SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS SPECIAL CONFERENCE IS TO ENSURE PROBLEMS IN SIERRA LEONE ARE ATTACKED WITH 'COLLECTIVE UNITY' OF PURPOSE
Press Release
SG/SM/6659
AFR/85
SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS SPECIAL CONFERENCE IS TO ENSURE PROBLEMS IN SIERRA LEONE ARE ATTACKED WITH 'COLLECTIVE UNITY' OF PURPOSE
19980730 Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's opening address to the Special Conference on Sierra Leone today:I am very pleased to greet all the participants of this Special Conference on Sierra Leone. I decided to convene this Conference in consultation with the Government of Sierra Leone and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and I am deeply gratified to see how many of you have gathered to help give Sierra Leone a new start, and a new promise for a better future.
Allow me to begin by expressing my particular pleasure at seeing President Kabbah here with us today, proudly representing his country and our most profound hopes for a democratic, peaceful and prosperous future for Sierra Leone. Indeed, we all have cause to celebrate the return of President Kabbah to office on 10 March of this year as a repudiation of those practices of the past that must be repudiated if lasting peace is to be achieved.
Already, President Kabbahs Government has taken a number of steps to combat the effects of nine months of ruinous and brutal misrule by the illegal military junta. The Government has sought to restore secure conditions throughout the country, to re-establish effective administration and restart the democratic process.
Beyond these immediate steps, President Kabbah has also sought to lay a new and lasting foundation for national reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation. We all know that these are tremendous challenges for any people, and that the benefits of peace in some cases will only appear in the long run, as a result of a disciplined and sustained process of national reconstruction.
More immediate, however, is the challenge of establishing genuine peace and security throughout the country. ECOWAS and its peace-keeping force Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) played an important role in assisting Sierra Leone's efforts to oust the junta, restore democratic order and re-establish basic security.
Despite the progress which has been made towards restoring complete, nation-wide security by ECOMOG with the support of the national forces, the remnants of the ousted junta and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are continuing to resist the Governments authority. In this fighting, horrific attacks have been carried out against civilians, including children, that shame all humanity.
Since last March, 500 victims of mutilations including amputations have been admitted to hospitals. And they may be the lucky ones. It has been estimated that for every one victim able to attain assistance, four or five civilians have died or remain in the bush terrified of meeting another human being.
I call, therefore, in the strongest terms, on the remaining forces of the junta and RUF to respond to the appeals of the Government and the international community to lay down their arms without further delay. The people of Sierra Leone have suffered too much for too long for the killing and wanton destruction to continue.
Those responsible for the atrocities and other gross violations of human rights will in time be brought to justice, but for all others, this is the time to put the past behind them and put the future first, and to join in the process of national reconciliation. The long years of fighting have shown that no one, truly no one, gains from war, but that a genuine peace, supported by legitimate, representative and uncorrupt Government can bring benefits to all.
To this end, the Government of Sierra Leone has recently adopted a comprehensive plan for the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration into society, of former combatants. From Bosnia to Cambodia to West Africa, the United Nations has learned that the challenge of reintegrating former combatants, of giving them a stake in peace instead of war, is a central condition of achieving lasting progress.
I welcome, therefore, the Governments initiative and would like to commend the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and donor countries for their close cooperation with the Government in developing this important programme. They have recognized that to ensure lasting gains, the long-term roots of conflict -- especially poverty -- must be addressed as well. Of all the groups that have suffered from Sierra Leones years of conflict, it is the children who will bear the scars the longest and for whom, ultimately, we seek this new beginning for Sierra Leone. To an appalling degree, it was children who were, and still are, the victims of war, either as conscripted fighters or as casualties of indiscriminate attacks.
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I am particularly encouraged, therefore, by the Governments decision to offer an amnesty for child soldiers from all combatant groups. The efforts to develop a national programme to meet the needs of children who have been particularly adversely affected by the seven years of conflict is a further step in the right direction.
All the many pillars on which we will found a safer, more just and more promising future for Sierra Leone will stand only if we can put an end to the fighting and violence that still torments the people of Sierra Leone. It is, therefore, with great satisfaction that I welcomed the recent authorization by the Security Council of the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL).
I am deeply grateful to those countries which have already indicated their willingness to contribute military personnel. UNOMSIL will work in close cooperation with ECOMOG in its principal tasks of monitoring the disarmament and demobilization process, assessing the security situation and reporting on both the military situation and human rights.
I was recently able to assess first-hand the improved prospect for peace and mutual confidence in the region, during the meeting I co-chaired, with President Abubakar of Nigeria, in Abuja, between Presidents Kabbah and Taylor. Already, the meeting has borne fruit with the visit by President Kabbah to Monrovia on 20 July during which further talks were held on issues relating to the security of the entire sub-region, including Sierra Leone and Liberia.
These are, however, early days, and further follow-up in terms of genuine commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes is needed if the effects of the war are to be reversed. To this day, the flow of arms into Sierra Leone continues and all parties -- particularly neighbouring countries -- must do what they can to stop it if the peace is to last.
Sierra Leone today is faced with enormous military, political, humanitarian and developmental challenges. There is no denying or diminishing the obstacles of violence, corruption and hatred that must be overcome if peace is to endure. That is why I convened this Special Conference -- to focus international attention on the situation and to ensure that we attack the problems with a collective unity of purpose.
Today I have outlined some of those measures, but let me conclude by recalling that when I addressed the Organization of African Unity (OAU) last year, shortly after President Kabbah was overthrown, I said that Sierra Leone would be a key test of whether Africa truly had turned its back on the tyrannical ways of the past.
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Though we may have hoped for it, few of us then would have predicted that within just one year, President Kabbah's democratically elected Government would be restored to office. It is a genuine achievement in which all can take pride. But now the weight of history and of responsibility is on his and our shoulders.
In Sierra Leone, in Liberia, in Nigeria and in other parts of Africa, there have been too many false starts, too many broken promises of democracy, too many pledges of incorrupt rule violated for us to expect the people to believe in what they have yet to see with their own eyes. Is this the time we say enough? Is this the time where elected leaders honour their mandate, serve the people and begin anew? Sierra Leone must show us that it is.
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