Among other important recommendations, the agreement provides for the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of former combatants.26 After the
Lome Agreement, the role of peacekeeping started with the formation of UNOMSIL.
The Lome Convention became "the largest, the most comprehensive, and the most enduring North-South multilateral accords in the world to date." (109) The first
Lome agreement was signed in 1975 by forty-six ACP and nine European countries.
The signing of the first ACP-EEC
Lome Agreement in 1975 seemed, therefore, to be the culmination of a decade-long struggle by developing states to achieve these development objectives.
Aid management under the
Lome agreement is now criticized for its general ineffectiveness in promoting sustainable development in ACP countries.
The Council dismissed the amnesty provision in the
Lome Agreement, noting that "the special representative of the secretary general appended his signature (as a moral guarantor to the Agreement) a statement that the United Nations holds the understanding that the amnesty provisions of the agreement shall not apply to international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law."
But the EU defends its proposal, arguing that arrangements under the old
Lome agreement are not compatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and therefore need to be renegotiated.
(7) The European Communities (EC) subsequently obtained a temporary waiver of GATT Article I:1 for the
Lome agreement; a waiver was later granted for the successor ACP-EC Partnership (Cotonou) Agreement until December 31, 2007.
1999 The
Lome Agreement -- ceasefire; RUF to become political party; creation of Government of National Unity; amnesty for members of RUF; DDR; Commission for Management of Strategic Resources (diamonds); release of prisoners; Council of riders to mediate disputes; commitment to human rights and protection of children; funds to pay ex-fighters to help them settle into civilian life.
(4) Unfortunately, fighting broke out again in May 2000, the RUF/SL leader who signed the
Lome agreement, Corporal Foday Sankoh, was subsequently imprisoned, and many of the operational or administrative bodies that were to be established by the
Lome agreement never fully developed.
The Honorable Timothy Lewin, chief executive of London trade finance and counter-trade specialists Financial Research Associates points out that the EC's Stabex fund, which was created to help stabilize the earnings of members of the
Lome Agreement will now need to make up the difference, and "it's going to cost an awful lot of money" to meet obligations to those former colonies.
Eventually, however, the Peace Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the RUF (
Lome Agreement) did provide for power-sharing with the RUF, which was allocated four out of eighteen ministerial posts as well as four deputy ministerial positions.
He also signed undertakings before honourable people like yourself and other guarantors in Lome which he has abandoned by establishing the Special Court against the expressed terms of the
Lome Agreement (signed not by me) but I am now being held responsible because you, my Grandpa, whom I believed and trusted, convinced me to take up the leadership of the RUF which I never opted for nor contested.