PRESS BRIEFING BY UNAMSIL PUBLIC INFORMATION CHIEF

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNAMSIL PUBLIC INFORMATION CHIEF

From January to today, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone  (UNAMSIL) had helped with the voluntary disarmament of just over 16,000 combatants and was involved in negotiations for the release of about 2,600 child combatants, UNAMSIL's Chief Public Information Officer, Margaret Novicki, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press briefing. 

In the briefing, Ms. Novicki provided an update on the progress of UNAMSIL, which is currently the largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world.

"Last year we had rather difficult baptism of fire with the collapse of the peace process, the hostage taking of our peacekeepers and the withdrawal of major troop contributors", said Ms. Novicki.  "This time last year there were very few people who were optimistic about the prospects for peace in Sierra Leone".  Yet, despite those factors, the Mission was now making steady progress and was overseeing a renewed peace process, she stated.

Disarmament of combatants was being carried out on a district-by-district basis around the country, Ms. Novicki explained, and it was expected to be finished by the end of this year.  This would mean a restoration of Government authority around the country, and would likely be followed by the return of refugees and the holding of national elections in the early part of next year.

The rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), was in the process of transforming itself into a political party to contest the elections next year, she added.

One reason for the significant changes in Sierra Leone was the approach of the Mission leadership, she said.  It had employed patient painstaking diplomacy  -- which had been necessary to rebuild confidence among the parties –- backed by an adequately robust military force.  "We are now close to our authorized troop strength level of 17,500." 

She believed that the approach taken by UNAMSIL over the last year offered many lessons for other United Nations peacekeeping missions in an era when there were many complex internal civil conflicts to be addressed.

Another reason for the progress in Sierra Leone was the fact that the Mission had worked very hard to regain public support for, and confidence in, UNAMSIL and the United Nations -- which had, of course, been damaged after the events of last year.  "I will say from my own perspective that it has not been an easy process", she added.  The country had a very high illiteracy rate –- almost 80 per cent –- and normal channels of communication were either hard-pressed, non-existent or had simply been destroyed by a decade of civil war.

"So we rely primarily on the civilian staff of UNAMSIL," she continued.  "Our civilian police and our civil affairs section are working very hard to assist in restoring State authority throughout the country.  We are helping the police to redeploy, to re-establish the judicial system, and to reinstitute traditional leadership".  Unfortunately a lot of the chiefs had fled, so the traditional modes of authority had broken down. 

Ms. Novicki said the civil affairs section of the Mission was also preparing to assist in the electoral process next year.  "We have a human rights section, which is working to investigate human rights violations, as well as to educate the population on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is being formed", she said.  "Also on staff is the very first child protection advisor to serve on a United Nations peacekeeping mission, who has been very instrumental in working with the child protection agencies to secure the release of child combatants and to help with their reintegration wherever possible".

The Public Information section, continued Ms. Novicki, had been very busy, using creative means to try to reach the people and also to try to rebuild confidence between the parties to the conflict.  "We even organized a pop peace concert in the town of Makeni –- the rebel headquarters ", she said.  The show brought ten Government Ministers -- who had not been there in over a decade -- together with RUF leaders.  The two groups mixed, and even danced on the stage to the music.  That event really had much deeper meaning, she explained.  It helped to restore a feeling of confidence on the part of the Government that the RUF was serious about the peace process.

"We use comedy programmes on television to air our views on the peace process", she went on to say.  "We also use comedians and troops of actors, who travel the country spreading messages of peace and reconciliation.  We also use them in the disarmament centre to bring combatants together".

She invited the correspondents present to come to Sierra Leone and see for themselves, as the Mission deserved a lot of credit for the success that had been achieved so far.  She hoped that success would continue.

Responding to a question on the number of United Nations personnel outside of troops who were in Sierra Leone, she said there were about 500 civilian staff members.  The Peace and Security Section of the Department of Public Information also provided support from Headquarters.

A correspondent asked for clarification on the lessons that could be learned from the Mission.  Ms. Novicki said that in any civil conflict, the most difficult aspect was building confidence between the parties.  In the case of Sierra Leone it took a long time to rebuild such confidence, particularly after what took place last year.

"There were a lot of people who were interested in a quick solution but diplomacy takes time, as does restoring confidence and putting a country back together after a decade of civil war", she said.  That was the most important lesson to be learned.

Drawing attention to the fact that the RUF were going to contest the upcoming elections, a correspondent asked if that group would do so in a more civil way than it had done in the past.  Ms. Novicki said the RUF was being converted into a political party.  The Government was required to provide the RUF with certain facilities -- for the RUF to register as a political party they needed to have offices in Freetown and in all the other major centres around the country.  That was the first step, and the Government was actually assisting them to get what they needed to register as a political party.

Ms. Novicki said she believed that the RUF's current leadership, which was different to that of a year ago, was predominantly young and had shown a commitment to the peace process that nobody really expected.  They had followed through on most of their pledges and promises to cooperate in the peace process. "I think it is incumbent on them to continue in that positive mode.  They seem to think that at this point in time their best option is no longer war, but rather to contest on the political front", she said.

When asked whether there could be any true reconciliation without the participation of Foday Sankoh, the former leader of the RUF, Ms. Novicki said his absence from the political scene had actually assisted in creating a climate that enabled the peace process to go forward.  And even though, at various times, the current RUF leadership continued to press for his release from prison, they largely understood that Foday Sankoh's case was somewhat different to that of other RUF political prisoners, that there was an international dimension to his case, and that it would be difficult to foresee his release from prison at this time.

"I think that RUF is realistic in pushing forward on reconciliation, because everybody realizes that it is in the interest of the nation to put this war behind them and move forward", Ms. Novicki went on to say.  While there might be certain individuals who did not share that view, reconciliation was the topic of the day.  However, one must remember that reconciliation would take time, she said in conclusion.

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