Post:
"" While the United States favors a Nigerian intervention under an ECOWAS
mandate, some diplomats and U.N. officials in New York would prefer the West
African forces to be under U.N. command.""
Ind:
"" Admittedly, intelligence officers are having a difficult time. The rebels
have captured large amounts of UN uniforms and equipment. It is not easy to
distinguish between a Nigerian peace-keeper and a rebel with a blue beret. ""
>From Wash (DC) Post
}}>>Begin>>}}
U.S. Backs Plan for African Force By Colum Lynch
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday , May 11, 2000 ; A23 UNITED NATIONS, May 9 –– The United States will
provide transport planes, communications equipment and other logistical support
to a Nigerian-led coalition of West African states that announced today it was
prepared to restore order in Sierra Leone, U.S. officials said.
A team of military officers from the U.S. European Command met with officials
in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to assess what help the regional coalition
would need to conduct a military operation in Sierra Leone, where 8,700 U.N.
peacekeepers have been unable to prevent the collapse of a 10-month-old peace
agreement.
"We will support the West African deployment as required," a Clinton
administration official said tonight.
U.S. and Nigerian officials still need to work out the final details before a
final decision is made to send an African army into Sierra Leone. Washington
needs to consider the cost, which would be millions of dollars, and may ask
other Western countries to help foot the bill, they said. For their part,
Nigerian officials said their newly elected president, Olusegun Obasanjo, must
persuade the parliament to support the mission. And the U.N. Security Council
will meet Wednesday to consider authorizing the force.
Even if the force gets a green light from all parties, U.S. and African
officials said, it probably will take weeks, not days, for the African forces
to arrive in Sierra Leone.
"In principle, Nigeria is willing and ready to give assistance," its U.N.
ambassador, Arthur C.I. Mbanefo, said in an interview. "There is no way that
Nigeria would abandon this situation. . . . But there is no quick fix. And
there is nothing that is going to happen in a week," he added.
Since May 1, rebels of Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front have seized an
estimated 500 U.N. peacekeepers, stolen hundreds of their weapons and shattered
the credibility of the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world. The
fiasco has fueled doubts about the world body's ability to conduct peacekeeping
in Africa and may erode international support for a proposed U.N. observer
mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Nigeria, a regional power broker that has repeatedly intervened in Sierra Leone
over the past decade, would form the backbone of the West African force. But it
probably would include troops from Ghana and Guinea, and it would operate under
the banner of the regional Economic Community of West African States.
In a statement welcomed by the United States, ECOWAS leaders meeting in Abuja
vowed today to "use all means at their disposal, including the military option,
to foil any attempt to take over power [in Sierra Leone] through the use of
force."
Nigeria already has more than 3,000 troops serving under U.N. command in Sierra
Leone. It is prepared to commit an additional 1,600 to 2,000 soldiers,
officials said, to a fighting force with a clear mandate to compel the rebel
RUF to comply with the July 1999 peace agreement that sought to end nearly a
decade of civil war.
Despite American support for the proposed West African force, U.S. officials
said they were committed to salvaging the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone, or
UNAMSIL. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Washington and Moscow had agreed to
help transport nearly 3,000 Indian, Jordanian and Bangladeshi troops to bring
UNAMSIL to its full strength of 11,100 peacekeepers.
A Clinton administration official confirmed that the United States is willing
to ferry approximately 700 Bangladeshi troops, and possibly a Jordanian special
operations force of about 300 soldiers or some of the West African troops, into
Sierra Leone.
"We are going to provide airlift and logistical support," said the
administration official. "Now it's up to the United Nations to sequence this,
so that as the forces prepare to move into position, we will be able to see who
goes first."
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the United States has stationed the USS
Thunderbolt, a special operations vessel, off the coast of West Africa as a
precautionary measure.
Bacon stressed that there is absolutely no plan to send U.S. "combat troops" to
Sierra Leone. But a senior administration official indicated that U.S.
transport planes might fly into Sierra Leone's main airport at Lungi, just
north of Freetown, the capital. British paratroopers are expected to secure the
airport.
While the United States favors a Nigerian intervention under an ECOWAS mandate,
some diplomats and U.N. officials in New York would prefer the West African
forces to be under U.N. command.
U.N. officials in New York said the Nigerians had a reputation for brutality
nearly equal to that of the factions fighting in Sierra Leone. And they noted
that although the Nigerians have been among the few peacekeepers to put up a
fight against the RUF, they are also among the worst-equipped U.N. troops in
the country.
But one senior U.N. official acknowledged that the Nigerians are the U.N.'s
only hope to rein in the fighters loyal to RUF leader Foday Sankoh. "We're not
going to fight," the official said. "We should give him the country, or give
the West Africans a chance."
Sierra Leone's government, which participated in the Abuja meeting, believes
that a tough outside force is needed. "Foday Sankoh knows the Nigerians can be
ruthless," said Sierra Leone's U.N. ambassador, Ibrahim M'baba Kamara, "because
they were very ruthless with his men."
Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
{{<<End<<{{
>From The Independent (UK)
}}>>Begin>>}}
Mission Creep: How Paras find their role is changing
By Robert Moore in Freetown
11 May 2000
The Americans call it Mission Creep. The British in Sierra Leone are calling it
a helping hand. In this case they are assisting beleaguered peace-keepers, but
unmistakably, the British military deployment is changing direction.
The collection point for foreign nationals on the outskirts of Freetown is now
virtually empty. The only figure I saw scurry to the helicopter pad during the
day was the wife of the British High Commissioner, leaving with reluctance and
under heavy protection.
The helicopter traffic of RAF Chinooks continues, but now bringing more troops
in and no longer taking civilians out. The British military here says it will
help the UN in mission planning and technical advice. But that is extending to
full operational and logistical assistance.
Undoubtedly the blue berets are in need of help. They are ill-equipped and
under-resourced. They have been deployed too quickly and without adequate
training or co-ordination.
As their officers struggle to cope with the complexity of this crisis, it is
easy to dismiss this as another bungled UN operation. Many of their men are
virtually confined to their checkpoints and compounds. Their unaggressive
posture in a civil war of unimaginable brutality is easily mocked.
But that would be to over-simplify their plight and would do no justice to the
considerable courage of many of the peace-keepers. The 5/8 Gurkha Rifles, an
Indian Battalion, is serving with remarkable distinction in the isolated east
of Sierra Leone. The Jordanian contingent is also performing in ways that is
impressing the British officers here.
The UN force commander is the quiet, but heavily decorated Indian General,
Vijay K Jetley. He won his medals as a commander on the Kashmir front, leading
his men in ultra-high altitude, fighting against Pakistan. But now, General
Jetley is under greater scrutiny than ever before. His military aides insist
privately that he would adopt a far more aggressive stance with the rebels if
they were not holding hostage 500 of his men.
The General, who insists the situation can be stabilised, is now trying to beat
back the advance of the Revolutionary United Front, without jeopardising the
lives of the captives.
It would be natural for the UN force to be a little resentful of the publicity
that has surrounded the British paratroopers, with their Ministry of Defence
press officers. In truth, the British have not yet left the small peninsula of
Aberdeen or the airport, two of the safest areas in the country.
It is proving extremely difficult to know the location or intention of the
rebels. Even the most basic questions remain unanswered. It is not clear if
Freetown itself is under immediate threat and the location of the rebel leader,
Foday Sankoh, remains a mystery.
Admittedly, intelligence officers are having a difficult time. The rebels have
captured large amounts of UN uniforms and equipment. It is not easy to
distinguish between a Nigerian peace-keeper and a rebel with a blue beret.
Whatever the humiliation being heaped on the UN in the field, the rebels are
now being warned that they will never be tolerated. But such bold statements
and categoric assurances only raise the question of further Mission Creep for
the British. If rebel attacks on the outskirts of the capital mount, defending
Freetown may well depend on British logistics and firepower, drawing the
paratroopers into an enduring and brutal conflict.
Robert Moore is Diplomatic Correspondent with ITN
}}>>End>>}}
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