PRESS RELEASE BY HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT
AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH ON THE ECOWAS SIX-MONTH PLAN FOR SIERRA LEONE
23RD OCTOBER, 1997 TO 22ND APRIL, 1998

I have now been fully briefed about the recently concluded ECOWAS Conakry Peace Plan for Sierra Leone. I consider it acceptable. On behalf of the people of Sierra Leone and on my own personal behalf, I express my sincere thanks to the Committee of 5 ECOWAS Foreign Ministers and the Governments they represent for the money, time and effort spent to find a peaceful solution to the present crisis in Sierra Leone. I also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the entire international community for their immense political, diplomatic and material support to Sierra Leone, and to my Government and people in these difficult times. Sierra Leoneans will continue to depend on this support until there is a final resolution of those problems.

I have also had time to study the document carefully. It is my view that it contains a number of positive elements which will lead to a resolution of the crises in Sierra Leone. My Government on its part will do everything possible to cooperate with ECOWAS and its monitoring organ, ECOMOG, and other organisations like the UN and UNHCR which are to be involved in the implementation of their respective roles within the Peace Plan.

The people of Sierra Leone have suffered enough. My Government is determined to seize the opportunity afforded by this Peace Plan to bring an end to their suffering. That is the reason why I now by this statement, urge all Sierra Leoneans to embrace the Conakry Peace Plan which takes into account a good part of the Abidjan Peace Accord, and to regard it as an instrument which will lead to sustainable peace, to be followed by the reconstruction, rehabilitation, reconciliation and ultimate development and prosperity of our country.

NOVEMBER 5, 1997