PRESS CONFERENCE ON WEST AFRICA BY SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION HEAD

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON WEST AFRICA BY SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION HEAD

President Charles Taylor of Liberia vigorously denied that he was involved in diamonds and arms trafficking in Sierra Leone, but others who spoke to the Security Council mission were not convinced, Sir Jeremy Greenstock (United Kingdom), head of the 11-member Security Council mission to West Africa, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Mr. Greenstock said there was a clear sense of exasperation from leading presidents of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with the role Liberia was playing in the regional crisis.

While Ambassador Greenstock believed that President Taylor understood that exasperation, he might not fully feel those pressures until they had been magnified further. Whether this happened world largely depend to the politics of the region, because regional players would probably be able to exercise their influence on Liberia more readily and more directly than would the international community.

“We saw the Presidents of five countries: Presidents Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, Lansana Conteh of Guinea, Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Charles Taylor of Liberia”, said Mr. Greenstock, adding that they were the right people to see. As the mission report would indicate, many other meetings and field trips were also held, and the delegation also went deep into Sierra Leone to see what was taking place on the ground.

Mr. Greenstock said the mission saw a very complex, and in some ways very distressing, picture on the ground in Sierra Leone. Not only was that country in deep trouble, but that trouble was spreading through the sub-region to Guinea and Liberia. It was causing increasing concern to the regional organization –- ECOWAS.

Mr. Greenstock said the first principal conclusion of the report was that the world would not pour resources into the Sierra Leonean crisis. There were resources flowing into the country, but they needed to be coordinated. There had to be a very strong effort to make the sum of the parts of the international effort greater than they were at present.

Mr. Greenstock went on to say that there was one thing happening, in terms of the politics, in Sierra Leone, while within the region “which is also part of our terms of reference”, there was another. The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), United Nations agencies, the international financial institutions, the donor communities, non-governmental organizations and civil society were engaged in a spread of activities that were under-coordinated and not necessarily producing the optimum good. That was one lesson from the mission, and while it would be hard to correct, the Council was determined to do just that.

Secondly, and more specifically, the Council mission focused on the possibilities of making the peace process work better, said Mr. Greenstock. That process had two tracks -- political and military. There must be military pressure on the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) -- and those who backed them -- to deter them from further military action and violence and to persuade them to come into the political process.

Greenstock Press Conference - 2 - 16 October 2000

Mr. Greenstock went on to say that the complex set of proposals in the mission’s report sought to draw people into the disarmament process, which itself needed attention, into jobs and into normal life in Sierra Leone. It also sought to persuade them that if they continued holding weapons they would be subjected to increasing military pressure, to which ECOWAS was likely to contribute in greater force as time went by.

ECOWAS had also expressed a keenness to see a magnified and proactive UNAMSIL put the necessary pressure on the RUF, he continued. That was also accompanied by a sense that there was a dialogue to be had with the RUF; that many of them did want to come over; that their leadership was to some extent fragmented; and that there must be a proposition somewhere for them -- minus their worst potential or actual criminals -- that would allow them to come across into the political life of the country.

Some in ECOWAS saw a reconstitution of the principles of the Lomé Agreement, most of which were still valid, as a basis on which to form a deal. The RUF Leader, Foday Sankoh, was recognized by everyone, including President Taylor of Liberia, as out of the picture.

Outlining aspects of the report on the Council’s recent mission, Mr. Greenstock said another track in the Sierra Leone peace process was related to justice. While the people of Sierra Leone needed justice and wanted it, the process had to be calibrated in such a way that it did not discourage the rebels from coming in. That was why the special court was directed at those who bore the greatest responsibilities for humanitarian abuse.

Mr. Greenstock said that ensuring UNAMSIL moved forward, and was strengthened, after the Indian withdrawal clearly needed a lot of attention, as did the role of that Mission. The regional dimension and the role of ECOWAS were also key considerations. The disarmament and reintegration process had been under-attended to in recent months. People were staying in the demobilization camps, as there were no economic activities for them to move on to. Donor countries, his included, would have to pay attention to that.

Mr. Greenstock said that the Council mission report also stated that the Government of Sierra Leone had to show ownership of, and leadership in, the peace process. It was the people of the country who wanted peace and they needed to have their Government working for peace with a strategy they could cope with and with international help.

He said the report also drew attention to the humanitarian and human rights problems in Sierra Leone, which were dreadful and needed constant attention if the people who were really suffering were to get both short-term and longer term help.

While there was nothing particularly new in the report’s proposals, what had been set out was a plan for ensuring that there was no drift in the current situation. In effect there was a re-galvanizing of all the elements that were already there into a well-directed strategy that would begin to have an effect. The people of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia all needed a determined and coordinated approach to get them out of trouble.

Mr. Greenstock said he had made a direct appeal to President Taylor to understand that stability in his country, which was badly needed, would only come if he contributed to stability in neighbouring countries. “I believed that he understood that message, although I think it will be very difficult for him to get

out of the habit of taking an opportunistic approach -- which has been a marked feature of his involvement in the Sierra Leone crisis”, he said.

Mr. Greenstock said 11 members of the Council now knew, at first hand, what was happening, both on the ground in Sierra Leone and in the region. That would give greater precision to what the Council did over the next few months. “We desperately hope that will make a difference”, he said.

A correspondent asked if the possible trial of child soldiers had been considered in the report, and how much the arrest of Foday Sankoh affected the real strength of the RUF. Mr. Greenstock said that it was unlikely the Court would prosecute child soldiers.

Mr. Greenstock said the special court aimed to indict those who bore the greatest responsibility -- not children. “And I made it clear publicly that we foresaw that the children would be regarded much more as victims than as perpetrators, and that it would be those of 18 years and above who would be the principle targets of the Court”, he added. He expected that the Court would indict a very low number of people.

Responding to a question on Foday Sankoh, Mr. Greenstock said nobody believed that he would come back into the process. The effect of his capture on the RUF had been to cause divisions over who should assume the leadership. “They are still divided on that because they cannot agree to abandon Sankoh.

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