PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SIERRA LEONE

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SIERRA LEONE

The refusal of the international community to recognize the junta in Sierra Leone was a major contributing factor to their being ousted from control last week, James Jonah, Sierra Leone's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said at a Headquarters press conference Tuesday morning.

Mr. Jonah thanked the international community for its solidarity with his people. He also thanked Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the firm position he took in Harare, Zimbabwe, at the outset of the crises, when he not only condemned the coup d'état which removed President Tejjan Kabbah from power, but called on the heads of State of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to not only condemn it, but to do something. All Sierra Leoneans would long remember that stand, Mr. Jonah said.

Mr. Jonah further expressed gratitude to the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), particularly General Sani Abacha of Nigeria and the Government and people of Nigeria, "for their single-mindedness in trying to support the people of Sierra Leone in ousting the junta". Mr. Jonah added that, of all governments, "Nigeria is the only one that was prepared to put its treasuries, money and blood at the service of Sierra Leone", which was why Sierra Leoneans "will never forget this noble role that Nigeria played".

Concerning the past week, during which troops of the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) engaged the junta in battle, he expressed satisfaction that the ECOMOG command took great pains to ensure that civilian casualties were limited. Those who were familiar with the geography of Sierra Leone would know that the tactics of ECOMOG were not to engage the enemy in built-up areas. "In fact, before the ECOMOG troops reacted to the attack by the junta, we had evidence of what I told you almost eight months ago in this room that the junta had a genocide plan for Sierra Leone", he said. That plan, Mr. Jonah said, was to be carried out from the hills of Freetown. ECOMOG's initial attack was, therefore, from those hills, catching the junta unprepared and preventing them from executing the genocide plan. He pointed out that the material damage from the fighting was not as great as had been originally thought. The serious damage occurred in the last two days of the fighting and was perpetrated by the retreating forces of the junta as they burnt houses in and around Freetown. There was also evidence that the junta deliberately mounted guns on the Parliament building and, using two gunboats, fired on civilian targets, calculating that that would produce an outrage in the international community, which would blame ECOMOG, leading the Security Council to intervene and call for a ceasefire.

Mr. Jonah said he could not understand the "new jurisprudence" that he was hearing around the corridors of the United Nations. Some people were saying that when the ECOMOG Foreign Ministers came to New York, they "deceived" the Council concerning their intentions. There was no formal

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meeting of the Security Council, he stressed, noting that the only meeting was requested by the five Foreign Ministers under the Arria formula to find out what the Council was prepared to do. They were told that the Secretary- General had recommended 10 liaison military officers for Sierra Leone. If anyone was frustrated, said Mr. Jonah, it should have been those ministers, not those who had spoken of being "deceived" by them.

Turning to the subject of the use of force, he said that under the Charter non-use of force was not absolute, but was governed by certain provisions. Mention should be made of Article 51 which provided for self-defence and the principle of collective security. When Member States were asked by the Charter to refrain from the use of force, it was in the expectation that the Security Council would come to their aid in time of need. To the contrary, the Council was now dithering and hesitating in dealing with African problems.

Mr. Jonah said that for eight months Sierra Leone brought its anguish to the Council, but was told in "rather cynical" terms that Sierra Leone had "to deal with the boys on the ground", meaning those who controlled the military force. "For a small, vulnerable State, we cannot just sit back", he said. "We had to look around for those who could come to our assistance, and we are grateful that ECOMOG, led by Nigeria, were able to come to our assistance."

Mr. Jonah said that it was important to note that loyal Sierra Leonean forces, which defected months ago, had fought alongside ECOMOG. In addition, the civil defence unit had fought the junta throughout and had made several gains, among them taking the Tongo field (the diamond mining areas), pushing back the junta in the South and the South-East and, in the final days, taking the second largest city, Bo, and Kenema.

Mr. Jonah said that the war in Sierra Leone was initiated by the Liberians in 1991. In the last few days, the stiffest resistance was also put up by the Liberians, and it was now known that large amounts of weapons were supplied to them, in defiance of Security Council sanctions, through Liberia. It was also now widely known that, in the final days of the conflict, some of the junta members were attempting to go to Liberia, perhaps for onward transit and to cause further trouble in the Kalahun District.

"The international community has to pay attention to this because we cannot have a neighbour who seeks to destabilize another country", he added, "and we would expect the Security Council, at this stage, to begin to pay attention to that neighbour of ours who is unwilling to live in peace, and would rather create more and more problems in our subregion".

Was there anything that the United Nations could do that it had not done, and was there any prospect that it was likely to do it? asked a correspondent.

Mr. Jonah responded that he was pleased by the speed with which the United Nations humanitarian community had responded to the serious situation

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in and around Sierra Leone. Under-Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello was contacted concerning the danger of the water supply being poisoned, a fact which threatened to cause panic in the country. In response, an expert was found within 24 hours to go there, and they were planning to send supplies in the next few days.

He added that his Government still hoped that the Security Council would send an observer or peacekeeping force to work alongside ECOMOG in the coming days, stressing that correspondents knew the difficulties of deploying peacekeeping forces in Africa. "It is inexplicable why there should be so much difficulty, and then with all of these roadblocks, we are told you do nothing until the Security Council tells you to act", he said.

Concerning the charge that Liberia was responsible for bringing the conflict into Sierra Leone, a correspondent asked exactly who Mr. Jonah had in mind -- President Charles Taylor, or someone else. Mr. Jonah said he would not use names at this point. He pointed out that the large numbers of Liberians involved in the fighting wore no uniforms and carried no insignia. It was not necessary to jump to conclusions.

Saying that "we have to know who", the correspondent asked if Mr. Jonah thought that the culprit was the Liberian central government of Mr. Taylor. Mr. Jonah responded that he would not give any names, but it was clear that it had been Liberians who carried weapons, killed Sierra Leoneans and destroyed their city. The time to name names would come, but it was a problem when people heard of civilians who died in the fighting. The Liberians shot at ECOMOG troops, but when they were killed, such people were said to be civilians. Without an insignia on them, however, his Government would not say who had sent them.

Further asked if he was not speaking directly about Mr. Taylor, Mr. Jonah answered: "We will come to that soon."

Asked for an analysis of the Security Council's incapacity to act in Sierra Leone, and whether he thought it was a conflict of interest within the Council or a lack of interest, he said it was both lack of interest and what had been called "the Somalia allergy". It was very serious for a small and weak State, he noted, and had very serious implications. He recalled that, as an Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations, he had suffered the frustration of bringing African issues to the Council, then facing its failure to act, as occurred with Burundi and Rwanda. If the Council would not help such small and weak States, those States would either go to regional groups, such as ECOWAS, or the "security firms" that were now proliferating.

"This is what is happening, and you cannot blame these countries who seek assistance and then say they are hiring mercenaries", he added. "What can they do when the Council members are so reluctant, for whatever reasons, to send peacekeeping forces to countries in distress?"

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Would the expansion of the Security Council have made a difference? a correspondent asked. Mr. Jonah replied that the permanent members of the Council had misused their privileges and abused the veto. That was why the Non-Aligned Movement was so opposed to the use of the veto.

Further asked if Nigeria, as a permanent member, would have made a change in the situation, Mr. Jonah said he would not mention names at this stage, because the OAU, of which Sierra Leone was a member, had not yet taken a position.

To a question as to what role ECOMOG should now play, Mr. Jonah said the force had a mandate to maintain law and order. The duration of their stay was something which President Kabbah would be discussing with the heads of State of ECOWAS, but he personally thought they would be staying for a considerable period.

Could he be more specific -- months, years? a correspondent asked. Mr. Jonah said he could not do that. The Sierra Leonean army had been involved with coups for a long time and was not professional. It must be reorganized, and he hoped the United Nations would help. The idea, at the United Nations, of always counting the cost and not looking at the lives to be saved was tragic. "If you do not want ECOMOG to stay that long, we welcome the United Nations, but we are not going to make the mistake we made before", he added.

He stressed that his country was trying to prevent a recurrence of the Foday Sankoh and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) genocide. "If you listened in the last few days, some of the junta people are now saying that they want to destroy our city", he said. "They are saying it and nobody is criticizing them now. We have to be very careful, so we will need ECOMOG around for a long time, but the United Nations can take over, if they want to do that."

A correspondent said that Mr. Jonah was paying Nigeria quite a compliment, but how could he reconcile the two faces of a country that was being criticized for its domestic policies? Mr. Jonah said it was not difficult to understand. The OAU gave a mandate to ECOWAS, and it so happened that the Chairman of ECOWAS is Nigeria, It was not incongruous that the President of Nigeria was carrying out his obligations as Chairman. Second, Sierra Leone had a bilateral agreement with Nigeria. Third, the history of the relationship between both countries was very deep -- family ties, education and intermarriage. Fourth, there was a strong personal relationship between General Abacha and President Kabbah.

If Nigeria did not show a great deal of respect for democracy, asked another correspondent, how could Mr. Jonah expect it to protect democracy in Sierra Leone? Mr. Jonah replied that all he could say was that Nigerian forces had treated Sierra Leone with tremendous respect and understanding, and he was satisfied with the way ECOMOG had related to Sierra Leone.

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