PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTER OF CANADA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTER OF CANADA

Canada believed there must be a fully mandated United Nations peacekeeping mission to support reconciliation in Sierra Leone, Lloyd Axworthy, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon. Regrettably, efforts to achieve that aim had not been successful so far.

Stressing that Canada would continue, nevertheless, to pursue those efforts, Mr. Axworthy said an international presence was crucial in providing the opportunity for redevelopment and reconciliation in Sierra Leone. While that effort continued, however, Canada also recognized that there were immediate, direct human needs that must be addressed.

He said one of the purposes of the press conference was to announce initiatives on Sierra Leone sponsored by the Government of Canada. Those initiatives grew out of assessments made by David Pratt, the Canadian Special Envoy for Sierra Leone, and representations made by Sama Banya, Sierra Leone's Minister for Foreign Affairs. Both attended the press conference. Also present was Maria Minna, Canada's Minister of International Cooperation who gave details of the initiatives.

Ms. Minna said that since last December, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) had provided humanitarian and peace-building assistance worth 4.5 million Canadian dollars to Sierra Leone. Her department had provided $2.5 million to the World Bank Trust Fund for Sierra Leone, which would help disarm and demobilize former combatants, including child soldiers. It would also help train them in productive skills, bearing in mind that many of them had never done anything but fight. In Sierra Leone's volatile environment, an immediate priority was removing the very weapons that could spark new violence.

Canada would help ex-combatants to turn to a future that focused on reconciliation and cooperation instead of division and destruction, Ms. Minna said. That effort would require trauma counselling for the children and vocational training and other practical assistance for demobilized soldiers. The CIDA would provide a further 1.5 million dollars for humanitarian programmes to help children, refugees, internally displaced persons and other victims of conflict, including amputees.

The Minister said that Canada's contribution to both initiatives, including $500,000 from the Department of Foreign Affairs, was $4.5 million for a total of $9 million since December 1998. That was double the country's humanitarian and peace-building assistance in Sierra Leone since that time.

She said that while part of the assistance announced today would help child soldiers and sex slaves recover from their trauma, the needs of Sierra Leone's children must not be forgotten. Born at the beginning of the eight-year-long conflict, few of the country's eight-year-olds had lived a day without fear or violence. While there was no making up for their lost years,

Canada Press Conference - 2 - 22 September 1999

they could be helped to start healing their physical and emotional wounds. Their most basic immediate needs could be met.

Asked how reconciliation could be balanced against justice, Dr. Banya replied that there was determination among all Sierra Leoneans, including those who had been causing havoc. It would be more difficult in the rural areas, which had borne the brunt of the brutality, but most of those responsible were local boys and girls who had been recruited.

Mr. Axworthy added that the $500,000 provided by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs was available for supporting reconciliation efforts.

How daunting was the task of disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation? another journalist asked.

Dr. Banya said that people were in the mood to reconcile. While forgetting would be more difficult, Sierra Leone was tired of war and wanted to move forward.

Ms. Minna added that there was no question the task was a daunting one. In addition to the physical amputees, there were the young girls who had been abducted and gang-raped for long periods. They would have to face the nightmare of meeting their attackers on the street.

In response to another question, Mr. Pratt said the money to be provided for the disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation programme was absolutely critical. Unless the weapons were removed from the hands of the combatants -- the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), its allies of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and the pro-government Kamajor militia -- there could be no repatriation of refugees returning from Guinea and Liberia.

Was there not a risk of raising expectations which could not be met in the absence of a fully fledged peacekeeping mission? another correspondent asked. How could rancour be defused and reprisals avoided?

Mr. Axworthy said the Canadian initiatives were one way to develop momentum towards a peacekeeping mission and to demonstrate the need for engagement.

Had Canada been directly involved in the collection and destruction of weapons? another journalist asked.

Mr. Axworthy said Canada was involved in organizing a meeting of West African States to deal with buy-back programmes.

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