Peacekeepers Prepare to Leave Sierra Leone

[El Pelon]

Peacekeepers Prepare to Leave Sierra Leone
October 04, 2005 3:57 AM EDT
UNITED NATIONS - U.N. peacekeepers preparing to pull out of Sierra Leone say they have completed the mission they began six years ago but warn the country still has a long way to go before it recovers from one of Africa's most brutal wars.

Along with crushing poverty and illiteracy, one of the most daunting challenges will be finding jobs for the huge population of unemployed youths, many of them former child soldiers, said Daudi Mwakawago, the top U.N. representative in Sierra Leone.

"We have kept the peace," he told a news conference Monday. "The country is fragile. We can't continue with the peacekeeping. We need peacebuilding."

Mwakawago urged those interested in helping Sierra Leone to attend a donors conference in London on Nov. 29-30. The United Nations estimates the country needs $1.7 billion to begin tackling poverty and corruption and building good government institutions.

Sierra Leone has a population of 5 million, about 2 million of whom are unemployed youths, Mwakawago said, describing the situation as "very explosive."

"And some of those youths were involved in the civil war. So they have one trade they know - and we don't want them to go into that trade."

Most people - 70 percent - live on less than $1 a day and are illiterate, he said. Roads are so bad it's nearly impossible to move crops agricultural products from the richest farming areas in the corners of the country to the capital, Freetown.

Still, Sierra Leone has come a long way from the 1991-2002 civil war, which pitted government troops against rebels notorious for attacking civilians and lopping off their hands, feet, ears and even lips.

Peace took hold only in early 2002 with the intervention of U.N. and British forces. Since then, the government has extended its authority throughout the country, disarming 70,000 combatants who are now being reintegrated into society. Nearly 9,500 police have been trained and equipped, and the army has been reduced, from 14,500 to 12,000 with further cuts to come, Mwakawago said.

The war was waged in part over Sierra Leone's diamonds and other mineral riches, and when U.N. peacekeepers arrived they were asked to help the government take control of its resources.

In 2000, diamonds accounted for only $10 million of official government exports, but diamond exports have grown steadily since then, reaching $130 million in 2004, the U.N. envoy said.

However Mwakawago stressed that smuggling and illicit mining remain a huge problem, with 50 percent of the industry yet to be brought under control.

"We've shown the way. Now it's up to the government, working with the other partners, the peacebuilders, to do the job," he said.

U.N. peacekeepers turned over security to the government in September 2004 and since then the government has not asked for U.N. help, Mwakawago said.

In June, the U.N. Security Council voted to end the peacekeeping mission on Dec. 31, an expression of confidence in Sierra Leone's progress toward peace.

As well as diamonds, the West African nation is rich in gold, iron ore and bauxite. Its fertile soil used to produce coffee, cocoa, rice and timber for export - and can do so again, said Mwakawao, a former Tanzanian government minister and U.N. ambassador.

While the situation is fragile, Mwakawago believes "it's highly unlikely" that Sierra Leone will revert to war for several reasons.

The people are tired of fighting and do not want to add to the ranks of amputees and war- wounded, he said, and the U.N. peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast have stopped the movement of "bad elements" from one country to the next.

"The international climate has changed," Mwakawago added. "You don't have the mercenaries going and creating problems here and there."