Sierra Leone To Face Harsher Sanction If ....., Rawlings

Accra, Aug 14, - President Jerry John Rawlings said today ECOWAS will be compelled to slap harsher sanctions on Sierra Leone if the coup makers failed to reinstate deposed President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He said the 16-nation sub-regional economic grouping is giving Major Johnny Paul Koroma one last chance and expressed the hope that the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) would appreciate ''the gracious approach ECOWAS is adopting''. The President said this when Foreign Ministers of Nigeria, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and the Deputy Foreign Minister of Ghana who constitute the Committee of Four on Sierra Leone, called on him at the Castle, Osu. The Committee is today concluding a two-day meeting in Accra to review the political crisis in Sierra Leone following the ouster of President Kabbah on May 25. ''The machinery for imposing stiffer sanctions is in place. They should realise that their people are facing hardship and could face more'', he said. President Rawlings, who held several rounds of talks with Liberia's warring factions during his two-year term as ECOWAS Chairman, said the eruption in Sierra Leone was a blow to the sub- region. ''It was a great disappointment to us, coming on the eve of our success in Liberia. It almost turned the clock back. It is our hope that through our collective and individual efforts, we would find a solution''. President Rawlings urged the coup leaders to take advantage of opportunities for dialogue being extended to them and ''wake up to the reality of what they face''. ''They have failed to read the signals on the wall. They have embarrassed us and abused the approach we have adopted. They have another opportunity to pre-empt the harsher sanctions''. The President expressed the hope that the proposed meeting between President Lansana Conte of Guinea and Major Koroma would yield positive results. Apparently referring to his meetings of Liberia's factions, he said ''some of us have travelled that road before. We wish for the best''.