UN General Assembly
1997

transparent conduct of the vote, which led them to conclude “that the results will genuinely reflect the will of the people of Sierra Leone and usher in an era of democracy”. Having failed to prevent the holding of the elections through political manoeuvring, the anti-democratic forces within the army and their Revolutionary United Front allies launched a campaign of terror and intimidation in those parts of the countryside where the rebels had a presence to scare away people from voting. Many innocent men and women had their hands cut off. Some were branded with hot irons and many more were mutilated in ways that I cannot describe in public. But no intimidation could overcome the determination of the people to put an end to military rule and all its associated abuses. The elections which brought my Government into office were more than an electoral exercise to replace one Government with another. They were no less than an opportunity — indeed, a historic opportunity — for the people of Sierra Leone to put an end to nearly 30 years