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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The sparkle in Sankoh's eye
By Gamal Nkrumah
Set battles between large armies operating from prepared positions are rare in the wars of Africa. It is difficult to get a large army together and maintain it in the field for any length of time, so forces are comparatively small and lack cohesion. The numerous so-called rebel armies across Africa live off the land, harvesting crops in hostile territories and pillaging defenceless villages. Sometimes, they try to win the villagers over and sometimes, villages export clansmen and peasants to fight for a season as mercenaries.
The Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone, one such opposition group led by Foday Sankoh, is no exception. This week, RUF is on the move, except that it isn't a marauding force aimed at plunder; it is marching on the capital, the United Nations claimed. Reports are conflicting: the UN first said that RUF clashed with UN troops 20 kilometres from the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, but later announced its assumption had been based on misleading information. Fear has gripped the land and UN personnel are panicking. On Sunday, Britain -- the former colonial power -- rushed paratroopers into Sierra Leone, ostensibly to protect British nationals.
The democratically-elected government of Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tijan Kabbah is virtually besieged in the capital. It was rescued by Western powers and Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping troops -- ECOMOG. Today, UN troops provide the only protection for the beleaguered Kabbah administration. Out of the 11,100 UN troops authorised by the UN Security Council, there are currently 8,700 in Sierra Leone -- the largest contingency worldwide.
The UN also has the impossibly difficult task of disarming opposition paramilitary groups in Sierra Leone and keeping potential warring factions at bay. But the UN is clearly incapable of demobilising the estimated 45,000 Sierra Leonean fighters belonging to rival armed factions. According to the Lome Accord, the deal struck between the government and armed opposition forces in the Togolese capital last year, disarmed fighters are given food and promised $300. The disarmament process is supposed to be voluntary and accompanied by a blanket amnesty for crimes committed in the past. Over 17,000 combatants from various warring factions have handed over their weapons, but only 4,000 RUF troops have disarmed. An estimated 25,000 RUF fighters are still at large in the RUF heartland, which also happens to be the richest diamond-producing areas of the country.
The world's best-quality gems are mined in Sierra Leone and Angola, but unfortunately, these diamonds have both fuelled and funded numerous African wars. Ill-gotten diamonds have immensely enriched African warlords in Angola, Congo and perhaps now Sierra Leone. Not surprisingly, Sankoh warned UN troops not to reinforce military positions near his diamond-rich strongholds.
The Libyan-trained Sankoh is a survivor. He was a student leader in the 1970s, who was spirited away to the Jamahiriya and returned to lead his people in a brutal bush war against the central government. Critics accuse Sankoh's men of carrying out systematic executions of innocent civilians, and worse, of maiming and raping villagers. Reports of girls as young as 10 being turned into sex slaves of RUF combatants abound and child soldiers provide the bulk of RUF's forces. To say the least, rehabilitation of these victims is going to be a very hard task.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently added Sankoh to its annual list of "Ten Worst Enemies of the Press," which in some quarters is taken as an accolade rather than admonishment. Other leaders on the CPJ's list include Cuba's Fidel Castro, China's Jiang Zemin and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic.
With over 300 UN personnel allegedly taken hostage by RUF, the tense situation is fast reaching a boiling point. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed deep concern, appealing to Libya and Liberia -- a close Libya ally backing Sankoh -- to exert pressure on Sankoh to release the hostages. The secretary of Libya's General People's Committee for African Affairs, Ali Abdel-Salaam Al-Tereiki, was promptly dispatched to Sierra Leone.
Sankoh blames the UN for the latest upsurge in violence and denies that his men have taken any UN personnel hostage. "This is something that has been planned to destroy the reputation of RUF," Sankoh declared. He put the recent upsurge in violence on "forcible disarmament" by UN troops. "They forced their way into the barracks to disarm the men but then started firing, and left our men with no alternative but to defend themselves," Sankoh claimed. Needless to say, the UN rejects Sankoh's charge. Annan dismissed the maverick guerrilla leader's explanation, saying "Nobody believes him."
There are many who want to see Sankoh made accountable to the International War Crimes Tribunal. "I think you are going to see the international community prepare a very strong and swift response against those responsible, and we all know who they are," said US Permanent Representative to the UN Richard Holbrooke in an apparent reference to Sankoh and the RUF. Still. if free and fair elections are held, Sankoh might well win, just like Liberian President Charles Taylor did after routing a Nigerian-led ECOMOG peacekeeping army a couple of years ago.
The war is getting uglier. Rivals play to the tabloid gallery, stoking up gaudy media coverage, and reinforcing images of Africa as the savage, dark and brutal continent. Sankoh says he is fighting for a new and better Sierra Leone, but if this campaign is remembered only for its brutality, it would have been a wasted opportunity. Now that the Kabbah government has been pinned back to the capital Freetown, the realistic course it seems, is to strike bargains over diamond deals and fight only when immediate practical advantages are to be obtained. The latter appears presently to be Sankoh's preferred course of action. If things turn out badly, he could easily find himself reduced to an international war criminal -- but Sankoh is clever enough to make sure that doesn't happen. Sankoh's problem is that his army lives off the land, but still cannot exact as much booty for general distribution to his troops and followers as he would like. Hence the importance of diamonds.
Last month, after the release of a damning report prepared by Canada's UN Ambassador Robert Fowler, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution urging sanctions against violators of a UN ban on illegal diamond trading. The report implicated Presidents Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, the late Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, Ivory Coast's former President Henri Konan Bedie and former Congolese President Pascal Lissouba as having aided and abetted Jonas Savimbi -- leader of the armed Angolan opposition group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) -- to fund a 25-year-old war against the Angolan government. South Africa, Zambia, Ivory Coast and Morocco were identified as having lax sanctions enforcement measures that Savimbi, circumventing a ban on arms and diamonds exports, was quick to exploit. Most leaders mentioned in the Fowler Report also have their hands soiled in Sierra Leone's illicit diamond trade.
Most significantly, the Diamond High Council (popularly known by its Dutch acronym HRD) was singled out for retribution. The Fowler report warned that "persons known within the industry to be dealing in UNITA diamonds have as a general rule neither been exposed by the industry nor subjected to any sanctions," and reproved "the unwillingness or inability of the diamond industry, particularly in Antwerp, to police its own ranks."
The HRD was shamed into issuing a contrite public apology and pledged to curb illegal diamond smuggling. "We want to do something to help African countries get hold of their resources," said HRD Director-General Peter Meeus.
Before, UNITA played the anti-Communist card. Today, warlords the continent over run equally unscrupulous campaigns, but make no pretense of ideological affiliation. Wars are about power and money; why deny it.
In an ironic twist, Bulgaria, Belarus and Russia have now emerged as UNITA's major arms suppliers. The former Soviet Union and its East European Warsaw Pact allies were once among the staunchest backers of the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government during the Cold War era. Those were the days, of course, when former US President Ronald Reagan fully backed Savimbi and UNITA. Of course, there was no talk of an illicit diamond trade then. Washington officially recognised the ruling MPLA as the legitimate government of Angola in May 1993. Seven years on the US has become Angola's largest trading partner, purchasing 70-80 per cent of Angola's oil -- the largest investment in Angola's economy. The US buys more oil from Angola than it does from Kuwait.
What started as a Cold War struggle has degenerated into a struggle for power in which a few make fat profits. It is the same ominous message across the continent: war is a particularly lucrative business and powerful individuals have a stake in stoking the fires of war.
