By Richard Norton-Taylor and Ewen MacAskill
Guardian, UKOctober 11, 2000
The government announced a significant increase in its military presence in Sierra Leone yesterday, in effect placing a British command structure in the strife-torn west African country. A British brigadier will be sent to Freetown with his own headquarters, while senior British officers will be attached to the UN force in the country and to UN headquarters in New York.
Baroness Symons, the defence procurement minister, also told the Lords that up to 5,000 British troops - a brigade already on offer in principle to the UN - would if necessary be deployed in Sierra Leone. Senior British officials at a Nato defence ministers' meeting in Birmingham described the rapid reaction brigade as an "over-the-horizon force" that could go into Sierra Leone "in extremis".
They insisted, however, that it would remain under British control, and ultimately under the command of the prime minister, and would not form part of Unamsil, the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone. In the short term, the number of British troops in Sierra Leone will be increased from about 300 to at least 400, to step up training for the Sierra Leone army. A further 60 British soldiers are participating in an international advisory team.
British officials said the moves did not amount to a "massive mission creep", and added that there were no plans "at the moment" for British troops to get involved in combat against rebels. The defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, said British forces would be in Sierra Leone until at least next year.
By placing a brigade headquarters - in the words of Baroness Symons - "to command the overall UK effort and to provide high-level operational advice to the Sierra Leone army", the government clearly believes that its earlier limited plans to help train the local soldiers were far too optimistic. Its decision to strengthen the UN military mission in Freetown also suggests that it remains deeply concerned about the calibre of senior officers in Unamsil. The British army has trained 3,000 members of the Sierra Leone army so far and aims to train a further 3,000 by spring next year.
The foreign secretary, Robin Cook, said the move reaffirmed Britain's commitment to democracy. "The decision to train 3,000 more troops for the Sierra Leone army will contribute significantly to their ability to take the fight to the rebels," he said. A foreign office source said the role of the UN was to go in behind the Sierra Leone army in support, rather than spearheading the assault on the rebel Revolutionary United Front, and that was why training was to vital.
But Iain Duncan Smith, the shadow defence secretary, said that Sierra Leone had become a personal issue for Mr Cook and that was why the government's policy kept changing. "Labour is clearly making their policy on Sierra Leone on the hoof," he said.
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has been scouring the world, trying to build up the Unamsil force, which has been riven by rows between the Nigerian and Indian contingents. Its current strength is 13,000, but India is to pull out its 3,000 troops, mainly because of the arguments with the Nigerians. Bangladesh, which has a small contingent in Sierra Leone, has offered to increase its force, but that still leaves the UN well short.
Mr Annan has gone back to countries that have offered to provide troops for other UN peacekeeping operations in Africa - for the Congo and Eritrea - and asked them to switch them instead to Sierra Leone, saying that this was the priority. The UN needs a success against the rebels to rebuild the credibility of its peacekeeping operations. Mr Annan has on his desk a shortlist of commanders to take over Unamsil in place of the Indian officer, General Vijay Jetley, who resigned.
