PRESS CONFERENCE BY SIERRA LEONE

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SIERRA LEONE

The conflict in Sierra Leone was not internal, but a regional one, and the Security Council should be more even-handed in its approach to the crisis, the country's Finance Minister, James Jonah, told a Headquarters press conference this morning.

Mr. Jonah, a former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said his Government had sent two communications to the Security Council -- on Liberia's involvement in Sierra Leone's internal affairs and a comprehensive statement on the situation and how it planned to deal with it. The Sierra Leone Government was "willing and ready to begin immediately diplomatic moves to deal with the involvement of both Liberia and Burkina Faso and perhaps with Ukraine, about Ukrainian mercenaries", he said.

"We believe that the Security Council and the major Powers should not remain silent", he said. "You cannot pursue rogue States in the Middle East and in Europe and not pursue rogue States in Africa". He said the Council could not deal with atrocities in Kosovo and not those happening in Sierra Leone, as well. "We believe that the time has come for the international community and the Security Council to be more even-handed in dealing with this crisis", he declared.

He told correspondents that he had met with the President of the Security Council, Celso L.N. Amorim (Brazil), to make the Council aware that his "anguished" country looked to it and the major Powers for help in dealing with its external aggressors and for an end to the atrocities in Sierra Leone.

His Government believed that there was no need for fresh talks with the rebels fighting it, because of the existence of the Abidjan Accord, which had been endorsed by the Security Council, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and by the leader of the rebels, Fonday Sankoh. What was needed, he said, was honest and genuine implementation of the Abidjan Accord. His Government had agreed with Foreign Ministers of the ECOWAS member States that a meeting should be arranged between Presidents Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Charles Taylor of Liberia to deal with the external factors of the conflict.

He said the recent invasion of Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, was organized, sustained and financed from outside the country. Considering the amount of resources put into the operation, it was indeed surprising that in the end it failed. It was the third such effort by the enemies of Sierra Leone that had failed.

Giving a summary of the military situation, Mr. Jonah said the rebels had been removed from Freetown proper, and that the situation was generally returning to normal. Fighting was, however, going on intermittently in the capital's eastern suburbs. He said the rebels were still holding the northern

Sierra Leone Press Conference - 2 - 29 January 1999

city of Makene, but a large part of the north was still firmly in Government hands. The southern provinces had, in the last two years, been free of all rebel activity, because of the presence of the civil defence force. It had been difficult to dislodge rebel forces in a town bordering Liberia, as they had been getting constant supplies from that country, he said.

With respect to the implementation of the Abidjan Accord, Mr. Jonah said his Government believed that the time would soon come once the rebels had been denied the use of the country's resources, in particular diamonds, which they had used to purchase arms and "punish and mutilate our people".

Asked what he would like to see the Security Council do, Mr. Jonah said the Council should make it very clear "as had been done in the case of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia", that the world would not tolerate any interference in the internal affairs of Sierra Leone by Liberia and Burkina Faso. "We're not asking for a no-fly zone, but we need a more robust response from the Council", he added.

Asked for evidence of Liberia's involvement in the conflict, Mr. Jonah said guerrillas of President Taylor's former Patriotic Front of Liberia had initially started it, bringing into Sierra Leone rebel leader Fonday Sankoh, who had been domiciled in Liberia. Former members of the ousted Sierra Leone military junta also lived in Liberia. He added that the Secretary-General had been informed of the existence of five camps in Liberia where Sierra Leone rebels were being trained. The recent invasion of Freetown was led by Liberian-speaking military officials.

"So, I don't think there's any longer any doubt of Liberia's involvement", he continued. The information about Burkina Faso's involvement had come from interrogations of captured soldiers. Sierra Leone authorities also had verbal confirmation from those who had provided the financing of Mr. Sankoh's movement, "to make us know clearly that Charles Taylor was from the very beginning involved".

Responding to a question about "big Power" involvement in the conflict, Mr. Jonah said, "My Government doesn't like to make charges recklessly. We have not yet been able to pinpoint this concretely. We have heard these charges made". He added that Sierra Leone's resources, including diamonds, had been stolen and sold to provide the means to destroy the country.

Was there any guarantee that the invasion would not happen again? a correspondent asked. Mr. Jonah replied that there had been an insidious attempt to minimize the effectiveness of the Nigeria-led ECOMOG troops of ECOWAS. "I know of no military establishment that could have done what Nigeria had done in ECOMOG, with the limited resources that it had", he said.

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