Sierra Leone is one of the West African countries that has been affected by armed conflicts for the past 30 years. The conflict in Sierra Leone began when Charles Gankai Taylor launched his revolution in Liberia in 1989. The Sierra Leone Civil War started in 1991 and lasted until 2002. During the same period in 1989, there was internal armed conflict in Liberia until 1996, referred to as the First Liberian Civil War. There was an attempt to make peace, which did not last long, and the Second Siberian Civil War broke out in 1999. According to Human Rights Watch (1999), almost 50,000 Sierra Leoneans were killed, half of the population was displaced from their homes, and thousands were victims of amputations, rapes, and assaults. The actors in both conflicts included Foday Sankoh, a Sierra Leone revolutionist who had a similar approach to war and was friendly to Taylor, and the governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The role of the UN in overcoming the act of violence in Sierra Leone can be assumed by the process of interventions deployed by the United Nations to intrastate conflicts—peace enforcement, peacemaking, and peacekeeping—with its most crucial missions, i.e., the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone, UNOMSIL (1998–1999), and the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, UNAMSIL (1999–2005). As every coin has two sides, similarly, the role of the UN also has two major aspects: one can be considered the positive impact of the mission of the UN, and the other must be the negative impact that resulted from the mission of the UN. If we talk about the positive aspects of the UN intervention, the first step in the peace process in Sierra Leone was the cessation of hostilities, which was marked by the end of direct attacks. However, this phenomenon made it challenging to achieve the desired goals because UNOMSIL was directly dependent upon the armed forces reactions to the actions of the Government of Sierra Leone. As to how the government would react against the UN missions. The UN generated a positive impact by providing political stability, and this matter provided aid to initiate the first-ever free and fair election in Sierra Leone for both parliamentary and presidential elections through clear logistics and public domain information in resolution 1370 (UN, 2001, e). It not only proved functional in the initial stages but also remained effective later. After almost two years, these missions also served to initiate further free and fair elections. The basis for both of these missions was meditation and diplomatic negotiations.
In addition to the positive aspects, if we review the negative aspects of the UN, the intervention of the UN in the form of UNOMSIL to end the armed conflicts was not an appropriate step as its fundamental objectives did not match a direct intervention to end hostilities. There were a lot of violations of humanitarian laws to make this mission effective. In the mission of UNAMSIL, it was also unable to protect its own peacekeepers; almost 300 peacekeepers were kidnapped, representing a gap in what was specific to UNAMSIL’s mandate and its work in the field. Moreover, these missions interrupted not only the regional system but also led to a serious issue of concern for the international system too.
“President Kabbah stated that it was no longer enough for the Council to condemn the activities of rebels but to consider the possibility of taking further action, not excluding the threat of force, against the hostilities and rebels in order to give effectiveness to the mission demands that they cease all violence and seek genuine dialogue for the restoration of lasting peace and stability in Sierra Leone. (UN, 1999)”
Despite having several social, economic, and environmental issues within the country, some of the major aspects, like political instability and human rights violations, have been overcome by the government of Sierra Leone. But the bad economic conditions are still there, as Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world. Currently, the Organization for Peace, Reconciliation, and Development in Sierra Leone (OPARD-SL) is working in that region to maintain and promote peace and development. In short, there must be appropriate strategies for the development and peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone.
The writer is a student of “BS International Relations” at “International Islamic University Islamabad” and a member of PYDIR.