Sierra Leone: building on a hard-won peace.

• Author: Bell, Udy

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) hosted the first-ever International Music Festival in November 2005 to mark the end of the successful UN mission in West Africa, which brought peace and political stability to a country that had been engulfed in a brutal civil war for eleven years--a war that shocked the world with its images of drugged-up youngsters severing the arms, legs and other body parts of civilians. Indeed, the consequent peace in Sierra Leone was hard-won--a peace that could not have been envisioned without the presence and assistance of the United Nations.

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The beginning of the conflict in the diamond-rich nation of 6 million people can be traced back to March 1991, when fighters of the Revolutionary United Front launched a war from east of the country near the border with Liberia in their efforts to overthrow the Government. Spanning coup d'etats and several failed ceasefire agreements and peace accords, the United Nations Security Council authorized several missions, among them UNAMSIL in October 1999, which followed an earlier UN observer mission in the country.

UNAMSIL was deployed in the wake of Sierra Leone's civil war, which left 75,000 people dead and many more maimed. It became the largest mission a year and a half later, with 17,500 military personnel. In September 2004, UN peacekeepers turned over security to the Government and when the last peacekeepers left on 31 December 2005, Sierra Leone had a democratically-elected government, which extended its authority throughout the country.

The Mission's achievements have been numerous, ranging from disarming and demobilizing over 75,000 combatants, including some 20,000 child soldiers, who are being reintegrated back into society, to watching over the May 2002 democratic elections. UNAMSIL also played a key role as it shepherded a peace process towards the creation of a new national government in Sierra Leone and helped to regularize this West African nation's diamond mining, which had fuelled the conflict. In just a few years, official exports of diamonds grew from $10 million in 2000 to about $130 million in 2004.

However, despite these notable achievements, Sierra Leone remains in a precarious state, requiring the commitment of the international community to help the country overcome the many challenges to its delicate peace. Daudi Mwakawago, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Sierra Leone...