UNITED STATES: U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY JESSIE JACKSON LEAVES ON MISSION TO RESTORE PEACE IN SIERRA LEONE

Record ID: 336969

  • Title: UNITED STATES: U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY JESSIE JACKSON LEAVES ON MISSION TO RESTORE PEACE IN SIERRA LEONE
  • Date: 17th May 2000
  • Summary: ANDREWS AIRFORCE BASE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES (MAY 17, 2000) (RTV- ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: U.S PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY THE REVEREND JESSE JACKSON ARRIVING AT THE AIRPORT 0.14 2. MV/SV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JACKSON SAYING, "As we embark on this most serious diplomatic mission to West Africa, there is an enormous crisis."/ MEDIA (3 SHOTS) 0.43 3. WIDE
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANDREWS AIRFORCE BASE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAEULEWI4JFX9397B3VXPVZYITN
  • Story Text: The United States presidential envoy Jesse jackson has
    departed for West Africa on a mission to restore peace in
    Sierra Leone.

    Veteran civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson's
    peace mission finally got of the ground on Wednesday (May 17),
    afetr a 24-hour delay caused by criticism in Sierra Leone of
    remarks he made last week.

    Jackson upset Sierra Leoneans last Friday by saying he
    would seek a solution through rebel leader Foday Sankoh, whose
    Revolutionary United Front (RUF) forces won notoriety by
    mutilating civilians during the civil war.

    He modified his position on Monday, saying Sankoh and the
    RUF were solely responsible for the breakdown of the peace
    agreement reached in the Togolese capital Lome in 1999.

    The State Department said he would go first to Nigeria for
    a meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday; then
    to Monrovia where he will meet Liberian President Charles
    Taylor on Friday.Jackson is due to visit Bamako, Mali on
    Saturday, Conakry, Guinea on Sunday, and finally, Freetown, if
    security conditions permit.

    U.S State Department Officials on Wednesday said Jackson
    now had no plans to see Sankoh, who was captured by government
    troops on Tuesday, contrary to what Jackson himself said in a
    conference call with reporters last Friday.

    The Sierra Leone embassy issued a statement in Washington
    on Wednesday, saying Jackson was expected in Freetown on May
    21.It said the government was "readying a public relations
    campaign so that public anger against Jackson will evaporate
    during his visit following alleged derogatory statements...
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