UN Security Council Delegation In Freetown

The visiting UN Security Council delegation to Sierra Leone held discussions with President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah at the Hill Station Presidential Lodge in Freetown on Friday, 25 June 2004.

The team leader of the delegation, Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, expressed satisfaction with what has been achieved in Sierra Leone so far and said that account given by UNAMSIL on the progress in the area of the drawdown programme and other UN Secur

ity Council benchmarks in Sierra Leone were satisfactory. Ambassador Parry asked whether President Kabbah was happy about the security situation.

Responding, President Kabbah thanked the Security Council and the UN system as a whole and the international community for their support to Sierra Leone. He said he was happy with some of the benchmarks achieved but added that there were still other challenges to be addressed.

President Kabbah affirmed that things were a little bit better organized now than before and hoped that the government will continue to make incremental gains, and that the whole process of putting in place a suitable security arrangement will continue to receive both the attention of the UN Security Council and his government. He particularly thanked the United Kingdom and expressed that that country has been quite generous in its assistance towards Sierra Leone.

Explaining about the extent to which government authority has been extended throughout the country, President Kabbah told the delegation that local council elections have been held throughout the country for the first time since 1972, with councillors for nineteen district, town and city councils elected on 22 May, 2004. He further informed the delegation that he had just returned earlier that afternoon from a countrywide tour to eleven provincial districts where he had inaugurated their newly elected district and town councils, and that he would be proceeding to Mattru Jong and Bonthe Island the following day, Saturday 26 June, 2004 to inaugurate the Bonthe district and Bonthe Town councils respectively. He disclosed that the Western Area Rural District council and the Freetown City Council would be inaugurated on Monday, 28 June 2004 to complete the whole process of installing the rejuvenated, decentralised local government councils.

President Kabbah mentioned the residual problem in Liberia and Cote D'Ivoire, which he said were concerns that needed attention by the Security Council.

While talking generally about the security situation in the sub-region, President Kabbah spoke about the Mano River Union, stating that a summit of that organization was held recently in Conakry to which the President of Ivory Coast and Mali were invited as observers. He informed the delegation that securing durable peace in the sub-region required the commitment of leaders not only within the Mano River Union but all those countries that have contiguous borders with the three member-states of the union. He said that the presence of Presidents Laurent Gbagbo and Amadu Toumani Toure at the Conakry summit was very important.

A member of the delegation asked whether there would be a follow-up of that summit to which President Kabbah said, yes and affirmed that the follow-up to the summit would be held in July this year. The President further asked for the continued co-operation of the Security Council and the International Community.

A member on the Security Council delegation asked about the security situation in the sub-region and about the uses of resources such as diamonds, so that they will not be continued to be used to start and fuel wars.

Reacting, President Kabbah said there is an exchange of information among countries in the sub-region on the diamond trade and that such exchanges of information have had a positive impact on combating the unlawful movement of diamonds, but added that more needs to be done in this area in order to formalise the collection and exchange of such information.

The delegation also wanted to know the extent of co-operation among ECOWAS countries and the impact of such cooperation on the security situation in Sierra Leone and the sub-region. President Kabbah explained that it was ECOWAS countries that helped this country in the first place when the war started by putting together ECOMOG as a peacekeeping outfit and that their efforts to quell the conflict in Sierra Leone was commendable even though they were constrained by inadequate logistics.

Another member on the delegation wanted to know whether government was prepared to take over the country's security with the departure of UNAMSIL in 2005. President Kabbah replied that capacity in the police and army has been enhanced but said there were still some constraints, particularly in the area of vehicles to move the troops rapidly as well as the state of communication equipment available to our military. The President said these were two critical areas that required some intervention.

The Pakistani member on the delegation asked about what conflict prevention measures were being put in place in Sierra Leone to avert future crisis. Responding, President Kabbah stated that our problems have been identified and strategies are being put in place to address those problems. He said that bad governance, especially the one party system was not a good governance option and believed that it was responsible for some of the initial problems that led to the conflict. He informed the team that his government was committed to participatory goivernment, democracy and the rule of law.

Consequently, he said that his government attaches great importance to democratic governance and participatory politics as a way of keeping the people throughout the country engaged in the governance process. He said that the recent countrywide provincial tour to inaugurate Local Government Councils was part of this endeavour to ensure that every part of the country is involved in governance.

Another member of the group enquired about what collective strategy has been put in place to attract investors to countries in similar situations such as Guinea Bissau and Liberia. Reacting, President Kabbah informed them about the consultative meeting held in Paris in 2002, as a means of getting investors interested in Sierra Leone as well as getting investors interested through the Development Partnership Committee (DEPAC), which meets every two months to map the way forward for cooperative partnership between the donor community and Sierra Leone. President Kabbah also said that legislation is being put in place such as an Investment Code to attract investors to Sierra Leone.

The Vice President, Solomon Berewa, spoke about the working of DEPAC for which he is chairman, and said he was happy with the partnership between the government and the United Nations and the rest of the donor community.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the Special Court, President Kabbah said the Special Court was a challenge and explained that the funding of the Court, which was based on voluntary instead of assessed contributions, posed a challenge. He therefore asked the UN Security Council team to look at that issue.

In his remarks, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ambassador Daudi Mwakawago, said they were happy with work here in Sierra Leone and that by inviting the Vice President and other Ministers to witness the discussion, President Kabbah had made it possible for them to know the opinions of other members of his government.

About the extension of state authority, Vice President Berewa said that a lot has been achieved in this area and that this area was a benchmark in relations with both UNAMSIL and DEPAC. He said that the police were now everywhere and that in two provinces, UNAMSIL have been completely withdrawn and replaced by the Sierra Leone Police and the Military.

The judiciary has also been re-established throughout the country, and where there are no Magistrates, Justices of the Peace (JPs) have been appointed to administer justice. He also informed the delegation that Paramount Chiefs were elected in sixty-three chiefdoms in 2003 throughout the country, and that government has been making efforts to ensure its presence throughout the country since the cessation of hostilities in 2001.

The leader of the Security Council team, Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, thanked President Kabbah and his government for the remarkable progress achieved so far and expressed their wish for the country's continued recovery and future development

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