U.N. Pledges to Fully Deploy 11,000 Troops in S. Leone
A high ranking United Nations Official Sunday pledged to carry out the organization's peace mission in Sierra Leone, the largest of its kind currently in the world.
Bernard Miyet, U.N. under-secretary general for peacekeeping, said during a trip in Sierra Leone that the U.N. was determined to deploy a full force of some 11,100 troops, as approved by its Security Council last year.
There are already 6,000 U.N. troops in the West African country supervising a sluggish disarmament program designated by the Lome peace accord signed last July between the rebels and government, reports reaching here from Freetown said Sunday. "We are working very hard to get the remaining peacekeepers quickly into Sierra Leone, so I think we are committed for the new battalion of 5,000 from different countries and within three to four months we will have them in Sierra Leone," Miyet said at a press conference after arriving in Freetown Sunday. Full deployment would make it the biggest U.N. force in the field.
The reports also said that the head of U.N. peacekeeping operations' arrival in the country's capital coincided with Indian peacekeepers' final move into the town of Kailahun in the east, a rebel stronghold for almost nine years.
The U.N. force commander in Sierra Leone, Indian Major General Vijay Jetley, said that troops loyal to former rebel leader Foday Sankoh had obstructed the deployment of the U.N. force in Kailahun district.
More than 50,000 civilians among the West African country's 4. 5 million people were killed and even more maimed in a civil war started in 1991 and lasted nine years, between the government and Sankoh led United Revolutionary Front guerrillas and some disaffected soldiers.
Last year's Lome accord ended the war and gave former rebels a full amnesty plus some cabinet posts. But due to long-time misbelief and some other reasons, the dismobilization process of the rebels was moving very slow.
Miyet is due to talk to President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and Sankoh in separate meetings on Monday, before leaving on Tuesday.
A high ranking United Nations Official Sunday pledged to carry out the organization's peace mission in Sierra Leone, the largest of its kind currently in the world.
