Sierra Leone, 1999

On behalf of President

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the Government and people of

Sierra Leone, and on my own personal behalf, I would

like to congratulate Mr. Gurirab most heartily on his

election as President of the General Assembly at its

fifty-fourth session. This is the last session before the end

of this century and today we have only 92 days until the

beginning of a new millennium.

We welcome Mr. Gurirab’s unanimous election to

preside over this body. With his long experience, both in

the public service of his country and in the international

arena, I have no doubt that he will be able to steer the

deliberations of the fifty-fourth session to a successful

conclusion. I want to assure him of my delegation’s full

support and cooperation during his tenure of office.

The affairs that confront us as a country continue to

cause problems all over the globe. We are faced with

situations that we cannot completely handle. Permit me to

convey the thanks and appreciation of my Government to

the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, and to his staff

for their dedicated service to the United Nations in the

never-ending quest to attain international peace and

security. Mr. Annan has spared no efforts in drawing the

attention of the international community, as well as that

of the Security Council, to the tragic situation in Sierra

Leone, stressing the urgent need for resources to sustain

the Lomé Peace Agreement, recently signed between the

Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary

United Front (RUF), and the need to send an appreciable

contingent of peacekeepers and United Nations military

observers to my country.

The rebel war has gone on for a long time. Its

intensification culminated in the invasion of the capital,

Freetown, by the RUF/Armed Forces Revolutionary

Council junta on 6 January 1999. I have no doubt that

many members must have watched, heard or read of the

ensuing mayhem, even though those ghastly events were

overlooked because of the focus of the international

media and, indeed, of the international community on

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Kosovo. There was a time when we felt that the

international community had abandoned us to our fate.

Our people have gone through a very difficult and

devastating period, covering more than eight years. We are

now ready to put that nightmare behind us, to move

forward and to do so quickly. The most important element

in this is the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration

programme, under the supervision of United Nations

peacekeepers and observers and the Economic Community

of West African States (ECOWAS) Monitoring Group

(ECOMOG).

My Government therefore welcomes the eighth report

of the Secretary-General on Sierra Leone to the Security

Council. Among other things, the report recommends the

deployment of sufficient numbers of peacekeepers and

observers, as well as support staff. The Secretary-General

stresses the urgent need for the mobilization of adequate

resources into a special trust fund for this purpose. My

delegation welcomes with gratitude the contributions of the

Governments of the United Kingdom and Canada and the

World Bank to the trust fund, and the recent

recommendation of the Secretary- General to the Security

Council to deploy up to 6,000 peacekeepers and observers.

The need for an early decision on this cannot be

overemphasized.

A special conference is to take place shortly in

Washington, D.C., for pledges to the fund and for other

post-conflict programmes, including humanitarian

assistance, the welfare of refugees and the welfare of

children associated with the war. I would like to thank all

our friends in the donor community who will be

participating in that meeting and to plead with them to

donate generously.

Since the signing of the Lomé Agreement, the peace

has been generally holding. There have been a few severe

hiccups, but because of the determination of all to move

forward, we have been able to contain the situation. The

war went on for a long time; the rebels were used to

obtaining everything they needed by the use of force. Since

the Agreement, they have simply been waiting for the

disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme

to commence. The delay in implementing this could be a

factor in the restlessness observed in some elements from

time to time. It is a dangerous void.

The programme itself is under the chairmanship of our

President, and because of the importance that our people

attach to it, the civilian population has established a fund

that is receiving modest donations from an already

traumatized and war-weary people. Unfortunately, the

anxiety and enthusiasm of our people have yet to be

matched by those of the international community.

The speed and the extent of interventions in Bosnia

and in Kosovo, and more recently in East Timor, clearly

demonstrate the capacity of the international community

to stop human suffering when it is willing to do so. Our

people have been baffled at the delay in implementing the

Sierra Leone programme.

Although the heinous atrocities committed in Sierra

Leone by the RUF and its collaborators barely received

attention from the international community, various

human rights groups denounced the United Nations for

signing the Lomé Peace Agreement with a reservation on

amnesty provision. May I at this stage appeal to the

international community not to do anything that would

adversely affect the implementation of the Peace

Agreement.

For the average Sierra Leonean, the Peace

Agreement was a bitter pill to swallow, but an essential

pill to end the atrocities in the country. However, in order

to ensure accountability, a truth and reconciliation

commission was provided for in the agreement. It may

need to be backed by an international inquiry body, such

as has been proposed by the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights.

Once again I would like to put on record my

country’s indebtedness and gratitude to the member States

of the Economic Community of West African States

(ECOWAS), and four countries in particular — Nigeria,

Guinea, Ghana and Mali — which contributed troops to

the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).

As a new millennium dawns, the problems facing

my country — and indeed many developing countries —

are multiple; not least is the problem of finding a

consistent set of policies and institutions that will enable

us to have sustainable economic growth. Coupled with

this is the fact that newly elected democratic

Governments like ours are facing the paradox of how to

sustain democracy in an environment where hard

economic decisions are needed. In an increasingly

shrinking world, the problems of developing countries,

including those of Sierra Leone, ought to be seen as

global problems.

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The impact of these problems is felt by all in the form

of environmental devastation, global warming, economic

migrations and conflict, both local and regional. These

problems affect the developed world in the form of

increased immigration, greater welfare bills, slower

economic growth and increased defence budgets, due to

greater instability in the third world and the increased need

for conflict resolution and prevention.

In these circumstances, the continuing decline in the

levels of development assistance has not helped the African

situation. Globalization cannot be effected as a “one-way

street” where all the vehicles travel North, leaving only

exhaust fumes in the South. A level playing field is

required, and this cannot be achieved with Africa’s heavy

debt burden. Sierra Leone welcomes the 1999 Cologne

Debt Initiative, which enhances the Heavily Indebted Poor

Countries Debt Initiative framework for debt relief. We

agree that further efforts are needed for greater focus on the

priority objective of poverty reduction. At the same time,

my delegation hopes that agreement will soon be reached

to shorten the period during which countries can qualify to

be part of the HIPC Debt Initiative framework.

With the cold war over, mankind had looked forward

to a period of peace and universal development. But, as the

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook observed at the

recent Security Council meeting on trafficking in small

arms, small arms have caused more death and destruction

in recent times than weapons of mass destruction. Indeed,

my delegation agrees with the general view that the illegal

arms trade is as dangerous as drugs, both serving as

instruments of destruction of civilian lives and of socio-

economic structures.

The proliferation of trade in light weapons, financed

by cash from the sale of precious minerals, such as

diamonds and gold, is at the core of Africa’s conflicts and

their prolongation. My delegation therefore welcomes the

recent decision of the Security Council on this nefarious

trade. We call on the international community to support

the Security Council decision so as to effectively prevent

the availability and flow of arms to conflict areas. The

decision should not be left to the merchants of death, whose

only interest is money, by whatever means.

The United Nations, despite its occasional

imperfectability, remains an essential institution for moving

international relations towards cooperative security. Its

operational and procedural capabilities need to be

strengthened for the next century. My Government fully

supports the Declaration of Algiers, adopted by the

Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the

Organization of African Unity, meeting in Algeria from

12-14 July 1999. The Declaration called, inter alia, for

the democratization of international relations, the

democratization of the United Nations and the Security

Council and the recognition of Africa’s legitimate position

in this Organization.

My Government also reinforces its belief in the

Harare Declaration, calling for the unconditional

allocation of two permanent Security Council seats to

Africa.