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IRIN-WA Update 522 of events in West Africa (Thursday 5 August)
SIERRA LEONE: Secretary-General deplores hostage-taking
Ex-members of the former Sierra Leonean Army (ex-SLA) were on Thursday still holding more than a score of UN officials, ECOMOG soldiers, journalists and other persons taken hostage on Wednesday, humanitarian sources told IRIN.
A statement issued on Thursday from UN Headquarters said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "deeply concerned" by their detention. "The Secretary-General deplores this serious incident and urges the armed group to release all detainees immediately and without condition," the statement read.
"He also calls on the Government of Sierra Leone and RUF leader Foday Sankoh, as well as ECOWAS and its military group ECOMOG to do their utmost to seek the earliest release of all detained personnel and to ensure the safety and security of all international staff assisting the Sierra Leonean people to implement the Lome peace agreement," it said.
The group had gone to the rebel stronghold of Occra Hills, some 70 km from Freetown, on Wednesday to collect abducted children the insurgents had purportedly promised to hand over. A few civilians, including three members of the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL), were released on Wednesday evening, a humanitarian source in Freetown told IRIN on Thursday.
UN officials have been in contact with Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh who promised to send two of his senior commanders to resolve the crisis, the source told IRIN.
The source said UN officials in Freetown had also contacted Steve Williams, head of the Organisation for the Survival of Mankind (OSM) - which the RUF describes as its humanitarian wing - and that Williams promised something would be resolved by late Thursday.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, Francis Okello, was due to brief the Security Council on Thursday on the hostage situation. A humanitarian source told IRIN ECOMOG's force commander had been in New York since Wednesday for conversations with donors and the UN Security Council on the composition of peacekeeping forces in Sierra Leone.
The hostage taking is possibly the most serious incident since the signing of a peace agreement on 7 May in Lome between the Sierra Leone government and the RUF. The abductors reportedly complained that the peace pact had not taken the ex-SLA into consideration and claimed that their leader, Johnny Paul Koroma, was being detained by the RUF.
Koroma headed the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) which ousted Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997 and ruled jointly with the RUF until it was dislodged by ECOMOG in February 1998. Since then, there has been little news of him.
Humanitarian needs expected to triple, Annan says
The numbers of people needing help, now limited to 500,000, is expected to triple as humanitarian access increases throughout the country, UN Secretary-General said in his latest report on Sierra Leone, sent to the Security Council on Monday.
Despite initial delays, humanitarian assessment missions have been completed or are underway in the rebel controlled areas of Makeni, Kailahun, Buedu, Rokupr and Lunsar while civilian needs have also been assessed in government controlled areas such as Yele, Port Loko, Daru, Kabala, Songo and the Rogbert-Masiaka corridor, the report said.
These assessments have revealed acute shortages of food and medicine resulting in malnutrition as well as outbreaks of dysentry, cholera, measles and meningitis. Difficult overland access continues to delay food shipments to districts such as Bo and Kenema in the southeast of the country, the report said.
A mission at the end of July to Makeni district in northern Sierra Leone revealed a "catastrophic humanitarian situation" according to Action Contre la Faim (ACF). In Makeni town over 30 percent of children under the age of five years surveyed were found to be malnourished. Nutritional surveys in four surrounding villages found that the percentage of malnourished children in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the district was even higher, ACF said.
The latest Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal, which requested US $27.9 million for humanitarian programmes in Sierra Leone is only 26 percent funded, Annan reported.
Security Council responds to Annan's report
Members of the Security Council on Wednesday emphasised the desperate humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone and said they would be working urgently on a positive response to Annan's proposals for strengthening the mission there, according to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) in New York.
Annan recommends strengthening UNOMSIL mission
Annan recommended strengthening UNOMSIL, including increasing the number of military observers from 70 to 210 and sending additional civilian, political, civil affairs and human rights staff.
On the human rights side, Annan proposed that the present human rights component be increased by 10 international human rights officers including two child protection officers.
UN delegation visits Sierra Leone
A UN team was in Freetown on Tuesday to support the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) and a Human Rights Commission (HRC), as provided for in the Lome Agreement.
The HRC is designed to strengthen the existing machinery for addressing grievances of victims of human rights violations while the TRC will deal with the question of rights abuses committed since the beginning of armed conflict in 1991.
Joint Implementation Committee to meet on 9 August
In his report Annan said periodic reviews of the implementation of the Lome Peace Agreement, signed on 7 July, would be undertaken by a Joint Implementation Committee (JIC).
The JIC will include members of the Commission for the Consolidation of Peace, the ECOWAS Committee of Seven on Sierra Leone, and the moral guarantors of the agreement including the Government of Togo, the UN, OAU and the Commonwealth of Nations. It will be chaired by ECOWAS and meet at least once every three months. Its first meeting is planned for 9 August in Freetown to coincide with the ministerial meeting of the ECOWAS Committee of Seven on Sierra Leone.
As part of the expansion of UNOMSIL, Annan recommended that a small secretariat will be established for the JIC to monitor respective areas of concern, mainly human rights, refugees and displaced persons.
AI asks Security Council to clarify position on impunity
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said on Wednesday that the Security Council should clarify its position on the blanket amnesty provided by the peace agreement, according to an AI news release.
The organisation has written to each member of the Security Council also urging that they recommend and support an effective international mechanism for investigating human rights abuses in order to establish accountability.
In his report to the Security Council, the UN Secretary General said he instructed his Special Representative to sign the Lome Accord with the proviso that the United Nations "holds the understanding that the amnesty and pardon of article 1X of the agreement shall not apply to international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.
NIGERIA: Panel seeks end to ethnic Ijaw, Ilaje clashes
The government of the southwest Nigerian state of Ondo has set up a panel to seek an end to ethnic fighting between Ijaws and Ilajes after 50 people died in renewed clashes last week, state officials said.
The Governor of Ondo State, Adebayo Adefarati, who on Wednesday met representatives of both groups in the capital, Akure, urged them to give the panel, comprising both Ijaws and Ilajes, the chance to resolve their differences.
"We are expecting the response of the federal government very soon and before then we must give peace a chance," he said during the meeting.
Fighting broke out in 1998 between the two groups over disputed land thought to be rich in oil and located near the Atlantic coast. Ownership of land in the southern oil region often yields substantial monetary compensations to local communities if the land is rich in oil, a factor which sometimes aggravates communal disputes in the area.
Residents of the area, which is only accessible by boat or helicopter, said the latest fighting broke out after some Ilajes tried to retake villages from which they were displaced during last year's fighting.
Hundreds of people have died in an upsurge of ethnic clashes in the populous West African country since President Olusegun Obasanjo took power on May 29, ending over 15 years of military rule.
Lower house motions Senate president to step aside
Nigeria's lower house of parliament adopted a motion on Wednesday for Senate President Evan Enwerem, 74, to step aside pending the outcome of investigations against him for alleged fraud, Radio Nigeria reported on Wednesday.
In a resolution issued in the capital, Abuja, the House of Representatives said allegations of falsification and fraud against Enwerem questioned the integrity of the National Assembly and endangered the nation's political terrain, AFP reported.
The weekly news magazine, `TELL', which made the allegation, also accused Enwerem of having a criminal record. Enwerem is the country's third ranking official, under the constitution. In a similar case on Tuesday, a magistrate court in Abuja convicted the speaker of the lower house, Salisu Buhari, of perjury and forgery. He was fined the local equivalent of US $20 or one year in prison.
NIGER: Presidential elections set for 3 October
Niger's military government announced on Tuesday that the first round of presidential elections will be held on 3 October.
Quoting a report on state television, AFP said military leader Daouda Mallam Wanke gave no date for a second round of the poll.
Daouda's government, which took power after killing President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara in April, says it will hand power to elected civilians in December.
So far, the only declared presidential candidate is Mainassara's former prime minister, Amadou Boubacar Cisse, AFP reported.
FINANCE: IMF asked to examine impact of gold sales
The IMF should explore all possible ways to finance its share of the cost of the HIPC initiative, including selling some of its gold , but it should also weigh the effects of such moves, participants in a meeting at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London said.
Measures such as the sale and reinvestment of part of the IMF's gold reserves "should take account of the impact this might have on gold-producing and gold-dependent countries, particularly the HIPCs themselves, and do what it can to limit any uncertainty this might cause in the gold market," participants said.
According to a summary of opinions faxed to IRIN, the 2-3 August meeting also noted that bilateral contributions to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative "will be essential to meet the costs of the World Bank, the IMF, the African Development Bank and other multilateral banks".
Among other things, participants also agreed that HIPC countries should be given opportunities to consult among themselves and share experiences on using debt relief to help reduce poverty.
The Commonwealth Secretariat convened the meeting to discuss issues central to the reform of the HIPC initiative, launched in September 1996 to ease the burden of poor countries with unsustainable debts.
Participants included high commissioners and senior government officials from Commonwealth HIPC countries, representatives of NGOs and religious groups, academics and the press.
Abidjan, 5 August 1999; 18:38 GMT
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-1365
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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