President Kabbah will be in the UK this week to meet the international donor community …yet again. This time the news is good. The parties in the conflict have recently sat through a painful negotiation process in order to arrive at a peaceful settlement of the war in their common motherland. That agreement, signed under the gaze of the international community, is by all indications the best possible way for ending the almost nine-year horror story for the hapless citizens of Sierra Leone.

In this respect, we are extremely concerned and disappointed that it was not found necessary to include a delegation from the other party to the agreement  - the RUF/AFRC - so that they could reassure the donor community of their good faith and for the donors to reassure them also of their own commitment to implementation. That was a missed opportunity. It was wrong and should never be allowed to happen again.

The international community has both a moral and legal duty to ensure that the Lomé agreement does not fail for lack of resources. They were its architects, having helped and, at some points, gently egged the parties in the direction of compromise on many of the contentious provisions. But through their perseverance they got both parties to realise the responsibilities they carried and the consequences that would befall their country if they failed to agree. We thank them for that. They must ensure the parties' observance of, adherence to, and implementation of the agreement. Under the terms of the agreement they are its moral guarantors.

The agreement will stand or fall depending on the level of resources that they commit to it. Sierra Leone cannot afford even the tinniest fraction of what is required. Put simply, the agreement will fail if sufficient money - not a mere pittance this time, please - is not put aside for implementation. Already certain provisions of the agreement which should have been implemented, or implementation of which should have commenced, by now have fallen behind because of the lack of resources and the absence of a process to underpin the provisions. This is not a good sign.

But even while supporting Sierra Leone's case for resources from the international donor community, Focus on Sierra Leone strongly urges that on no account should any money be donated without first ensuring that there is a proper, foolproof and transparent process of accountability so that not one single cent of donors' money, meant for the peace implementation process, goes into the pockets of individuals in the government or local NGOs associated with it. The war may, notionally, be over but corruption - the endemic phenomenon that has become the Sierra Leonean cankerworm - is alive and still boring its way into every fabric of public life. The war does not appear to have changed that. 

Click 24/7/99 for the previous Saturday Commentary