By Evelyn Leopold
United Nations - The UN Security Council demanded on Friday that Sierra Leone's rebels allow UN peacekeepers into diamond-mine areas they control and authorised an increase of UN troops to 17 500 from 10 350.
In a resolution adopted by a 15-0 vote, the council extended the mandate of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, known as Unamsil, for six more months, a period Britain called crucial in the West African country's 10-year-old civil war.
"This could well be the make or break period," said British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock after the council's unanimous decision.
"The priority is the re-establishment of the government throughout the country," he said. "I hope that that will lay the basis of the beginning of the end of the rebellion in Sierra Leone over the next six months."
Set up in October 1999 to support a peace agreement that was supposed to end a nine-year civil war, Unamsil is currently below its authorised strength of 12 500 following the withdrawal of Indian and Jordanian troops late last year.
Forces from Bangladesh as well as air support units from Ukraine are expected to bring Unamsil up to 12 500 shortly.
The United Nations then hopes for several thousand more troops to boost the mission to the West African nation.
The resolution demanded that the Revolutionary United Front rebels fulfill obligations under an agreement signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in November to ensure UN troops can be deployed throughout the country, which includes areas rich in diamonds.
It said the Sierra Leone government should prepare "for the restoration of civil authority" throughout its territory, especially where peacekeepers are expected to be stationed.
Cheered by crowds, about 100 peacekeepers from Nigeria on Wednesday moved to the RUF-controlled town of Mange, about 65km from the capital, Freetown, and began patrols near the key regional town of Kambia, about 10km from the Guinean border.
But the RUF rebels, who shattered a peace agreement last May by taking 500 UN peacekeepers hostage, have not allowed the government to extend its authority to large swatches of the country they control.
UN peacekeepers have also not fanned out into most of the territory run by the RUF, including diamond-mining areas.
The diamonds are said to flow to Liberia in exchange for guns, and the council has imposed a ban on all Liberian diamond exports to shut down the arms-for-gems trade.
That will take effect on May 7 unless Monrovia cuts off ties with the RUF.
Friday's resolution says the rebels, notorious during the height of the civil war for murder, rape and for chopping off limbs of civilians, including babies, continued to abuse people.
It demanded they stop recruiting adults and youths for "fighting and forced labour." - Reuters