Day Two, Luncheon Discussions

Special Discussion on the Situation in Sierra Leone
Olara Otunnu, UN Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict

ROY GUTMAN: We have one little change in the schedule. Olara Otunnu has to leave us in just a short time and he would like to take a few minutes to discuss an issue that's very important with him and that he would like to share with you before he has to take off for the airport. And then Steve Coll of the Washington Post will talk to us. Olara.

OLARA OTUNNU: I'm terribly sorry for this modification in your program. But a number of you have been asking me about Sierra Leone, seeing as I was there just a few days ago. And I thought I might just share with you some perspective on the present situation in Sierra Leone. First of all, there are very few places where children, women, and civilian populations have suffered unimaginably as in Sierra Leone. Later, you will hear from Steve Coll, who actually witnessed this first-hand and documented this. And this could be relived in Sierra Leone. So the stakes are exceedingly high in terms of what will happen to the local people if the war resumes. That's the first point.

But the second point I want to make is that in a somewhat counterintuitive way, Sierra Leone is actually a rather viable case. It's an easy case. It is one that need not relapse. Let me give you some of the elements, what I call the strong points of Sierra Leone. Unlike most other ongoing war situations or post-war situations -- we should look at the Balkans, look at the great lakes, look at the Congo, you look at Ethiopia, Eritrea, you look at Somalia, Sudan -- the elements I'm going to give you now are very different from those situations. One, in Sierra Leone, by and large, in spite of eight years of terrible war, the society has not been polarized and divided along the usual lines, ethnic, religious, or regional lines. By and large, it has remained a cohesive society. The terrible atrocities that Sierra Leone has witnessed has not been one community descending on another community. It's been very much a small segment of the population rejected by the people, highly alienated therefore, well-armed, very bitter, descending on the entire population indiscriminately. Didn't matter what your neighborhood, what your religion, what your ethnic group, they were the enemy. And they were all brutalized.

But the positive side of that means that in terms of reconciliation and rebuilding the society, the fault lines are not so deep. Sierra Leone is also a society in which the civil society is very strong. You wouldn't get that picture from out here. It was the civil society that brought the military junta under siege, complete siege, before the West African peacekeepers delivered a kind of coup de grace in removing the group from power. Which is part of the reason why the rebels became so bitter against the population, because they felt rejected. In Sierra Leone, unlike almost any post-conflict situation today, there is in place a government that enjoys universal legitimacy. All the people of Sierra Leone, regardless of their political affiliation, feel this is their government, they elected this government, they support the democratic restoration. That's not the case in the Great Lakes, in the Congo, in the Balkans it's contested power in most of these situations. And in Sierra Leone you've got a base, a very deep base, of high education. It was out of Fourah Bay that the rest of West Africa got higher education from the center of excellence based in Sierra Leone. It's a very small country. It's a very rich country.

All of this is to say that that the elements are in place for Sierra Leone to turn a page. But, of course, none of these strong points can kick in unless there is a reestablishment of peace and security. And here comes the problem today. The challenges today are, one, there's been a process of disarmament but very slow. Especially on the part of the main rebel group, the RUF, led by Mr. Sankoh. The war machine of Mr. Sankoh is largely intact. I raised this with him directly when I met him a few days ago. It's largely intact. And asked him why this war machine was still in place. Was it simply a question of a time to dismantle this or was this being kept in reserve waiting for a moment to pounce?

I don't know what the answer -- I don't know what the answer is. And then the large number of people who are still behind rebel lines, abductees, people who have been forced, there's no access to them. And there is very active diamond mining going on -- all of it illicitly. And a good deal of that being funneled out and being sold in turn to refuel the machine within the country. There are powerful forces within Sierra Leone in favor of Mr. Sankoh and very much against the people. That's why in the first place the people were brought to their knees, because they were completely defenseless against the rebel group. The state is in place, but very weak, and most institutions have been made exceedingly weak. The international community could not defend the people so they are completely exposed, which explains why they are to accept the terms of the Lome Agreement.

What this means today, therefore, are two things above all. One, it is critical that the international community does not adopt a wait and see attitude. But that right now moves in to strengthen the hand of the U.N. Peacekeepers -- many of them are from relatively small, weak countries -- to make sure the numbers are augmented, but also the capability for defending themselves and for defending the mandate is strengthened. That is critical.

The second thing is that all the parties in conflict in Sierra Leone, but especially Mr. Sankoh, needs to get a very clear message from the international community -- a message which says we've accepted you to be part of this compromise and you've got a very generous deal out of Lome. We'll keep to that deal, but in turn, you have to move in a convincing way to implement the peace agreement and that the international community will not stand for a reneging on that peace agreement and for the collapse of the peace agreement and the resumption of war.

Now, Mr. Sankoh is a political actor. He's got friends in the Fascial community. He's got friends within West Africa. The international community must be prepared to tap those sources of influence and deliver a very clear, unequivocal message. Otherwise, what will happen, of course, he's buying time. The peacekeepers who are there will not be able to withstand the pressure, and countries•which have suffered enormous, like Kenya, the pressure may be so high they begin to withdraw, there will be a vacuum, and the whole situation will resume in terms of conflict. So, anyway, I mean, in brief, that's my interpretation on the situation.

Now last question you might ask, what deeply really is the intentions of Mr. Sankoh? I don't know. I very much hope that he's bargaining for the best possible 5implementation of Lome Agreement that gives him the best possible arrangement and that he's not buying time for a full resumption of war and for the vacuum that I think might occur in order to take power by force. But I don't know. It's a very good question and that question which can only be, I think, forestalled if a clear message comes from the international community.

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