Military

DATE=10/16/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N / SIERRA LEONE (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-268030

BYLINE=BRECK ARDERY

DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A United Nations Security Council delegation that just returned from Sierra Leone says there is increasing regional concern about the conflict in that country. V-O-A Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from the United Nations.

TEXT: The 11-member delegation, led by Britain's ambassador to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock, issued a report (Monday) to the full Security Council. Mr. Greenstock says there is increasing concern from ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, that the conflict in Sierra Leone could have a destabilizing effect in the region.

The report says the resources now being used to bring peace to Sierra Leone -- economic, political, humanitarian, and military -- must be more closely coordinated.

Before briefing the Council in a closed session, Mr. Greenstock met with reporters, saying the delegation's proposals are part of a two-pronged effort to persuade members of Sierra Leone's rebel Revolutionary United Front to surrender their arms.

/// GREENSTOCK ACT ///

It is a complex set of proposals that seeks to draw people into the disarmament process, into jobs and a normal life in the country while at the same time persuading them that if they continue holding weapons, they will be subjected to increasing military pressure to which the regional organization, ECOWAS, is likely to contribute in greater force as time goes by.

/// END ACT ///

In addition to Sierra Leone, the U-N delegation also visited Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, and Liberia during a week-long trip.

Mr. Greenstock says leaders of ECOWAS expressed a sense of exasperation with the role of Liberia in the Sierra Leone conflict. Liberian President Charles Taylor strongly denies charges that his nation is involved in diamond and arms trafficking with rebels in Sierra Leone. But the British ambassador says regional leaders find those denials "unconvincing."

A 13-thousand-member U-N peacekeeping force is now in Sierra Leone and the Security Council may soon raise that number to more than 20-thousand. The council also is considering the structure of a war crimes court for Sierra Leone. (Signed)

NEB/UN/BA/LSF/JWH