Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-18-Speech-4-219"
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"en.20000518.9.4-219"2
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"Mr President, during the Sierra Leone debate in December, I, together with a few other delegates, warned against the risks involving the Lomé peace agreement. This agreement not only lets the leader of one of the world’s cruellest terrorist movements off the hook but, to cap it all, also rewards him with the vice-presidency and authority over the diamond mines. But even that was evidently not enough for the rebel leader Sankoh. He turned the disarmament pledge into a farce. Murder, mutilation, abduction and rape simply continued as before. His strategy is very much akin to that of his godfather, Charles Taylor, in neighbouring Liberia, who, by means of terror, forces the population to vote for him in the forthcoming presidential elections and establishes a new Mafia state in the heart of Africa’s diamond industry.
The UN peacekeeping force, mainly comprising ill-trained third-world troops, is in danger of heading for a fiasco similar to those back in Somalia, Rwanda and Srebrenica. Sierra Leone has made it clear once more that it urgently needs a permanent, international peacekeeping force which is well trained and equipped, and led by top commanders from the world’s best armies. It is a good sign that the rebel leader was arrested yesterday and that more than 200 UN peacekeeping troops were released over the past couple of days. But the question remains of how the rebels will react to this and how the peace agreement will take shape in future. In any event, the arms embargo must be supervised more effectively and perpetrators must be brought to justice. More than anything, however, an embargo should be imposed on diamonds smuggled illegally from the country, estimated at USD 60 million annually, which is what is at stake for the rebels in their warfare. I will call for a ban on these precious stones, which are stained with blood from thousands of innocent citizens, in my own country, Belgium."@en1
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