PRESS BRIEFING BY SIERRA LEONE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY SIERRA LEONE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central African Republic, Oluyemi Adeniji, recently appointed Special Representative for Sierra Leone, told a Headquarters Press briefing this afternoon that he was “betwixt and between” the two assignments. Sierra Leone was much more in the news but he wished to brief correspondents on the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA), whose mandate will end in February.

He said MINURCA was the first mission established in Africa after the problems encountered in Somalia and after the Security Council had distanced itself from African conflicts. The Mission was meant to be one of the new generation of preventive deployment missions -- to prevent further deterioration in the Central African Republic following the series of mutinies there in 1996, which had resulted in a generalized conflict. The fear then was that unrest in the country might complicate the already difficult situation in the Central African subregion.

Continuing, he said MINURCA’s responsibility was to assist the existing forces of law and order to reestablish security in the capital, Bangui, and surrounding areas. It was also charged with assisting the Government and political parties in the country in implementing the national agreement for restoring peace, stability and democracy. The Mission had been mandated to assist in the organization of legislative elections as a prelude to a return to a democratic regime. The Mission had been successful in that endeavour.

He said the Security Council had then decided that, to complete the process of reinstalling democracy in the country, the Mission should assist in the presidential elections. Those elections were successfully completed in September, and the new Government was now in the process of consolidating itself in the capital.

The Mission had had limited success in the area of assisting the restructuring of and providing technical assistance to the armed forces, he said. That involved demobilization, reintegration of the demobilized into civilian life and seeking and training fresh recruits for the army. Because of the complexity and sensitive nature of the task, the Government had been reluctant to begin until the elections were completed. The Government now seemed willing to start the process of restructuring and demobilization, but unfortunately, MINURCA’s mandate was coming to an end. To ensure that there would be a continuation of the project, the Secretary-General had suggested offering assistance in mobilizing the required resources for the demobilization and reintegration programme as well as for the restructuring of the armed forces. The United Nations Secretariat, in liaison with the World Bank, was preparing a conference to mobilize resources.

Adeniji Press Briefing - 2 - 23 November 1999

The Secretary-General had also proposed that MINURCA be succeeded by a political office of the United Nations that would be mandated to follow up United Nations efforts in the country -- restructuring of armed forces; observation of the state of human rights in the country; providing assistance, as demanded by the authorities of the country, to facilitate contacts between its various political parties. Hopefully, that office would be installed as soon as MINURCA’s mandate expired in February, he said.

He informed correspondents that he had not yet been to Freetown. He was on his way there and hoped to be able to answer questions related to Sierra Leone on his next visit to New York. He noted that there was continued concern about human rights abuses in Sierra Leone. That meant that all parties concerned were not respecting the Lomé Agreement. It continued to pose a challenge to the international community’s efforts to assist the people of Sierra Leone to restore peace, including the demobilization and reintegration of various groups of ex-Government forces and ex-rebel groups.

A correspondent asked if any of the experiences that led to the limited successes in the Central African Republic were transferable to Sierra Leone. Mr. Adeniji said the experience in the Central African Republic would come in handy, particularly in dealing with the various political factions. Noting that the Revolutionary United Front, a former rebel group in Sierra Leone, had transformed itself into a political party, he said that the process of transforming from a rebel or liberation group was not easy, and the group members would need counseling.

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