{
  "id": "RL31062",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL31062",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 101063,
      "date": "2002-05-15",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:10:39.228941",
      "title": "Sierra Leone: Transition to Peace",
      "summary": "On May 14, 2002, Sierra Leoneans voted in the first national elections to be held since 1996,\nfollowing an extensive, United Nations (U.N.)-assisted poll preparation process. The election\nfollowed the successful completion of a U.N.-sponsored national disarmament process in January\n2002, when government, U.N., and RUF officials formally declared an end to Sierra Leone's\ndecade-old conflict. Initial poll results indicated that President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the incumbent,\nwould win the election, but he reportedly garnered less than 20 % of the military vote. A special\ncourt of mixed international and national legal jurisdiction is being created to try those held most\nresponsible for war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the conflict. It is expected to\ntry former RUF leader Foday Sankoh.\n  Beginning in 1991, successive governments of Sierra Leone, a small West African country with\nsignificant mineral resources but a poorly developed economy, were besieged by the Revolutionary\nUnited Front (RUF), a guerrilla group-cum-political party that claims a radical-populist political\nagenda. The conflict originated, in part, from the growth of systemic government corruption in the\ndecades after independence in 1961, leading to a severe deterioration of state governing capacity. It\nwas also driven by contention over the control of state and natural resources, particularly diamonds.\nRegional insecurity and external interference in the conflict -- notably by the Liberian government,\nwith which the RUF reportedly traded diamonds for arms and other assistance -- also contributed to\nits persistence. During the war, the RUF and other factions forcibly recruited children as fighters and\nused extreme violence against civilians, in some cases to control diamond resources. \n  The end of the conflict resulted from the revitalization of the 1999 Lom\u00e9 Peace Accord,\n which\nhad broken down. RUF leadership changes and a cease-fire agreement in 2000 were followed by\nconflict resolution meetings between government, RUF, and U.N. officials. A renewed program of\ndisarmament and reintegration resulted, and implementation of portions of the 1999 Lom\u00e9\nPeace\nAccords resumed. The accords, negotiated with the active support of the Clinton Administration,\nwere signed in July 1999 in Lom\u00e9, Togo. Their viability was called into doubt soon after the\nsigning. \nSevere human rights abuses and other accord violations by the RUF and other factions mounted,\nculminating, during the first half of 2000, in hostage taking and armed attacks on U.N. peacekeepers.\nThe U.N. Peacekeeping Operation in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was established by the U.N. Security\nCouncil in late 1999. Its size, the strength of its mandate, and the duration and focus of its mission\nhave been augmented several times. It was recently tasked with providing electoral support.\n  The United States has funded the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Sierra Leone since the\nstart of the conflict. In the mid- to late-1990s, it funded security assistance in support of the elected\ngovernment of Sierra Leone. U.S. policy has emphasized political support for conflict resolution\nmediation, continued U.N. multi-sectoral assistance to the government and people of Sierra Leone,\nand the imposition of U.N. trade, travel, and other sanctions on the RUF and its domestic and\ninternational allies, particularly the Liberian government.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL31062",
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "African Affairs",
    "Economic Policy",
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "Intelligence and National Security"
  ]
}