ECOWAS, UN to review ceasefire agreement

A meeting to evaluate the implementation of a ceasefire agreement signed in November 2000 in Abuja, Nigeria, by Sierra Leone's government and Revolutionary United front (RUF) rebels, is to be held on Friday in New York, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reported. Officials from the UN, ECOWAS and the Sierra Leonean government - which constitute the Coordination Mechanism for Sierra Leone's peace process - will attend the one-day meeting, ECOWAS said in a news release. The meeting , the group's fifth, is scheduled to discuss matters relating to the deployment of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and to the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-fighters. Other issues include the return of outstanding equipment which the RUF seized last year from UNAMSIL and ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) peacekeepers, as well as the release of child soldiers and abductees, it added. RUF interim leader Issa Sesay assured UNAMSIL's Force Commander, Lt-Gen Daniel Opande, on Tuesday that the rebels would hand over the heavy weapons they captured from ECOMOG. These include a vehicle-mounted BM-21 multi-barrel rocket launcher, a UNAMSIL statement said. The officials will also review the humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone, the country's political programme and the effects of developments in Liberia and Guinea on Sierra Leone. The date for the coordination mechanism's next meeting with RUF will also be decided. The last one was held in May 2001, ECOWAS reported. Under the Abuja accord, the government and the RUF agreed to observe a ceasefire to be supervised and monitored by UNAMSIL, while the RUF committed itself to return all weapons immediately.