H. Res. 559

In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

October 10, 1998.

Whereas the ousted Armed Forces Revolutionary Council

(AFRC) military junta and the rebel fighters of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) have mounted a campaign of terror, vengeance, and human rights abuses on

the civilian population of Sierra Leone;

Whereas the AFRC/RUF violence against civilians continues

with at least 1,200 persons having hands or feet amputated by rebels (and the International Committee of the

Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that every victim who makes

it to medical help is only 1 of 4 who have been mutilated);

Whereas the AFRC/RUF continues to abduct children and

forcibly train them as combatants, in numbers estimated

by UNICEF to exceed 3,000 since March 1998;

Whereas the humanitarian consequences of this campaign

have been the flight of more than 250,000 refugees to

Guinea and Liberia in the last 6 months and the increase

of internally displaced Sierra Leoneans to over 250,000

in camps and towns in the north and east;

Whereas the governments of Guinea and Liberia are having

great difficulty caring for the huge number of refugees,

now totaling 600,000 in Guinea and Liberia, and emer-
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gency appeals have been issued by the United Nations

High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for

$7,300,000 for emergency food, shelter, sanitation, medical, educational, psychological, and social services;

Whereas starvation and hunger-related deaths have begun in

the north with more than 500 people dying since August

1, 1998, a situation that will only get worse in the next

months;

Whereas the humanitarian community is unable, because of

continuing security concerns, to deliver food and medicine

to the vulnerable groups within the north and east of Sierra Leone;

Whereas the Economic Community of West African States

(ECOWAS) and its military peacekeeping arm called

ECOMOG are doing their best, but require additional logistic support to either bring this AFRC/RUF rebel war

to a conclusion or force a negotiated settlement;

Whereas arms and weapons continue to be supplied to the

AFRC/RUF in direct violation of a United Nations arms

embargo;

Whereas United Nations Under Secretary for Humanitarian

Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Sergio Viera

de Melo, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,

and Refugees International, following May through June

1998 visits to Sierra Leone, have condemned, in the

strongest terms, the terrible human rights violations done

by the AFRC/RUF rebels to civilians; and

Whereas the Special Representative of the United Nations

Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict,

Olara Otunu, following a May 1998 visit to Sierra Leone,

called upon the United Nations to make Sierra Leone one
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of the pilot projects in the rehabilitation of child combatants: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) urges the President and the Secretary of State

to give high priority to solving the conflict in Sierra

Leone and to bring stability to West Africa in general;

(2) urges the State Department to give the needed

logistical support to ECOMOG and the Government of

Sierra Leone to bring this conflict to a rapid conclusion;

(3) condemns the use of children as combatants in

the conflict in Sierra Leone;

(4) urges the establishment of a secure humanitarian corridor to strategic areas in the north and east

of Sierra Leone for the safe delivery of food and medicines by the Government of Sierra Leone and humanitarian agencies already in the country mandated to deliver this aid;

(5) urges the President and the Secretary of State

to strictly enforce the United Nations arms embargo on

the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and Revolutionary United Front (AFRC/RUF) rebel forces;

(6) urges the President and the Secretary of State

to work with the Economic Community of West African

States (ECOWAS) nations to ensure there are sufficient

African forces and arms provided to its military peacekeeping arm ECOMOG;
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(7) urges the President and the Secretary of State

to support the United Nations High Commission for

Refugees (UNHCR) appeal for aid to the Sierra

Leonean refugees in Guinea, Liberia, and other countries;

(8) urges the President and the State Department

to support the United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations working in Sierra Leone to bring

humanitarian relief and peace to the country;

(9) urges the President and the State Department

to support the Government of Sierra Leone in its demobilization, disarmament, and reconstruction plan for the

country as peace becomes a reality; and

(10) encourages and supports, Olara Otunu, United

Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General

for Children and Armed Conflict, to continue in his efforts to work in Sierra Leone in the establishment of

programs designed to rehabilitate child combatants.

Attest:

Clerk.