decisions on U.N.
peacekeeping operations in the country.
The mission will be headed by Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of Great
Britain, and will include U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke,
Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh, Ambassador Paul Heinbecker
of Canada, Ambassador Wang Yingfan of China, Ambassador Patricia
Durrant of Jamaica, Ambassador Moctar Ouane of Mali, Ambassador A.
Peter van Walsum of the Netherlands, Ambassador Andrei Granovsky of
Russia, and Ambassador Volodymyr Yel'chenko of Ukraine.
The mission, which is scheduled to take place between October 7 and
14, will begin in Conakry, Guinea, and will include stops in Liberia
and Mali. The mission also will visit Freetown and other sites in
Sierra Leone.
The Security Council has been considering a comprehensive resolution
that would expand the number of U.N. peacekeepers from some 13,000 to
about 20,500 in order to carry out a number of security tasks.
"The determination of the council to restore law and order in Sierra
Leone, back up the government in getting stability, and eventually
economic regeneration, in the country is going forward," Greenstock
told journalists September 20 after the council voted to extend the
current mandate of the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).
The September 20 vote was taken "to keep the [UNAMSIL] mandate going
until the mission can report back. [The council] will take further
decisions on the future of the operation at that point," Greenstock
said.
The council set out the goals of the mission in a letter to
Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this month.
The mission is being undertaken, it said, to support UNAMSIL and "to
consider ways of ensuring the full application of the Security Council
resolutions on Sierra Leone and the implementation of the measures
taken by the secretary-general to enhance the effectiveness of
UNAMSIL."
The mission wants to review with government officials the progress
made in implementing the Lome Peace Agreement and "to explore the
possibilities of support on the part of the council."
The council mission will also "consider the regional dimensions of the
crisis, including its humanitarian aspects, and what further measures
the council could envisage taking in this regard, and, in particular,
... work with leaders of the neighboring states and the Economic
Community of West African States to promote a lasting solution to the
conflict and to foster closer cooperation between the United Nations
and the region in the context of their efforts in this regard."
(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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