AFR/271
SC/6933

UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL TO VISIT SIERRA LEONE AND REGION

The following information was issued today by the spokesperson for the upcoming Security Council mission to West Africa:

Eleven members of the Security Council will travel to West Africa from 7 to 15 October to review United Nations operations in Sierra Leone and to explore ways to promote stability in the region.

The delegation, led by Sir Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, will arrive in Conakry, Guinea, on Sunday, 8 October, spend three days in Sierra Leone beginning Monday, 9 October, and proceed to Bamako, Mali; and Abuja, Nigeria; and then to Monrovia, Liberia, before returning to New York late on Sunday, 15 October.

The Security Council is considering the next stage of peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone and is contemplating a possible increase in the size of the nearly 13,000-strong United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). In addition, there is rising concern over a series of cross-border incursions involving Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian and refugee situation in the region.

"This mission reflects the determination of the Security Council, and the whole international community, to respond to the desperate need of the people of Sierra Leone for peace and a normal life", Ambassador Greenstock said on the eve of the mission's departure. "By making a first-hand assessment, we want to find the best way of bolstering UNAMSIL and reducing the incentives to the rebels to continue the conflict."

"Only a resolute approach by the Council, within a regional political strategy shared with West African leaders, is likely to bring progress", he said.

The Council delegation will begin its mission on Monday, 9 October, in Conakry, where representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will discuss recent armed clashes along Guinea's borders with its neighbours and their impact on refugee populations, and the ability for humanitarian workers to assist those in need. A meeting with President Lansana Conteh is scheduled prior to the team's departure for Freetown, Sierra Leone.

- 2 - Press Release AFR/271 SC/6933 6 October 2000

Three days in Sierra Leone designed to assess how the United Nations Mission is operating will include field visits to UNAMSIL contingents, sites where former soldiers are being disarmed and demobilized, and displaced persons camps in Port Loko, Mile 91, near Freetown, and in Kenema and Daru to the east. A visit to a child combatants camp in Lungi is also on the programme. In addition, meetings with a wide range of political and military representatives, government officials and United Nations Mission personnel, as well as with non-governmental actors and civil society representatives, are planned.

The delegation is scheduled to travel to Bamako, Mali, on 12 October, to meet with President Alpha Oumar Konare, who is chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to discuss regional efforts under way.

On Friday, 13 October, the Council members will travel to Abuja, Nigeria, to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo, and then to Monrovia on Saturday, 14 October, for discussions with Liberian President Charles Taylor.

After returning late Sunday, the members of the mission will brief the Security Council on its findings on Monday, 16 October.

In addition to the British Permanent Representative, the other members of the Council delegation are: Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh, Head of the Sanctions Committee), Paul Heinbecker (Canada), Wang Yingfan (China), Yves Doutriaux (France), Patricia Durrant (Jamaica), Moctar Ouane (Mali), A. Peter van Walsum (Netherlands), Andrei Granovsky (Russian Federation), Volodymyr Yel'chenko (Ukraine), and James Cunningham (United States).

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United Nations