Freetown/Brussels, 2 September 2003: The Sierra Leone government needs to step up its contribution to the rehabilitation of the country. Since the successful elections on 14 May 2002, the donor community and the people of Sierra Leone have grown increasingly frustrated with stagnating reform and recovery.
A new report published today by the International Crisis Group, Sierra Leone: The State of Security and Governance*, says there are consistent signs that donor dependence and the old political ways are returning.
ICG’s West Africa Project Director Comfort Ero said: “The UK, UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) World Bank, and the IMF cannot stay forever. The government’s performance has been disappointing, and complacency appears to have set in. Reform rhetoric abounds but action is yet to follow.”
The first main area of concern is security. UNAMSIL is due to depart by December 2004. However, the police and military are still weak, and the country has fragile institutions, so it would be wise for UNAMSIL to have contingency plans. The situation in neighbouring Liberia also remains a security risk for Sierra Leone that UNAMSIL must take into account in determining the pace, timing and geographic coverage of its withdrawal.
The UN Special Court for Sierra Leone has worked quickly, indicting a number of leading figures accused of bearing the greatest responsibility for the country’s long war, most dramatically Liberia’s then President Charles Taylor. Both the Court and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) are running reasonably well. However concerns persist about the impact of the Court on the peace process, and the surprising indifference shown by much of the population to the TRC.
The disbanding of the Kamajor Civil Defence Forces is not complete, and while the former insurgents, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), struggle to keep their political party’s offices and members together, many ex-combatants find jobs scarce and believe the government should be doing more.
The government has failed to make significant progress on governance reforms. There is no systematic plan of decentralisation, and local elections scheduled to take place by the end of the year are likely to be postponed. Efforts to address rampant corruption have proved fruitless with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) too hamstrung by politics to be either independent of effective.
Finally, Sierra Leone’s diamond mines remain poorly monitored with illegal mining and smuggling still estimated to produce hundreds of millions of dollars that are unaccounted for and unavailable to help rebuild the economy.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Katy Cronin (London) +44 20
7981 0330 [email protected]
Francesca Lawe-Davies (Brussels)
+32-(0)2-536 00 65
Jennifer Leonard (Washington) +1-202-785
1601
*Read the Report in full on our website: http://www.crisisweb.org/
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is an independent,
non-profit, multinational organisation, with over 90 staff members on five
continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to
prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
