The United Nations Mission In Sierra Leone Essay

The United Nations Mission In Sierra Leone - Essay Example   At the beginning of 1995, the UN Secretary General appointed Mr. Berhanu Dinka, an Ethiopian national to help broker a peaceful settlement in Sierra Leone.   Dinka worked with the help of the Organization of African Union (OAU) and Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) to resolve this conflict and bring the country back to civilian rule. Mr. Dinka’s effort, together with ECOWAS and OAU, seemed to bear fruit as of February 1996, just a year after the war. Parliamentary and presidential elections were held, and the army ceded power to the winner, Alhaji Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. However, RUF refused to take part in the elections and declined to recognize Mr. Kabbah’s win. Their refusal to participate or accept the presidential and parliamentary election fuelled the war further.   In November 1996, Mr. Dinka, with the help of OAU and ECOWAS, assisted in the negotiation of the peace agreement between the government and RUF, commonly known as the Abidjan Ac cord.   However, the accord was not implemented immediately as it was derailed by another coup d’à ©tat 6 months later. At this time, the army also joined RUF and formed a ruling junta, forcing the president and his government to seek asylum in Guinea.   A new Special Envoy tried to persuade the military junta to cede power, but he failed. This forced the United Nations Council to impose sanctions on the rulers and allowed ECOWAS to implement the embargo using its military wing. 7 On October 23, 1997, a sub-committee of ECOWAS dealing with Sierra Leone met a delegation of the junta and held talks in Conakry, which led to the signing of a peace deal. This deal called for a ceasefire that was to be monitored by ECOMOG together with the UN military observers. On November 5, 1997, President Kabbah provided a communique accepting the new deal and said his government would work with ECOWAS, ECOMOG, UN, and the UNHCR to implement the new deal. However, although the junta said i t was committed to the agreement, it criticized some provisions of the agreement. This brought many questions than answers and as a result, the agreement was not implemented. 8 Due to continued conflict between the rebels and the government, the UN Security Council gave nod for the establishment UNAMSIL (United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone). The mandate of the mission was to help the government and the rebels to honor the Lome Peace Agreement. On February 7, 2000, the Security Council revised the mandate of UNAMSIL by adding more tasks. The military component was increased