NEW DELHI, SEPT 20: India has decided to withdraw its 3,100 strong peacekeeping contingent from the strife-torn west African country Sierra Leone. Sources point out irrevocable differences between the Indian force commander and his Nigerian colleagues and a UN tilt towards peace enforcement mandate led to India pulling out its troops.The withdrawal which was announced today will, however, take place in a phased manner in consultation with the UN. ``As UN gets troops from other countries to replace the Indian troops, our troops will come home,'' sources in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said today.The government, however, said the crisis in command and control was not the cause of the withdrawal. The UN force commander Major General Vijay Kumar Jetley had been criticised by the Nigerians for being too authoritarian while he is said to have charged the Nigerians with trying to scuttle the success of the mission and being involved in illegal diamond trade.Till evening, the MoD was still to get an official letter from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informing them of the decision to withdraw. The Indian army has been in Sierra Leone for two years maintaining a field hospital and military observers first and from December 1999 as the peacekeeping force.The Indian contingent included attack helicopters, armoured personnel carriers, infantry soldiers, engineers, signals and even military police. The force commander Major General Vijay Kumar Jetley too is from India but did not enjoy good relations with the deputy force commander and the special representative of the secretary general. In fact, he is said to have accused them of being hand in glove with Foday Sankoh, the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader and being involved in illegal diamond trade. Ever since the Nigerians have been baying for his replacement which India has steadfastly refused to do.Some countries have also been pressing for a mandate to maintain peace more aggressively. This would mean UN troops actively engaged in armed conflict with the warring factions especially in the diamond mining areas of east Sierra Leone. Some troop contributing countries, including have not been in favour of making peace by using force since the mandate for the UN mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) is peace keeping.The Indian government, according to sources was also finding it difficult to continuously maintain its contingent far away in west Africa. Under the new wet-lease system initiated by the UN, troop contributing countries have to themselves provide logistical support for the troops and the UN would simply pay for it. The distance between India and west African country was coming in the way of continuous maintenance, especially when India was not being given the credit for all the effort put in by it to make the mission a success, sources pointed out.The withdrawal is likely to go into the early weeks of 2001. ``It will take time for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to arrange for more troops. As he gets troops we will withdraw ours as per the normal rotation chart,'' an official said. The present UNAMSIL strength is 13,500 and was expected to go up to 20,000. Nigeria is the largest troop provider followed by India.>
