(Rapaport…August 4, 2000) On the verge of imposing a UN mandate to end the trade of conflict diamonds in civil-war torn Sierra Leone, Major General Vijay Kumar Jetley of India, commander of the UN peacekeeping, without giving a specific figure, said he needed, “many more troops.”
On May 22, Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended boosting the number to 16,500. The current UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) is about 13,000 troops strong.
For now, a British-sponsored resolution recently passed giving the force a more robust mandate and broader objectives, but did not specify the number of troops to be allocated.
The Sierra Leone situation is, “very much under control at the moment; but it is tense,” added Jetley.