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 Rev-
olutionary United Front (RUF) have mounted a cam-
paign 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 ampu-
tated 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 muti-
lated);
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-
•HRES 559 EH
gency appeals have been issued by the United Nations
High 
Commission 
for 
Refugees 
(UNHCR) 
for
$7,300,000 for emergency food, shelter, sanitation, medi-
cal, 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 Si-
erra Leone;
Whereas the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) and its military peacekeeping arm called
ECOMOG are doing their best, but require additional lo-
gistic 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
•HRES 559 EH
of the pilot projects in the rehabilitation of child combat-
ants: 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 humani-
tarian corridor to strategic areas in the north and east
of Sierra Leone for the safe delivery of food and medi-
cines by the Government of Sierra Leone and humani-
tarian agencies already in the country mandated to de-
liver 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 Revolution-
ary 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 peace-
keeping arm ECOMOG;
•HRES 559 EH
(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 coun-
tries;
(8) urges the President and the State Department
to support the United Nations agencies and nongovern-
mental 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 demo-
bilization, 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 ef-
forts to work in Sierra Leone in the establishment of
programs designed to rehabilitate child combatants.
Attest:
Clerk.