UN Decision to send peacekeepers welcomed

Aid agencies and civil society representatives have welcomed the UN Security Council’s decision to send 6,000 peacekeeping troops to Sierra Leone, which WFP Regional Manager Paul Ares described as “an important step” toward stabilising peace in the country. “It will also allow us to assist civilians living in areas where the safety of our staff has to be guaranteed,” Ares, who heads WFP’s West Africa Coastal Region, said. WFP has been feeding an average 100,000 people each month in Sierra Leone since June. Insecurity forced it recently to postpone food aid distribution in Port Loko, 57 km northeast of Freetown. The rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the government signed a peace treaty in July in which they agreed to end an eight-year war. However, a number of security incidents since then have prevented humanitarian agencies from reaching areas inaccessible for years because of fighting. WFP said at least 1.5 million people have been cut off from aid for over one year. An international NGO, Children’s Aid Direct, told IRIN it had been unable to access Lunsar, some 79 km northeast of Freetown. Welcoming the Security Council’s decision, taken on Friday, the secretary-general of the Inter Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL), Rev. Almamy Koroma, told IRIN the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) must be deployed speedily and the composition of its troops must be truly international “so they can’t be co-opted by existing (local) forces”. Details on the timetable for the deployment - which could take months - the countries providing soldiers and their respective numbers are yet to be decided. A UN source said discussions were in progress with India, Kenya and nations contributing already to ECOMOG, to provide soldiers for UNAMSIL. “Nigeria will be expected to make a substantial contribution,” the UN source said. That country contributed many troops to and spent heavily on ECOMOG, the subregional peacekeeping force that was first deployed, in Liberia, in 1990. ECOMOG on Saturday completed its withdrawal from Liberia. In Sierra Leone it will co-exist with UNAMSIL and be responsible for security in and around Lungi International Airport and Freetown. Protecting the government of Sierra Leone will also be part of its mandate. ECOMOG will begin Sierra Leone’s Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation (DDR) programme in areas where it is deployed while UNAMSIL will do so in other parts of the country. The UN source said both peacekeeping bodies would establish joint operational centres at HQ and, perhaps, battalion level. Under the rules of engagament which the Council has provided it, UNAMSIL will be able to act to ensure its personnel’s security and freedom of movement and, within its capabilities and areas of deployment, protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence, taking the government’s responsibilities into account.