Sanctions ineffective in Sierra Leone, UN envoy says

Sanctions are not being effectively implemented in Sierra Leone and the humanitarian situation there continues to worsen, the Chairman of the Security Council Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone, Swedish Ambassador Hans Dahlgren, told the Council on Friday. Reporting on a four-day mission to the country and Liberia, he said it was hard to find words strong enough to describe the atrocities committed by rebel forces. They had cut off body parts of victims with large knives and burned alive men, women and children, he said according to a UN press release.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended extending the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) by a further six months to 13 July 1999. In his third report to the UN Security Council on the work of UNOMSIL, Annan condemned rebel atrocities against ordinary people. “The enormity of the human rights abuses the rebels have perpetrated on the people of Sierra Leone and the large scope of human rights tasks to be performed have underlined the need for a strong human rights component” in UNOMSIL, he said, adding that the number of human rights officers in the provinces would be doubled to 10.

“The restoration of stability in Sierra Leone will be a long and arduous process and will continue to require military support as well as various other forms of assistance,” the Secretary-General said. In particular the government needed help in its efforts to establish a new professional armed force under civilian control as well as an effective and well-motivated police force.