[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 298 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 298

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

              October 9 (legislative day, October 2), 1998

 Mr. Abraham submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Foreign 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 and RUF violence against civilians continues with at least 
        1,200 persons having hands or feet amputated by rebels;
Whereas the International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that only 1 in 4 
        victims of mutilation actually makes it to medical help;
Whereas the AFRC and RUF continue to abduct children and forcibly train them as 
        combatants;
Whereas UNICEF estimates the number of children forcibly abducted since March 
        1998 exceeds 3,000;
Whereas the 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 over 250,000 displaced Sierra Leoneans 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 for $7,300,000 for emergency food, shelter, 
        and sanitation, and medical, educational, psychological, and social 
        services;
Whereas starvation and hunger-related deaths have begun in the north where more 
        than 500 people have died 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 and its peacekeeping arm, 
        the Economic Community of West African States Military Observer Group 
        (ECOMOG), are doing their best, but are still lacking in the logistic 
        support needed to either bring this AFRC and RUF rebel war to a 
        conclusion or force a negotiated settlement;
Whereas arms and weapons continue to be supplied to the AFRC and RUF in direct 
        violation of a United Nations arms embargo;
Whereas the United Nations Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and 
        Emergency Relief Coordinator, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, 
        and Refugees International, following visits to Sierra Leone in May and 
        June 1998, condemned, in the strongest terms, the terrible human rights 
        violations done to civilians by the AFRC and RUF rebels; and
Whereas the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for 
        Children and Armed Conflict, following a May 1998 visit to Sierra Leone, 
        called upon the United Nations to make Sierra Leone one of the pilot 
        projects for the rehabilitation of child combatants: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (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 Department of State 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;
            (6) urges the President and the Secretary of State to work 
        with the Economic Community of West African States to ensure 
        there are sufficient African forces and arms provided to its 
        peacekeeping arm, ECOMOG;
            (7) urges the President and the Secretary of State to 
        support the United Nations High Commission for Refugees appeal 
        for aid to the Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea, Liberia, and 
        other countries;
            (8) urges the President and the Secretary of State 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 Secretary of State 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 the United Nations Special 
        Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed 
        Conflict, to continue in the efforts to work in Sierra Leone to 
        establish programs designed to rehabilitate child combatants.
                                 <all>