The United States and Britain agreed Monday to provide limited help to a UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone that appears to be dazed and overwhelmed, with rebels killing civilians and continuing to hold hostage more than 500 UN soldiers.
But despite appeals from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for a rapid reaction force to save the peacekeeping effort, the Clinton administration agreed only to provide transport planes, and Britain is sending a 700-man force primarily to assist with the evacuation of its nationals.
In Sierra Leone, violence and confusion continued to reign. In Freetown, the rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, who is widely regarded in the West as a war criminal, slipped out of sight amid a mass demonstration that turned into a deadly shootout near his compound. Soldiers loyal to Sankoh fired into a crowd of rock-throwing protesters, killing at least four.
While emphasizing that it will not send ground troops, the Clinton administration agreed Monday to transport 700 Bangladeshi soldiers to the West African country. But the airlift had no timetable, and officials have said it is not clear when the troops will be ready to leave. The United States also sent a military team to nearby Nigeria to help organize the movement of up to two Nigerian army battalions to Sierra Leone.
For several days, Annan has been asking Washington for help in airlifting peacekeepers from three battalions committed by Jordan, India and Bangladesh ahead of their scheduled deployment in Sierra Leone next month. The UN peacekeeping force is now about 2,300 short of its Security Council-mandated strength of 11,000.
The Clinton administration was waiting for the outcome of a summit of West African nations in Nigeria on Tuesday to determine whether the peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone should be beefed up or essentially abandoned as a lost cause, American officials said.
It is possible that the situation has deteriorated to such a degree and that rebel forces have gained so much control that there is no peace to keep, the officials said.
On Monday, a rally in Freetown against rebel leader Sankoh turned into a shooting spree.
The violence broke out at Sankoh’s home, as 5,000 marchers rallied for an end to the hostilities and to denounce the rebels. Dozens of UN peacekeepers guarding the house were soon overwhelmed by the weight and force of the demonstrators, as some began hurling large rocks and bricks at the home.
Soon, rebel troops standing behind the UN soldiers began firing through the UN ranks, spraying the crowd with automatic weapons fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Four people were killed and dozens wounded, with more injured in the ensuing stampede.
In Washington, administration officials said that if Nigeria wants to send in new battalions of soldiers, operating as a West African force as it had in the past and not under the United Nations flag, the U.S. would favor such a move.
For its part, Britain said it was sending at least 700 soldiers to secure the airport near Freetown so that foreigners there could safely leave. Unlike the United States, Britain did not rule out using its troops in ground fighting in its former colony.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the British force is not going as “combat troops.” But he left open the possibility that they could assist the UN peacekeepers. An advance force of 250 British paratroopers crossed into the country Monday from Senegal, and 200 were flying in from Britain.
A British takeover of the airport would make it much easier to fly reinforcements into the country and would enable the Americans to send their transports without additional ground support.
At the United Nations, Annan scrambled on several fronts Monday to stave off collapse of the peacekeeping mission. He met with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who expressed enthusiastic, though vague, support for the mission.
“We are looking at ways we can be supportive,” Albright said after the meeting. Asked whether that would include contributing to a rapid reaction force, Albright said: “We are looking at how to provide logistical support.”
Annan also appealed to Sierra Leone’s neighbors, particularly Liberia and Guinea, to prevent rebels based on their soil from crossing back into Sierra Leone, according to his spokesman, Fred Eckhard. He said there were reports that some fighters were crossing the border, apparently to join the main guerrilla force.
Liberia’s president, Charles Taylor, has long supported the Revolutionary United Front, as insurgents loyal to Sankoh call themselves.
As a precaution, Annan ordered the evacuation of 266 non-essential UN personnel from Sierra Leone, leaving 55 UN civilian employees in the country. Some embassies and aid agencies have already flown some of their employees and dependents out of the country.
Eckhard acknowledged Monday that the United Nations’ performance had been hampered by a breakdown in its outdated communications equipment, which made it difficult for the operations center in Freetown to stay in contact with units in the field. He also confirmed that the lightly armed peacekeepers arrived without tanks or artillery, the kind of heavy weapons that might have cowed the guerrillas.
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Over the past week, the rebels have seized and are holding more than 500 UN peacekeepers, at least 400 of whom are Zambian, and taken their weapons, ammunition and at least 13 armored personnel carriers.
But on Monday, the United Nations reduced the number of its soldiers reported killed from four to one, a Kenyan, with another Kenyan missing-in-action.
Annan has also dispatched Bernard Miyet, the head of the UN’s peacekeeping department, to Freetown to encourage the mission there.
The leaders of Sierra Leone and three other West African countries–Guinea, Liberia and Mali–met in Conakry, Guinea, on Monday with Oluyemi Adeniji, a Nigerian who is the UN’s special representative to Sierra Leone.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has planned for Tuesday another meeting of nine African countries, including Sierra Leone and Liberia, in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Nigerian troops battled the rebels as part of a West African force before the UN peacemakers arrived.
Their departure, which concluded last week, apparently helped embolden Sankoh’s fighters to turn on the UN peacekeepers, who were attempting to secure territory in rebel-held parts of Sierra Leone where diamonds are mined. The rebels have supported their war and enriched their leaders by smuggling diamonds into the international market through Liberia.
A peace accord in July created a power-sharing government.