[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 559 Introduced in House (IH)]

  2d Session
H. RES. 559

 Condemning the terror, vengeance, and human rights abuses against the 
                  civilian population of Sierra Leone.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 28, 1998

    Mr. Ehlers (for himself and Mr. Royce) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Condemning the terror, vengeance, and human rights abuses against the 
                  civilian population of Sierra Leone.

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 emergency 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 are still 
        lacking in the logistic support needed 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 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 and the United Nations 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 United Nations to establish 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;
            (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 and 
        Liberia;
            (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.
                                 <all>