The New York Times

Wednesday, December 6, 2000

West Africa's Widening Conflict

Editorial

Sierra Leone's agony is sadly familiar by now. In a decade of war the notorious Revolutionary United Front has terrorized the West African country, killing and maiming tens of thousands of people and looting the nation's diamonds. The rebels' leader, Foday Sankoh, was arrested last May and remains in custody awaiting trial for war crimes. A tenuous cease-fire has prevailed since early last month. But the rebels still control two-thirds of the country, and the lethal malignancy they represent is spreading. The threat of a regional war seems to be growing, with potentially ruinous consequences.

In the last two months the rebels and their Liberian allies have engaged in a series of border clashes with the armed forces of neighboring Guinea, and they have massacred hundreds of Guinean civilians. Some 60,000 Guineans have been scattered from their homes. Guinea already shelters 500,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia, and many of these could be uprooted. This would create yet another African humanitarian emergency, and it raises fears of an expanding circle of conflict akin to the intractable wars now consuming Congo.

The primary source of instability throughout the region is President Charles Taylor of Liberia. He helped create the Sierra Leone rebel front in 1991 as a means of destabilizing that country and exploiting its diamonds, and few doubt he is using the fighters for the same purpose in Guinea. Richard Holbrooke, Washington's representative to the United Nations, has aptly described Mr. Taylor as "Milosevic in Africa with diamonds," a reference to former President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Like Mr. Milosevic, Mr. Taylor has brought misery and destruction to his own country.

The United States has maintained a special relationship with Liberia since the country was founded by freed American slaves in 1847. Throughout the cold war, Washington supported a succession of authoritarian regimes. But the Clinton administration has wisely distanced itself from Mr. Taylor. In October, Washington imposed a ban on visas to the United States for Liberian government officials and their families. It is now seeking international support for a broader regime of sanctions that might include a ban on all diamond exports from Liberia, the seizure of Mr. Taylor's financial deposits overseas and a ban on logging exports. This plan deserves support. The U.N. imposed an arms embargo on Liberia in the early 1990's, but it needs tightening.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, visited Sierra Leone last weekend and appealed to the rebels to open areas under their control to government and U.N. peacekeepers. The U.N.'s shaky peacekeeping force, which now numbers 12,000, will be shored up later this month with the planned arrival of West African battalions, mostly Nigerians. American military advisers have been training these battalions in more aggressive tactics that may enable them to begin reclaiming the country from the rebels. Their arrival will be welcome. But it is difficult to imagine a lasting peace for Sierra Leone or its neighbors as long as Charles Taylor continues to destabilize the region.