Sierra Leone
Kenyan general to lead UN in Sierra Leone out of the crisis

afrol.com, 1 November - In a first move to reshape the troubled military leadership of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Secretary-General Kofi Annan has the intention to appoint Lt. Gen. Daniel Opande of Kenya as Force Commander of the Mission.

Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, told a press briefing in New York that the naming of Gen. Opande is the first of three appointments in the overhaul of UNAMSIL's military leadership. UNAMSIL is the biggest UN peacekeeping mission ever, and has been widely criticized for bad leadership. 

General Opande served as Deputy Force Commander in Namibia in 1989-1990, and represented his country in the Mozambican peace process as a key negotiator between the Renamo and the Government of Mozambique in 1990-1993. In 1993-1995 he served as the head of the UN Observer Mission in Liberia.

The reports of small victories of the UNAMSIL have kept ticking in. In Freetown, the Mission reports of a "generally calm" overall situation in the country, with the exception of some tension along the Guinea-Sierra Leone border. Several rebel groups, in particular the "West Side Boys" have more or less disintegrated. Refugees are returning from Guinea to the coastal zone of Sierra Leone.

There are enough small successes to show to. However, forceful critics of the UNAMSIL leadership has made it difficult to recruit peacekeepers. Norwegian military, for example, has criticized the UN for not having competent leadership. Thus, one month ago, the big Indian contingent pulled out of UNAMSIL and last week, the Jordanian contingent announced that it too was leaving. The troop's strength was decreasing while the Security Council had approved an enlargement.

The UN and the OAU have had an immense recruiting campaign to bring UNAMSIL's troop strength from 12,447 to 20,500. An increased engagement from the former colonial power Britain was the first positive sign. Today, UN officials also informed that the Government of Ghana planned to contribute an additional battalion to UNAMSIL.

Opande will have the difficult mission to rebuild confidence to the UNAMSIL, recruiting thousands of troops and, of course, head a mission of over 20,000 peacekeepers in a war zone. UN Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, who lead a UN delegation to Sierra Leone two weeks ago, also confessed that the Mission had been through a "traumatic period of pressures and challenges this year."

The Security Council has until 10:30 a.m. on Thursday to respond to Mr. Annan's letter informing the Council of his decision to appoint Gen. Daniel Opande, a spokesman for the Secretary-General said today. 

UNAMSIL was established by the Security Council in October 1999 to cooperate with the Government and other parties in implementing the Lomé Peace Agreement and to help implement a disarmament plan. 

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