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Half a million Sierra Leonean refugees will have to wait until the disarmament and demobilisation of rival forces is close to completion and security assured before the UNHCR can help them to return home, United Nations Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Soren Jessen-Petersen said on Monday.
"There is a void in Sierra Leone. Everyone is waiting," he said at a news conference in Abidjan. The time was right, he said, to "seize the moment" and implement the Lome peace accord between the government and the RUF rebels.
An important aspect of this agreement, signed in July, calls for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants. Jessen-Petersen, who arrived in Cote d'Ivoire after a visit to Sierra Leone on Friday, said the government in Freetown appeared to be waiting for some six battalions (about 4,800) international peacekeeping troops and the full complement of 210 UNOMSIL military observers to arrive to
ensure that there was a secure environment for the start of disarmament.
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