By Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File Correspondent
Washington - A special diplomatic mission to West Africa led by the Reverend Jesse Jackson is a step in the right direction toward resolving conflict in Sierra Leone, that country's ambassador to the United States, John Leigh, said May 17.
Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the Freedom Forum just hours before Jackson and his party left for the continent, Leigh said, "I believe Reverend Jackson is going to make a positive contribution towards the resolution of the Sierra Leone crisis."
Jackson, special envoy of the president and the secretary of state for the promotion of democracy in Africa, was asked by President Clinton to seek the release of about 500 U.N. peacekeepers taken hostage last week by members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Liberian President Charles Taylor has since attained the release of about 157 of them and it is hoped with the subsequent arrest of RUF leader Foday Sankoh by Sierra Leonean police that more releases will follow.
Jackson, accompanied by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Howard Jeter, former special U.S. envoy for Liberia, will first stop in Abuja, Nigeria, where the two will confer with top government officials about a regional response to the Sierra Leonean crisis. Through May 22, additional stops are planned for Monrovia, Freetown, Bamako, and Conakry.
Criticizing the diversion of world attention and resources away from Sierra Leone because of other crises like Kosovo, Leigh said he was pleased to see the attention the U.S. government is giving his nation. "The U.S. is doing diplomacy there by sending Reverend Jackson, who is speaking to all the parties," he said.
The U.S. government can also further peace in Sierra Leone, he said, by "supporting a return of ECOMOG back into Sierra Leone and working with the British and strengthening U.N peacekeeping forces" there.
Another important thing the United States can do, Leigh said, is "to leash [President] Charles Taylor [of Liberia] ... and bring him under control." Taylor, Leigh said, has influence over RUF and its diamond resources, which the diplomat said are fueling the current fighting. He stressed that the conflict is not really a civil war at all, but rather "is about diamonds and nothing else."
Leigh said Jackson must emphasize to Taylor that exploiting Sierra Leone's diamonds is "totally against the world order."
As for RUF, Leigh agreed with South African journalist Allister Sparks, who told luncheon guests that "this is not a political movement at all," and the "good news" is that RUF's leader Foday Sankoh was arrested earlier in the day in Freetown.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)