Peace momentum must be kept up

A tentative peace is taking root in Sierra Leone, wrote World Bank Vice-President for UN and External Affairs Mats Karlsson, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Frederick Barton, and UNDP Associate Administrator Zephirin Diabré in the International Herald Tribune on Tuesday. Most former fighters in the civil war have agreed to abide by the Lome agreement, which few at the time believed would hold, the article said, and more than 16,000 soldiers from both sides have laid down their weapons. The internally displaced are returning home as perpetrators and victims of the war begin to embrace the peace process, the article added. But more needs to be done to build on progress made, according to Karlsson, Barton and Diabre, as up to US $30 million will be needed just in the year 2000 to keep the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme on track. “Keeping the peace will send the message to Sierra Leoneans and to post-conflict societies elsewhere that livelihoods can resume with the determination of people themselves and the political and economic support of the world at large,” the three authors concluded.