PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

Ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed last month to establish an annual "West African Week of Truce" for the benefit of war-affected children, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon. Hostilities would cease during such periods to allow access for vaccination and registration of children.

Mr. Otunnu said that Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea-Bissau were especially important in that context. In the broader West African zone where there was no war, activities would be organized to focus on the needs and rights of war- affected children and to mobilize support for them.

Mr. Otunnu said that the Ministers had also agreed to create, within the ECOWAS secretariat, an office devoted to the protection of war-affected children and to incorporate various elements for their protection into its peacekeeping operations, such as the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Those and other initiatives are contained in the Accra Declaration on War- affected Children in West Africa, resulting from an ECOWAS meeting held in Accra, Ghana, on 27 and 28 April. The meeting was organized by the Government of Ghana, in collaboration with the Government of Canada and with the active participation of the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

Mr. Otunnu said his Office hoped to take elements of the West African initiatives and make them into a worldwide campaign, especially the week of truce for the benefit of war-affected children. The West African Ministers had agreed that they would be among the first to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child once it was open for signature.

He said that, following the Accra meeting, he and Lloyd Axworthy, Foreign Minister of Canada, had visited Sierra Leone from 29 to 30 April. They had met President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, former rebel leaders Foday Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma, as well as members of the United Nations mission and members of civil society. Among the concrete outcomes of that visit had been the Government's decision to establish a National Commission for War-affected Children. Canada had come forward with material resources since last September, when that body had initially been proposed.

However, in light of the current situation, whatever modest progress had been made to rehabilitate Sierra Leone's children was in jeopardy, he said. It was imperative to re-establish the peace process, as well as credible security. That hinged, above all, on rapid, credible disarmament, which would prevent a relapse of the situation into one that would victimize children.

He recalled that last year, with the rebels on the fringes of the capital, the international community had failed to forcefully support ECOMOG and the elected Government. The rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) had been able to rearm, reorganize and unleash fresh atrocities on the population. That was what the people of Sierra Leone feared today.

Otunnu Briefing - 2 - 11 May 2000

To prevent a rebel resurgence and a repetition of history, he said, a clear political message must be sent to the RUF, directly and through friendly West African intermediaries. Mr. Sankoh was very much a political actor and could not be indifferent to the prospects of political isolation and censure.

It was critical that the United Nations peacekeepers in Sierra Leone be strengthened in terms of numbers and equipment, he stressed. That would enhance their capability to defend themselves and their mandate. The Secretary-General's proposal for a rapid reaction force deserved strong support. Such a force should be separate from the peacekeeping force, a well-armed and well-equipped combat unit capable of serving as a deterrent and acting to impose peace.

Mr. Otunnu said it was important to begin discussing the diamond trail leading outside the country from Sierra Leone's mines. The RUF's war machine remained intact, largely because of continuing illicit diamond trading. The international community must engage the association of diamond traders and neighbouring countries in the context of the diamond trail.

He said that the implications of allowing Sierra Leone to relapse into war and atrocities were exceedingly ominous, in terms of the prospects for peacekeeping and the implementation of peace accords anywhere else in Africa. Sierra Leone was comparable neither to the Balkans nor to Africa's Great Lakes region. It was entirely feasible, with the appropriate measures taken in concerted fashion, to reverse the situation there, to get back to the peace process, and to establish peace and durable security.

A correspondent asked whether the Special Representative had received any reports on the recruitment of child soldiers. In the present military situation, would Mr. Sankoh's priority not be to recruit?

Mr. Otunnu replied that the RUF did not need to recruit fresh children, because a large number remained in its ranks. Out of the approximately 23,000 persons who had been disarmed so far, only 1,700 had been children. There had not been access to many areas, especially diamond-mining areas and where children were being held. A clear political message must be delivered to the RUF that the international community would not stand by and allow "business as usual".

How did Liberia fit into diplomatic efforts, in light of President Charles Taylor's reported facilitation and profiting from illicit diamond trading? another correspondent asked.

Mr. Otunnu said it was very important to activate all channels of influence directly to Mr. Sankoh, so as to reinforce the Secretary-General's message.

* *** *