In December 1994, in response to a formal request from Captain Valentine Strasser, Head of State of the Republic of Sierra Leone, I dispatched an exploratory mission to that country to facilitate negotiations between the Government and the forces known as the Revolutionary United Front. That mission reported to me on the serious consequences of the three-year conflict in Sierra Leone. A significant percentage of the population had taken refuge in neighbouring countries or been internally displaced and most of the country's infrastructure had been destroyed. If the conflict continued, it would further complicate the problem of bringing peace to Liberia and could have a more general destabilizing effect in the region. On the basis of the mission's findings, I decided to appoint a Special Envoy for Sierra Leone, Mr. Berhanu Dinka, to help the parties to work towards a negotiated settlement.
In April and May 1995, Captain Strasser announced that to restore democracy he would set up a national reconciliation conference to prepare for a return to civilian rule in 1996 and that a three-year ban on political parties was being rescinded. He called on the Revolutionary United Front to renounce its armed struggle and to join the electoral process, declaring that the Government was ready to enter into a cease-fire in order to negotiate peace without preconditions. However, the Front spurned the offer to end the armed struggle, stressing that dialogue was conditional on the withdrawal of foreign troops fighting alongside Sierra Leonean armed forces. Notwithstanding these difficulties, my Special Envoy is continuing his efforts to help bring about a settlement of the conflict.
On 26 May, I congratulated the Head of State of Sierra Leone on the democratic initiatives announced on 27 April, in particular the lifting of the ban on political parties. On 22 June, the National Provisional Ruling Council issued a decree barring for the next 10 years 57 persons, including presidents, vice-presidents, ministers, ministers of State and deputy ministers, from holding any public office or holding office in any corporation in which the State held a financial interest, from being elected president of the Republic or member of parliament, or from being elected to or holding office in any local body. According to the Government, the ban was based on the findings of two commissions of inquiry.
On 20 July, seven prospective political parties jointly petitioned the Head of State to repeal restrictive elements of the decree lifting the ban on political parties. Further complicating matters, on 25 July the Sierra Leone Bar Association refused to attend the National Consultative Conference on Elections (15-17 August), linking its refusal to participate to the decree banning 57 persons from holding political office and restrictions placed on political parties by the Government.
It is widely recognized that the conflict in Sierra Leone cannot be resolved through military means. It is important therefore for the Revolutionary United Front to respond positively to the Government's offer to negotiate a settlement of the conflict. The sixty-second ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of OAU adopted a resolution expressing concern over the worsening conflict. I call upon the international community to support the United Nations efforts to ensure that peace and democracy prevail in Sierra Leone.
Following a series of rebel attacks that began late in 1994, thousands of Sierra Leoneans were forced to leave their homes and thousands more sought asylum in neighbouring States. As a result, the total number of internally displaced persons in Sierra Leone is estimated at over 500,000 persons. They are concentrated in and around Freetown, as well as in a number of towns in eastern and central Sierra Leone, including Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Segbwema and Daru. In Freetown, it is estimated that the influx has swollen the population threefold, to 1.5 million persons. The overall result of these developments is characterized by, among other things, overcrowding in a small number of areas, acute shortages of basic survival requirements and the breakdown of overburdened infrastructure.
In response to these developments, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) took up the question of Sierra Leone at a meeting in February. The Standing Committee is composed of the executive heads of the United Nations humanitarian organizations as well as ICRC, the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies, the International Organization for Migration and the non-governmental consortia International Council of Voluntary Agencies, Interaction and the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response. As a result of the discussions held, the working group of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee was charged with developing the terms of reference for an inter-agency appeal for resources required by United Nations organizations to meet emergency needs. The result was the United Nations inter-agency appeal for new refugee flows and populations affected by the humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone. From March to December 1995, the appeal sought $14.6 million to respond to the unmet needs of internally displaced persons within Sierra Leone, as well as those of the new outflow of Sierra Leonean refugees who had recently fled to the Forecariah region of Guinea. There has not yet been any response to the appeal.
As well as being limited by resource mobilization difficulties, humanitarian assistance efforts have been hindered by the prevailing security situation, which led to a withdrawal of United Nations international staff to Freetown in late January 1995. However, humanitarian activities continue on a smaller scale, with the involvement of national staff and the utilization of innovative implementation methods.
The office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator has developed an emergency information management system to ensure that United Nations organizations respond to the humanitarian crisis in Sierra Leone in a coordinated and complementary manner. The system will gather and analyse data required by the relief community to develop and target programmes for affected populations.
At its meeting on 2 June, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee further decided to pursue these efforts by dispatching an inter-agency mission to assess the coordination of humanitarian assistance activities in Sierra Leone. The mission, led by a representative of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, recommended a strengthening of the capacity of the United Nations to support the Government's efforts to coordinate the emergency relief response in Sierra Leone. Actions have been taken to implement this recommendation through the placement of experienced personnel within the office of the Resident Coordinator.
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