Yearbook 2006
Sierra Leone. According to
CountryAAH, a new civilian United Nations organization,
the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone
(UNIOSIL), began its work at the turn of the year. It
replaced the UNAMSIL peacekeeping military force and will
help S. strengthen the democratic system so that general
elections can be carried out in good order in 2007. For the
same purpose, the government appointed a commission to
review and improve the 1991 constitution. The Commission
includes representatives of all major parties, religious
communities, the judiciary, the media, business and other
social organizations. The proposal for a new constitution
must be submitted to a referendum in 2007.
After the bloody civil war of the 1990s, relative
stability has emerged and Sierra Leone is starting to
benefit from its vast mineral wealth. Economic growth in
2005 was just over 7% and was expected to be at the same
level in 2006. The International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank rewarded Sierra Leone for its sound economic policy by
writing off most of the country's foreign debt of about SEK
12 billion.
The work of investigating those responsible for the civil
war took a major step forward when in March Nigeria agreed
to extradite the wanted Charles Taylor, former president of
Liberia and designated as a key person behind the war. He is
charged with 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity. In the preliminary hearings in the UN-backed
Special Court in Freetown, he pleaded not guilty in all
cases. For security reasons, he was transferred to The Hague
in the Netherlands in June, where the trial is expected to
begin in April 2007 with organizational support from the
International Criminal Court (ICC). It was considered too
risky to keep him in Sierra Leone, where exemption attempts
and perhaps provocations into a new war could be feared.
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