IRIN Focus on the search for peace //Year ender//

The search for stability in the Mano River Union achieved mixed results in 2001. While there was significant progress in Sierra Leone especially in disarmament, fighting in northwestern Liberia, near the borders with Guinea and Sierra Leone escalated during the year. Observers say the increased insecurity in Liberia poses a serious threat to peace in the Mano River Union (MRU), which began in 1974 as a mechanism for fostering subregional integration but has achieved little in this regard. The first quarter of the year 2001 saw massive population movements between the three Mano River countries, including Guinea. As Guinean forces battled armed “dissidents”, tens of thousands of refugees and Guineans had to leave areas in the south, especially in the Parrot's Beak, - a slice of Guinean territory that borders on both Sierra Leone and Liberia. The "dissidents" were said to be supported by rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), who recently ended a 10-year conflict with Sierra Leone's government, and which Liberia's government was accused of backing. In retaliation, Guinean troops pounded positions in northern and northwestern Sierra Leone, controlled by the RUF. This, in turn, displaced many civilians, leading Human Rights Watch (HRW) to urge Guinea in late February to stop what it said were indiscriminate cross-border attacks into Sierra Leone. Guinea also accused Liberia of supporting and hosting its dissidents. The Liberian government levelled similar accusations against its Guinean counterpart as fighting raged in Lofa County, in the northwest between government forces and rebels, causing what has been described as the worst displacement in that country since the end of the 1989-1996 civil war. Tens of thousands of Liberians were forced from their homes. By mid-July, the Liberian Refugee, Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) had registered over 32,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Lofa living in camps, and estimated that more than 10,000 others were in the capital, Monrovia. Others fled to Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone where, during the first quarter of the year, the RUF appeared in no hurry to hand in their weapons despite a cease-fire signed in November 2000 with the government in Abuja, Nigeria. The disarmament process had been suspended in May 2000, when the RUF abducted some 500 UN peacekeepers. “The continuing reluctance of the RUF to disarm and allow the government to extend its authority to areas held by the rebels remains a cause for deep concern,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in March 2001 in his ninth report on Sierra Leone to the UN Security Council. However, a turning point was reached in the second quarter of the year, after a meeting in early May in Abuja, Nigeria, at which representatives of the Sierra Leone government, RUF, Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) and United Nations reviewed the November 2000 Abuja Ceasefire Agreement. A follow-up meeting on 15 May yielded an agreement between the Sierra Leonean government, RUF and UNAMSIL to relaunch Sierra Leone’s disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme. As disarmament progressed, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) gradually deployed in former rebel strongholds in the north and east while the state's authority was progressively restored to some of these former no-go areas. But disarmament did not proceed without hitches. It was to have ended in November 2001, but experienced delays that have served to highlight the difficult nature of the process. In November-December, the process was stalled for three weeks in the east of the country because the RUF command was unhappy with the outcome of a national consultative conference on elections. The RUF later conditioned the continuation of the disarmament process on the satisfaction of other demands, among them the release of jailed RUF members, including the movement’s leader, Foday Sankoh, detained since May 2000. The RUF was later persuaded by Oluyemi Adeniji, Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to hold over its demands until the completion of disarmament, Annan said in a 13 December report to the UN Security Council. A further delay came as a result of fighting in late December between members of the RUF and the pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF) militia in Koidu, sparked by disagreement over the starting date of a ban on diamond mining in the area. The delays caused the end of the disarmament to be postponed to the end of December and later to early January 2002. Still, by 5 January, more than 45,000 former fighters had given up their weapons, far more than the 26,000 that had been originally expected. As a result, the DDR programme faced a funding shortfall, according to Sierra Leone’s National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR). NCDDR Executive Secretary Francis Kai-Kai told IRIN in early January 2002 that his committee was revising its budget to reflect the higher numbers and that the actual shortfall would be known by the end of the month. Regional and international observers express satisfaction at the improvement in security in Sierra Leone but say the importance of funding in the post-disarmament period cannot be understated. “I have the impression that things are on course, that disarmament has been progressing satisfactorily,” the incoming executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mohamed ibn Chambas, told IRIN. However, the rehabilitation process needs to be focused on retraining, making sure infrastructure is in place, providing incentives, skills to enable ex-combatants lead normal, productive lives, and that “is going to be a major challenge,” said Chambas, who takes up his post in mid-February. The process, he added, will need resources which the Sierra Leone government does not have, and “the international community should stay engaged in trying to ensure the transition from carrying arms … to reintegration in society”. In a mid-December report, the International Crisis Group (ICG), a think tank headquartered in Brussels, warned that “it is far too early to declare the danger over” in Sierra Leone. In a report, titled ‘Sierra Leone: Ripe for Elections?’ it said, “the security situation is still shaky and the electoral course itself is fraught with uncertainty”. Zainab Bangura and Alimamy Koroma, civil society leaders who participated in peace negotiations that led to a 1999 agreement which paved the way for an end to Sierra Leone’s civil war, agree that there have been improvements but remain on their guard. On one hand, some traditional chiefs - not all - have returned to their areas and government authority is slowly being restored in former RUF-controlled areas, Bangura, head of the non-governmental Campaign for Good Governance, told IRIN in late December. On the other hand, she said, “many of the RUF have disarmed but are still roaming around and have not been reintegrated into their communities“. She also said that some refugees and IDPs were still reluctant to go back to their home areas. Bangura feels “the main problem will come from Liberia”, where fighting intensified in December. “If there is no peace in Liberia, there can be no peace in Sierra Leone”. Moreover, she said, “some RUF fighters have gone to Liberia” and “there are still too many guns available in Sierra Leone.” “If the situation continues to deteriorate in Liberia, it will deteriorate in Sierra Leone, especially around elections, which tend to polarise the country,” Bangura added. “That’s why we are all worried about elections coming in the middle of the peace process.” The fighting in Liberia is also a source of concern for Koroma, general secretary of the Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone. “I can say with all confidence that we have made headway and we should all appreciate the progress in disarmament, security,” he told IRIN in late December. “However, the developments in Liberia are disturbing, not that we expect an invasion, but we should be concerned.” Koroma also has his eyes on the mid-year polls. “The impending election will make or break the peace,” he said. It would contribute a long way towards making peace sustainable as long as it is not handled in a manner that breeds discontent, he said . A major pre- requisite for peace in Sierra Leone is good governance, according to Koroma. “There has to be good governance because these were the same reasons - corruption, marginalisation - that were used to justify previous uprisings. There should be no marginalisation of any tribe, there should be proper accountability, then the rebels cannot use it as a justification for breaking the peace.” The need to guard against political exclusion applies to the sub- region as a whole, according to Napoleon Abdulai of the Programme for Coordination and Assistance on Security and Development (PCASED), a UNDP-administered programme based in Bamako, Mali. “The coming elections in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia need to be handled with care if war is to be prevented,” he told IRIN. “The conditions for free and fair elections need to be put in place so that all parties can take part and all parties can accept the results, thus creating the political environment for inclusive politics.” “There are still too many arms in the wrong hands,” he adds. Another pre-requisite for peace, he adds, is voluntary arms collection and micro-disarmament to ensure the collection of all weapons in the hands of non-state actors. Hopes for peace in 2002 in the Mano River area also hinge on the political will of leaders of the three countries. West African and other leaders tried in vain in late 2000 and early 2001 to get them to hold a summit. However, in mid-year a group of women from the three countries, the Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET) shuttled between the three countries, meeting their leaders and getting them to agree to hold their summit. This was followed in August by a meeting in Monrovia of the three foreign ministers. Signs of a thaw came ahead of that meeting when the Liberian government agreed to the return of the Guinean and Sierra Leonean ambassadors, who had been declared personae non-gratae earlier in the year. Foreign and security ministers from the three countries later held a series of meetings to prepare for the proposed summit, which was scheduled to be held in January 2002. In a statement issued on 9 January, the Security Council said its members “stressed the importance of regional stability and encouraged high-level contacts within the Mano River Union for improving relations between the countries of the region."