SLeone-UNAMSIL: Annan recommends increasing UN force in Sierra Leone to 16,500
Robert Holloway
Agence France-Presse - May 22, 2000

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the Security Council on Monday to authorise an increase in the United Nations peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone, from 13,000 to 16,500 troops.

He said more troops were needed to stabilise the situation and counter the threat posed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which was still holding about 270 peacekeepers after releasing another 54 on Sunday.

But, in a report to the council, he said he saw no need to change the mandate of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).

The force already had "robust rules of engagement" including the right to use "deadly force in self-defence against any hostile act or intent," he said.

Annan said the enlarged force would include 15 infantry battalions which would be "tentatively deployed" eastwards from the capital, Freetown, to Daru, close to the border of Liberia.

This would leave UNAMSIL with "a sizeable force reserve, which would provide it with the capacity to react rapidly to serious threats throughout the country," he said.

He said the council might consider extending UN sanctions against Sierra Leone to prevent RUF commanders from benefiting from their illegal exploitation of the country's diamonds.

Earlier, Annan told reporters: "We will be looking at the situation in Sierra Leone very critically to see what we can do to bring the diamond industry under government control."

Smuggled diamonds were "one of the key means of funding the war for the RUF," he said.

The council imposed a fuel and arms embargo on Sierra Leone on October 8, 1997, at a time when the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah had been overthrown by a junta of mutinous army officers allied with the RUF.

Kabbah was later restored to power, while junta leaders including RUF chairman Foday Sankoh were given a share of power under a peace agreement signed on July 7 in Lome, the capital of Togo.

Anna's report, which had been repeatedly delayed by the crisis in Sierra Leone, painted a bleak picture of the situation in the country.

The disarmament campaign which lay at the heart of the Lome accord had ground to a halt, leaving thousands of child soldiers still in RUF hands and hundreds more vulnerable to re-abduction, he said.

In addition, preliminary data suggested that "the country is in the early stages of a major HIV/AIDS outbreak."

Annan said UNAMSIL's first priority was to consolidate strong positions at Lungi airport, along the Freetown peninsula and at other strategic location on the main access roads to the capital.

"The main objective of the consolidation is to ensure the protection of the civilian population in Freetown and the security of government institutions," he said.

But, after receiving reinforcements which are currently underway to bring it up to 13,000 troops, UNAMSIL would not have the resources to carry out its mandate "in the present hostile environment in Sierra Leone," he said.

The proposed strength of 16,500 would enable it carry out its mandated tasks, he said.

Annan told the council he saw no need to change the mandate of the force, which is to:

- guard key government buildings and locations such as airports;

- facilitate the free flow of people, goods and humanitarian assistance;

- assist with law enforcement;

- provide security and guard weapons at sites where ex-combatants including RUF rebels were supposed to disarm.

Unless UN member states were willing to increase the resources well beyond 16,500 troops, Annan said, "any effort to strengthen the mandate of UNAMSIL would unduly raise expectations, increase the risk of loss of life, and undermine the credibility of the organsation."

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