Belarus has broken arms embargo by sending attack helicopters to Ivory Coast, says UN chief
By Daily Mail ReporterRead more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361371/UN-chief-Ban-Ki-Moon-Belarus-broken-Ivory-Coast-embargo-sending-helicopters.html#ixzz2cT15Xobk
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- Cocoa prices reach record highs amid continuing unrest
UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast are providing 24-hour protection to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of the November 28 presidential election.
He has been confined to the grounds of a heavily guarded hotel because Laurent Gbagbo refuses to give up the presidency.
Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo (left) and his political opponent Alassane
Ouattara (right) held rival swearing-in ceremonies on December 4, 2010,
with both claiming victory in the presidential election
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the delivery of three attack
helicopters to Mr Gbagbo's forces is a serious violation of the
international embargo
'The first delivery arrived reportedly on a flight which landed this evening and additional flights are scheduled for tomorrow,' a statement from Mr Ban's office said.
'This is a serious violation of the embargo against Cote d'Ivoire, which has been in place since 2004,' Mr Ban's statement said.
'The violation has been immediately brought to the attention of the Security Council's Committee charged with the responsibility for sanctions' against Ivory Coast, Mr Ban said, urging the Council to convene an urgent meeting.
Mr Ban said he 'demands full compliance with the arms embargo and warns both the supplier of this military equipment and Mr Gbagbo that appropriate action will be taken in response to the violation'.
The UN chief said he had asked the UN peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast 'to monitor the situation closely and to take all necessary action, within its mandate, to ensure that the delivered equipment is not prepared for use'.
Following the disputed election result, Foreign Secretary William Hague backed military options to oust the Ivory Coast president after he refused to hand over power.
But he stressed he was not raising the prospect of British troops being deployed, despite a UK military liaison officer being sent to the troubled west African state.
Ivory Coast, also known as Cote d'Ivoire, is a former French colony that gained independence in 1960.
The West African nation is one of the world's largest cocoa exporters, and so any civil unrest in the country can have an adverse impact on the world's commodities markets and result in a hike in cocoa prices.
Around 40 per cent of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in Ivory Coast, and the recent unrest has ‘significantly’ depleted the number of certified fair trade cocoa farmers.
Many farmers have fled the country, and fair trade training programmes have ground to a halt because of the danger farmers face in rural areas.
The situation is already affecting chocolate manufacturers, who are facing the highest cocoa prices for more than 30 years.
Clashes in the Ivory Coast capital: A burnt out UN car lies in the
street in Abidjan after it was torched by a mob supporting Mr Gbagbo
Ban Ki-Moon asked the UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast 'to monitor the
situation closely and... ensure that the delivered equipment is not
prepared for use'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361371/UN-chief-Ban-Ki-Moon-Belarus-broken-Ivory-Coast-embargo-sending-helicopters.html#ixzz2cT0NoXFI
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 May 2000 |
31 May: RUF rebels
recaptured the town of Lunsar from pro-government force after a
five-hour battle on Tuesday night, military sources said on
Wednesday. Government forces, who had taken the town on Monday,
said they had run out of ammunition and had been forced to
retreat. The BBC reported that government forces were regrouping in the
town of Mamusa, while the Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted a
defence official as saying reinforcements were being rushed to
the area.
British troops assigned to train the Sierra Leone Army may also provide security at
 Lungi
International Airport and around UNAMSIL's headquarters in
Aberdeen after the current contingent of Royal Marines pulls out next
month, a British military spokesman said on Wednesday. "Their
central role is advice and training but it could also include a
force on the ground for an actual patrol-type task," the
spokesman said. He said the remaining troops would number in
"three figures" and could be drawn from the 42 Marine Commando
currently on the ground, the Parachute Regiment, or the Royal
Anglians. Meanwhile, Britain has dismantled its rear logistics
headquarters at Lungi and some support staff have departed. "The
manpower is dropping but the number of soldiers on the ground is
not. There is no change to the mission," the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, British troops handed out leaflets in Freetown
Wednesday saying they would soon leave Sierra Leone. "The U.K.
military force has achieved its mission of stabilising the security
situation in Sierra Leone while (U.N.) reinforcements arrive," the
leaflets read. "As UNAMSIL reinforces and assumes the role of
defending Lungi there will be a withdrawal of British troops...A
strong British military team will remain to assist the government
defence forces and UNAMSIL. The essential technical and other
advice given to both will remain firmly in place."
A high-level U.N. team headed by former Assistant
Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Manfred Eisele was set to
leave New York for Freetown on Wednesday to assess problems faced
by UNAMSIL in response to the crisis which began on May 1,
according to Fred Eckhard, the the spokesman for the U.N.
Secretary-General. The team will make recommendations to improve
the U.N.'s ability to discharge its mandate. UNAMSIL said
Wednesday that the military situation in the country was
relatively quiet, with no fighting between U.N. troops and RUF
fighters in the past ten days. As of Wednesday morning, the reported
strength of UNAMSIL stood at 11,280 troops, with reinforcements
continuing to arrive.
The RUF is forcing children to join its ranks and engage in combat, including
 demobilised
child soldiers, Human Rights Watch charged on Wednesday. In a
statement, the group said it had documented abductions of
children as recently as early May. "Since taking United Nations
peacekeepers hostage in early May, the RUF has forced many
children, included demobilised RUF child soldiers who had laid
down their arms, to join its ranks," the Human Rights Watch
statement said. "Many other children have been abducted by the
RUF in recent weeks to carry military equipment and looted goods,
and female abductees are regularly raped."
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has resumed distribution of
 seed
rice and tools to some 40,000 destitute farmers in Sierra Leone, many
of whom have been displaced by fighting in recent years, the ICRC
said in a statement issued on Wednesday. The seed is urgently
needed before mid-June, the end of the planting season for upland
rice. If the programme goes according to plan, the ICRC said,
more than 200,000 people in Pujehun, Kenema, Kailahun and
Tonkolili Districts should be able to feed themselves by the next
harvest. Distributions had been interrupted recently by fighting
along the Freetown - Kenema highway and by general insecurity in
the country. Starting at the beginning of the week, however, the
ICRC began distributions to 2,000 families in Kenema District from
existing stocks in its warehouses. The ICRC said reaching tens of
thousands more people depended on work to repair the Mabang Bridge,
which would provide a safer alternate route, bypassing to the
south fighting between pro-government forces and the RUF. "The
bridge has been impassable for trucks for several years, but the
ICRC hopes to have it rebuilt by the end of the week, thus
opening up a new supply route for the ICRC and for civilian and
commercial traffic between Freetown and the southern provinces,"
the statement said.
Four ex-SLA officers arrested last week in connection with
attacks on the home of President Kabbah's chief security officer and on
Wilberforce Barracks have been freed, according to Oliver Somasa,
the head of Sierra Leone's Criminal Investigations Department.
"We are continuing our investigations but have released the men
we were holding," Somasa said. Those released included former
AFRC Secretary of State for Marine Resources George Adams,
Santigie "Brigadier 55" Kanu, and former AFRC commander
Lieutenant-Colonel Augustine Kenny. According to Somasa, an
ex-SLA soldier with ties to the RUF, Hassan Sesay, had alleged
that the four were involved in a coup attempt, but later said the
claims were false. "Sesay was under the heavy influence of drugs
at the time he made the claims," Somasa said.
The Sierra Leone government is still contemplating what to do
with detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh, Information Minister Dr. Julius
Spencer said on Wednesday. "The question is, 'Try him for what?
Where to try him?' and other questions which the government would
have to find answers to before embarking on any charge," Spencer
said. "People think this is an easy matter but it is not. It is a
complex issue to decide exactly what Sankoh should be tried for.
A decision would have to be taken on whether to try Sankoh
locally or internationally." He said any decision would have to
be taken in consultation with the international community. We
depend on the international community for the assistance we are
currently receiving. We don’t want to spoil the present good
relationship so we have to ensure we do not end up at loggerheads
with them," he said.
South Africa's Department of Home Affairs said Wednesday that
Fatou (Mbaye) Sankoh, the wife of detained RUF leader Foday
Sankoh, refused to accept papers served on her on Tuesday evening
declaring her persona non grata. The South
 African
government alleged that Fatou Sankoh had engaged in activities
intended to promote the aims and objectives of the RUF, which it
said were contrary to promoting a climate of peace and stability in
Sierra Leone. She was given 24 hours to leave the country. Mabitsela
Malefane, chief executive officer of the International Festival
of African Arts and Culture (Festac), Sankoh's host in South
Africa, said Sankoh had "seen" but "not received" the documents
when they were presented to her at her Sandton Hotel room. "She
felt strongly that she was not guilty of any wrong doing and
therefore did not have to accept the document," he said. Home
Affairs Department spokesman Manase Makwela said officials read
the document to Sankoh after she refused to sign it. But Sankoh
insisted Wednesday that she had received no official notification
of her expulsion from either the Department of Home Affairs or
the Department of Foreign Affairs, and said she had only learned of the
government's decision from journalists. But she added she was
willing to leave the country. "I had no intention of staying,"
she said. "I was brought here to talk about the festival and
discuss the situation in Sierra Leone, and I have done that." But
despite being ordered to leave, Fatou Sankoh continued to speak
out on behalf of her husband's movement. "The informed world
understands that all Sierra Leone's war centers around its vast
diamond fields," she told SABC radio. "The same community
understands that armies of foreign governments, along with
private mercenary armies, financed by Great Britain, Nigeria, and
various rebel groups, including Chairman Sankoh's, have fought
for control of these valuable diamond mines...At no time was my
husband ever given a chance to speak publicly, or to give statement to
the press, presenting the fact from his side." She accused
pro-government forces of kidnapping Foday Sankoh, along with RUFP
ministers and bodyguards.
30 May: The U.N. has
called on the RUF rebels to allow free movement for 258
peacekeepers surrounded since early this month in eastern Sierra
Leone. "This restriction on the movement of our people in Kuiva
and Kailahun must be lifted," UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst
said on Tuesday. "We believe the RUF is now trying to find a
peaceful solution to this crisis so that is why it is a priority
that they must allow free movement." He noted that the RUF seemed to
be "withdrawing into the interior of the country." Most of the
peacekeepers cut off in Kailahun District are members of the
Indian contingent. With them are 11 military observers who were
initially held captive, but later handed over. Wimhurst said the
RUF had asked Monday that the 11 be handed over so they could be
evacuated via Liberia, but the U.N. refused. "If they were
allowed to move we could bring them back to Freetown very easily
ourselves," Wimhurst said.
Pro-government forces, who reportedly captured Lunsar on Monday,
are planning to continue their advance against the RUF, Operations
Director Colonel Alfred Nelson-Williams told reporters on Tuesday.
"We are operating under the constitution of Sierra Leone and we will
continue our advancement," Nelson-Williams said in Freetown.
"As far as we are concerned we are heading toward Makeni. We expect
to meet resistance from the RUF as we are liberating the
diamondiferous fields of Kono." Government forces claimed they
killed 30 RUF rebels and captured two on Monday during the
operation to retake Lunsar. There has been no independent
confirmation of the report. The Sierra Leone government has previously
denied it is mounting an offensive against the RUF, insisting
that it is defending by taking over the positions of attacking
rebel forces. "Going to Lunsar was not an offensive strategy, the
rebels attacked us from there," presidential spokesman Septimus
Kaikai said on Tuesday. Nelson-Williams said the army's new
working principles required soldiers to respect international
conventions on the treatment of civilians, prisoners and child
soldiers. "It's not the type of army that we used to know," he
said.
ECOWAS Executive-Secretary Lansana Kouyate (pictured left) acknowledged
 Tuesday
that he erred when he said ECOWAS heads of state and government
and decided to remove RUF leader Foday Sankoh from Sierra Leone.
His announcement on Monday brought denials from the Sierra Leone
government and protests on the streets of Freetown. "Probably,
because it was very late and we were debating many controversial
positions, but finally this is because we had another round of
contacts this morning with different heads of state, and I think
the consensus is that the government of Sierra Leone has to
ensure the safety of Foday Sankoh,"  Kouyate
said in explaining the error to the BBC Focus on Africa programme.
Sierra Leone's Information Minister, Dr. Julius Spencer (right), said
President Kabbah had not signed the communiqué issued following
Sunday's ECOWAS summit in Abuja "nor has at least Guinea as far
as I know." He told the BBC that the question of whether Sankoh
should be taken out of Sierra Leone had not been discussed. "It
was discussed at the Security and Mediation Committee meeting,
but it was not discussed at the full summit meeting. And there
was no decision taken about that," Spencer said. Earlier, Kouyate
denied that Sankoh's fate had been linked to the release of over
500 U.N. personnel held by the RUF. "We never engaged in any
sorts of negotiations," Kouyate told Radio France International.
"The release of the hostages was unconditional. As regards the
decision to guarantee the security of Foday Sankoh, this follows a
close consideration of the issue which does not, by any means,
imply that Sankoh will not face trial. The heads of state have
also decided to send a fact-finding mission to look into the renewed
hostilities and find those responsible." Kouyate said ECOWAS
considered the Lomé Peace Accord, signed between the Sierra Leone
government and the RUF in July 1999, as still valid. "The accord was
negotiated and now it has been violated but we need to see whether
the accord should be amended and improved," he said. "For the
heads of state, the accord is still holding." He argued that the
RUF had been transformed into a political party with the full
cooperation of the Sierra Leone government, and that the actions
of one person — "even though he is the leader of the RUF" —
should not alter this fact. "I believe that the RUF remains a
political party," he said. "After the fact-finding mission, those
responsible will be identified and the sub-region will, in
collaboration with the Sierra Leonean Government, come to some
sort of decision. We should not condemn the RUF." ECOWAS
spokeswoman Dr. Adrienne Diop said Tuesday that the option that
Sankoh might remain in custody in Sierra Leone had been
inadvertently left out of the final communiqué. "The issue of his
being taken out Sierra Leone is only one option. He may stay in Sierra
Leone or be kept outside Sierra Leone," Diop said. "The two
options are open." She said what was important was Sankoh's safety.
On Monday, Diop hinted that Sankoh might still have a role
to play in Sierra Leone. "It was decided that the safety of
Sankoh was important to the future of Sierra Leone," she told the
Washington Post. "He will be leaving Sierra Leone fairly soon.
Foday Sankoh has violated the peace agreement, and that will be
taken into account, but he has a role to play."
Presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai said Tuesday the Sierra
Leone government was considering whether RUF leader Foday Sankoh
should be tried at home or abroad. "There are a lot of issues to
consider," Kaikai said. "We have to consider if he could have
adequate protection here. Is there the possibility of an impartial jury?
Is it possible within our legal system? Or do we have the
logistics?" Sankoh has not been formally charged, but the
government is investigating his role in crimes committed since
the signing of the Lomé Peace Accord — in particular the shooting
of demonstrators by RUF supporters outside his residence on May
8. The government has also alleged Sankoh was involved in the
illicit sale of diamonds while chairman of the government's
Commission for the Management of Strategic Resources,
National Reconstruction and Development, and that he had been plotting
a coup. Kaikai said trying Sankoh would cost millions — more than
Sierra Leone could afford. "We also have to consider the question
of co-conspirators. Should he be the only one on trial?," Kaikai
asked. He said a decision would be made "shortly."
Liberian President Charles Taylor said Tuesday that the release
of over 500 U.N. peacekeepers held hostage by the RUF had been
unconditional. "I thank God that I
 was
able to convince them (RUF) to do the right thing, to release all the
hostages unconditionally," Taylor told a news conference in Abuja,
Nigeria following the ECOWAS summit. Earlier this month, ECOWAS
leaders had designated Taylor to negotiate for the release of
almost 500 U.N. peacekeepers and military observers detained by
the RUF based on his perceived close relationship with the rebel
group. "We have always said we know Foday Sankoh. I think our
knowledge of him should be used to the advantage of ECOWAS,"
Taylor said. "We are not going to take credit for this. I think
ECOWAS should take the credit for being able to bring that crisis
to an end. It was a shameful thing to hold other African
soldiers hostage."
467 U.N. personnel who had been abducted by the RUF were released
via the Liberian border town of Foya, UNAMSIL said on Tuesday.
The number included 427 Zambians, 32 Kenyans, three Indians and five
military observers. Four Zambians remain unaccounted for, a U.N.
spokesman said, and it is increasingly likely the bodies found a
Rogberi Junction last week belonged to the missing peacekeepers.
Six U.N. personnel remain in hospital in Freetown, and some of
them have injuries which will require specialised treatment
outside the country. 258 U.N. personnel — 224 Indians and 11
military observers at Kailahun and 23 Indians at Kuiva — remain
surrounded by RUF troops. As of Tuesday morning the UNAMSIL force
strength stood at 11,060, the spokesman said.
Former RUF field commander Sam "Mosquito" Bockarie has suggested he is
 considering
a return to Sierra Leone. Bockarie and a number of his
supporters were forced into exile in Liberia last December after
he publicly broke from RUF leader Foday Sankoh and accused Sankoh
of trying to have him killed. In an interview with the
Washington Post last week, Bockarie said he was working as an
unofficial security advisor to Liberian President Charles Taylor
while retaining control over 2,000 RUF members, some of whom have
been integrated into Anti-Terrorist Unit. He said other RUF fighters
were training for a return to Sierra Leone. "I am confused and
getting angry...You cannot keep a man like me in an indefinite
situation," Bockarie said. In an effort to clarify his own role,
he told the Washington Post, "I am preparing a document for
[Taylor's] attention."
South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs has ordered Fatou
(Mbawe) Sankoh, the wife of detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh, to
leave the country within 24
 hours.
A department spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, said Fatou Sankoh
had been declared persona non grata because she had been promoting
the RUF, which was hindering a peaceful resolution of the Sierra
Leone conflict. "These activities are contrary to the letter and
spirit of efforts aimed at creating a climate for peace and
stability in Sierra Leone," said Foreign Affairs Director-General
Sipho Pityana. "The department of foreign affairs, in
conjunction with the department of home affairs, hereby declares
Mrs. Fatou Mbaye Sankoh persona non grata in South Africa with
immediate effect. Accordingly she must leave South Africa within
24 hours." In October 1997 the United Nations Security Council imposed
an international travel ban on members of the former AFRC junta
and adult members of their families. Foday Sankoh, although
imprisoned in Nigeria throughout the period, was named AFRC
deputy chairman and consequently was included under the travel
ban.
Several ex-SLA soldiers arrested in connection with a May 22
attack on the home of President Kabbah's chief of security, Major
Mohamed Aliyu, and on Wilberforce Barracks, have been released, a
source close to the AFRC told the Sierra Leone Web on Tuesday.
Those arrested were named by the Freetown press last week as
Brigadier Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara, Santigie Kanu (Brigadier 55),
Sammy, Papa, Tamba Brima (Gullit), George Adams and LTC Kenny. At least
four persons, including two Nigerian peacekeepers, were reported
killed in the attacks, which were said to have been carried out
by ex-SLA soldiers loyal to AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma, who
were trying to free a comrade from detention. Koroma condemned
the attack, and in a May 24 statement said the perpetrators "were
not soldiers loyal to the head of state, the leadership of the
AFRC and to the people of this country." Earlier Tuesday, a
diplomatic source in Freetown suggested to the Sierra Leone Web that
most of the blame for the attack should go to a man named Hassan
Sesay, who had allegedly mounted the attack in an effort to free a
friend from detention. The diplomat quoted a government source
as saying there was no hard evidence that those arrested were
involved and that "the bulk of the story" may have been
fabricated to implicate others. Meanwhile, the Times of London
suggested Tuesday that the attack had in fact been a "mini-coup"
attempt. In the Times version, the soldiers were attempting detained RUF
leader Foday Sankoh who, the newspaper alleged, had "offered a
huge sum of money to be sprung from prison." According to this
scenario, the gunmen intended to kidnap Aliyu, force him to order
the president's guards to open the gates, seize a vehicle, drive
to the presidential lodge and capture President Kabbah. They
would have then gone to Pademba Road Prison to demand the release
of Sankoh and six other RUF officials. The government has
maintained that Sankoh is being held at a secret location in
Freetown.
29 May: West African
heads of state and government meeting at an ECOWAS summit in
Abuja have endorsed a proposal made by ECOWAS nation defence
ministers and and chiefs of staff which would send an additional
3,000 troops to Sierra Leone. In a communiqué issued after the
meeting, the regional leaders called for UNAMSIL's mandate to be
changed from "peacekeeping to peace enforcement" and for the
force, currently headed by Indian Major-General Vijay Kumar Jetley, to
be headed by a West African. The West African leaders also
"decided to ensure the safety of (detained RUF leader) Corporal
Foday Sankoh by keeping him out of Sierra Leone," the communiqué
said. A committee of six ECOWAS members — Ghana, Guinea, Liberia,
Mali, Nigeria and Togo — will be sent to Sierra Leone
immediately to determine a date for a cease-fire and to end
renewed fighting in the country. The committee has been mandated
"to make contact with all the parties concerned and prevail on
them to redeploy to the positions held as at 1 July, 1999, the
date of signature of the Lomé Peace Accord." The summit resolved to
conduct an inquiry into the renewed hostilities and to study the
illegal trade in diamonds in the region. The leaders also called
on the RUF to disarm and demobilise voluntarily. Malian President
Alpha Oumar Konare, the current ECOWAS chairman, was directed
"to prevail on member states who had pledged to contribute
contingents to honor their commitments." Seven countries have
reportedly offered troops for the mission, which is expected to
be heavily dominated by Nigerian soldiers. Several countries
which made similar pledges to provide troops to the ECOMOG force
failed to follow through on their commitments. Earlier, ECOWAS
spokeswoman Dr. Adrienne Diop told reporters it had been agreed
that the West African troops would work under the United Nations
rather than as a separate parallel force. She said Sankoh
"would be taken out of Sierra Leone to be kept in a safer place"
while efforts to revive the peace process continued.
ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate told journalists that
ECOWAS would take charge of the rebel leader. "We have decided
to give security to Foday
Sankoh,
probably outside Sierra Leone...but that does not mean that we
accept massacres and mutilation of the population," he said.
"That does not mean either that he cannot be tried later...this is a
decision taken unanimously, with Sierra Leone's President Ahmad
Kabbah." But the BBC's Robin White quoted Sierra Leonean Foreign
Minister Dr. Sama Banya as saying Sierra Leone had not agreed to hand
Sankoh over. "Well this is part of a communiqué and I think it
has been discussed with the government of Sierra Leone, and this
is what the heads of state have agreed on," Kouyate said in a BBC
Focus on Africa interview. "I can assure you this was an
agreement reached between the heads of state." He declined to
disclose when the rebel leader would be handed over, or where he
might be held. Kouyate stressed that assuring Sankoh's safety did
not mean he would not be tried. "It is premature to say anything
on (where he might face trial) because I don’t know what the
heads of state will decide later," he said. "But again I repeat
it, assuring his safety does not mean he will be out of trial."
In New York, Sierra Leone's Ambassador to the United Nations,
Ibrahim Kamara, told the Washington Post on Sunday that Sankoh
would face trial in Sierra Leone. "He's with us now, and we're not
going to let him go," Kamara said.
Pro-government forces said Monday they had captured the RUF-held
town of Lunsar. "Lunsar has been liberated. It happened today,
early today," said Army spokesman Major John Milton. Earlier in
the day, Reuters said heavy fighting had been reported around Rogberi
Junction. The news agency quoted military sources as saying
pro-government troops had made a push toward Lunsar, but had
pulled back after a heavy exchange of fire. Fighting was also
reported Monday in various parts of the north or west, causing
civilians in Kambia District to flee over the Guinea border. "We
are advancing towards Kambia," Major told reporters. He
acknowledged, however, that government forces had not yet captured the
town of Mange, which lies about halfway between Port Loko and
Kambia. Milton said government forces were concentrating their
strength in the north because the RUF in the east had shown no
sign of attempting to advance, and appeared ready to respect the
Lomé Peace Accord. "Since we want peace, perhaps we can cajole
those ones and they will lay down their arms," he said.
Despite problems experienced by United Nations peacekeepers since
they began to deploy in Sierra Leone late last year, UNAMSIL
force commander Major-General
 Vijay
Kumar Jetley said the Disarmament, Demobilisation and
Reintegration (DDR) process was "still very much on" as far as
the U.N. was concerned. "We are going to move forward in a planned
and systematic way to deploy to all the places where we were deployed
earlier," Jetley told a news conference in Freetown. Since
arriving in Sierra Leone at least 11 peacekeepers have been
killed and 25-30 wounded. U.N. troops sent to disarm the rebels
have been disarmed themselves, including an entire Guinean
battalion on its way to join UNAMSIL earlier this year. This
month over 500 U.N. peacekeeping troops and military advisors
were abducted and disarmed by the RUF. The last group of
abductees was released on Sunday. Jetley said his troops were
using "force when necessary" and had inflicted major casualties
on the rebels when attacked. "The rebels are still licking their
wounds," Jetley said. "The RUF is in a total state of
demoralization at the moment," he asserted.
A battalion of 1,014 Jordanian peacekeeping troops left for
Sierra Leone on Monday, according to the state-owned Petra news
agency. The contingent includes a field hospital. There are currently
some 980 Jordanians serving with the UNAMSIL force.
Fatou Sankoh, the wife of detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh,
arrived in Johannesburg on on Saturday despite South Africa's
Department of Foreign Affairs having told her host — entrepreneur MK
Malefane — that she would not be welcome. Fatou (Mbawe) Sankoh
reportedly married the rebel leader in February and
accompanied him on his controversial trip to Johannesburg. Born
in Senegal, she is a naturalised U.S. citizen, and reportedly
entered South Africa on an American passport. In a press release
she sent the Sierra Leone Web earlier this month, described
herself as "a lawyer by profession and also president of an NGO by
avocation." While she declined to discuss her reasons for the current
trip, MK Malefane informed the Department of Foreign Affairs
Friday that he had invited her to South Africa to discuss her
participation in a music and arts festival. Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad said the Department of Foreign Affairs was
seeking clarification from the United Nations as to whether Fatou
Sankoh was affected by the U.N. travel ban on her husband. "We
are obviously investigating this matter. We will be getting in
touch with the United Nations to see whether she is affected by the
sanctions," Pahad said. A spokesman for the Department, Dumisani
Rasheleng, said Department of Foreign Affairs was liaising with the
Department of Home Affairs in trying to expedite her departure
from South Africa. Fatou Sankoh "is travelling on a U.S. private
passport that exempts her from a visa," Rasheleng said. "She is
also apparently travelling on a different name." In an interview
with South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper, Fatou Sankoh
denied reports of RUF brutality or of forcing young children to
fight as soldiers. "Foday loves children. He's not the monster
the British want people to believe he is," she said. She claimed
pictures of people with amputated limbs were "British propaganda"
and claimed that pro-government forces, not the RUF, were
responsible for mutilations and killings in Sierra Leone. Fatou
Sankoh told the Independent that she was Sankoh's only wife. "I
am his first wife. There has been no other," she said. But Foday
Sankoh himself has acknowledged that he has been married more
than once. "In 1977...I went to the eastern part of the country
where I married my first wife," Sankoh told the New African in
November 1999. In the same interview he spoke of having 11
children.
28 May: 85 freed U.N.
peacekeepers arrived in Freetown Sunday night, the last of over
500 U.N. personnel seized by RUF rebels in northern and eastern
Sierra Leone at the beginning of the month. "We are optimistic
that the release of the hostages signals a positive change of
direction by the Revolutionary United Front in coming back to
seek a peaceful settlement," said UNAMSIL spokesman David
Wimhurst. Four soldiers were unaccounted for, but Wimhurst told
reporters earlier they were likely to have been among the bodies
discovered last week at Rogberi Junction. All of those freed
Sunday were Zambians, with the exception of one Gambian military
observer with a broken leg. Wimhurst discounted reports by
Liberian President Charles Taylor that 30-40 of the peacekeepers
had been wounded. A contingent of 23 Indian peacekeepers along
with 11 unarmed military observers still remains surrounded in
the eastern town of Kuiva, but Wimhurst expressed hope earlier Sunday
that the situation would soon be resolved. In New York, U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's spokesman said Annan was
"delighted" with the releases, and said he hoped "that the
freeing of the remaining peacekeepers will help create conditions in
which the long and agonizing search for peace and stability in
Sierra Leone can at last be brought to a successful conclusion."
RUF forces failed to retake the town of Rogberi Junction Saturday
in a battle in which, according to military sources, 12 pro-government
troops and 29 rebels were killed. Sierra Leone Broadcasting
Service said 14 other RUF fighters were wounded. According to
British military spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Tony Cramp, the
RUF mounted a "large attack" on government forces holding the
town. "The attack was repelled very successfully by the
government forces, with large numbers of casualties inflicted on
the RUF," Cramp told the BBC. "And what’s significant about that
is it’s a very clear indication in fact that the government
forces are now uniting together to be a lot more effective and a
lot more robust force...The fact that they’ve repelled what was a
very large attack will give them a lot of confidence and they
will also be looking at moving even further forward into the east
of the country." Cramp indicated that pro-government forces, which
consist of a coalition of SLA and ex-SLA soldiers and CDF militiamen
under a recently-unified command, were moving toward the RUF
strongholds in eastern Sierra Leone. He added that at least some
factions of the RUF appeared interested in negotiating an end to
the fighting. "We’re getting a lot of mixed messages," he said.
"There have been a number of RUF personnel coming over in the
last couple of days giving themselves up. They do have a problem.
There are signs of splits and clearly at the moment with the RUF
on the back foot and pro-government forces pushing ahead there
should be a lot of worried people there." Meanwhile, Reuters said
heavy fighting had been reported on the Kambia road, where
government forces said Saturday they were advancing toward the
Mange Bridge.
West African leaders gathered in Abuja, Nigeria on Sunday for a
summit marking the 25th anniversary of ECOWAS. The heads of state
and government will consider recommendations made by the ECOWAS
Mediation and Security Council, which worked into the early hours
of Sunday morning on a proposal which would send up to 3,000
additional troops to Sierra Leone. "The meeting has ended, but
the conclusions will be passed on to the full summit," ECOWAS
Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate said at the conclusion of the
mini-summit. He told reporters an announcement would be made
following the full summit. An original draft proposal, which was
submitted ten days ago by ECOWAS defence ministers and chiefs of
staff, left open the question of whether the new force would work within
the framework of UNAMSIL or whether it would constitute a
parallel force with a more robust mandate and its own command. In
his address to the summit, President Kabbah indicated that the
new troops should be separate from, and work alongside, U.N.
peacekeepers. "ECOMOG still has a job to do in Sierra Leone," he
said, adding that it should work in a "partnership for peace and
security" with the U.N. "What we need is a joint effort —
national, regional and international — to achieve peace and
security in Sierra Leone," he said. On Saturday, however,
Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido said the West African
troops would be part of UNAMSIL — a prediction echoed Sunday by BBC
correspondent Barnaby Philips. "I think since then the West
Africans and specifically the Nigerians — because they’re really
the driving force here — have had to face the reality that it’s
going to be the the international community — the governments in the
West and the Americans are going to supply the logistics and the
money for West African soldiers to go to Sierra Leone, and to
that extent its inevitable, I think, that the West Africans will
be within UNAMSIL," Philips told the BBC Focus on Africa
programme. He added that the West Africans continued to have
misgivings about placing their troops under UNAMSIL control.
"They don’t have entire faith in UNAMSIL’s ability or indeed
UNAMSIL’s methods in enforcing peace in Sierra Leone," he said.
27 May: West African
leaders met in Abuja, Nigeria Saturday afternoon for an ECOWAS
mini-summit to consider the crisis in Sierra Leone. The ECOWAS
Mediation and Security Council meeting — attended by the leaders
of Nigeria, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Senegal,
Guinea, Liberia and Gambia — took recommendations made last week
by defence ministers and chiefs of staff, who presented several
scenarios under which ECOWAS nations would send up to 3,000
additional troops to Sierra Leone. Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido
told reporters Saturday that any troops sent to the country
would be part of UNAMSIL, and would not constitute a separate
parallel force. "The line of action we have adopted is that
ECOWAS member countries will be contributing troops to beef up
the U.N. peacekeeping force already in Sierra Leone," Lamido
said. "The troops will work under the framework of the U.N."
According to a draft agenda, the heads of state and government
planned to consider "practical involvement of the sub-regional
ECOMOG forces and manpower and material requirements." They were
to also review the current status of detained RUF leader Foday
Sankoh, and seek to bring implementation of the Lomé Peace Accord back
on course.
Sierra Leone government forces clashed overnight with RUF rebels
near the town of Rogberi Junction, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst
told reporters in Freetown on Saturday. "When we overflew that area
this morning it seemed to be calm," he said. SLA
Lieutenant-Colonel Sam Mboma told a a press conference "the
forward position at this moment is that we are heading for
Lunsar." He added there were reports that the rebels were
regrouping in the town. Mboma said pro-government forces were massing at
Port Loko in preparation for a strike on Kambia, and were
advancing toward the Mange Bridge. He noted that all of
the disparate pro-government forces, including the Sierra Leone Army,
the former Sierra Leone Army and the Civil Defence Forces, were now
under one unified command. "Sierra Leone now has a single
defence force and defence headquarters that is responsible for
the day to day control of government defence forces," he said.
"The Defence Operational Group now acts as the executive
committee in running the government forces' day to day campaign,
under the direction of the chief of the defence staff."
143 freed U.N. peacekeepers arrived in Freetown from Liberia on
Saturday, leaving only about 112 unaccounted for or in the hands
of the RUF. "We are hopeful that there will be more releases very
soon, particularly with the meeting in Abuja," said UNAMSIL
spokesman David Wimhurst. "Our efforts are concentrated on getting
all of them released." Most of the freed peacekeepers were Zambians,
but at least two Kenyan soldiers were among those arriving in the
Sierra Leonean capital. Earlier, the Liberian government
announced that the RUF had released 180 peacekeepers on Friday.
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said Saturday that Britain was on track to
 withdraw
its troops from Sierra Leone by mid-June, despite a plea from
President Kabbah Friday that they remain until stability had been
restored to the country. "We have made it absolutely clear all
along that the reason why British forces are in Sierra Leone was
in the first place to allow the evacuation of British nationals
and secondly to allow the reinforcement by the United Nations of
their contingent in the country," Hoon told the BBC. Meanwhile,
about 800 British paratroopers of the First and Second Battalions
of the Parachute Regiment have arrived back at their barracks in
Aldershot and Colchester, Essex in the past two days after having
evacuated British and other foreign nationals from Sierra Leone and
securing Lungi International Airport. The paratroopers were
replaced on the ground by about 800 Royal Marines from 42
Commando.
A first contingent of 150 Bangladeshi troops left Dhaka for
Sierra Leone on Saturday aboard a U.N.-chartered aircraft. The rest of
the Bangladeshi battalion, consisting of 780 soldiers including
four staff officers, are due to leave in the next few days.
Liberian President Charles Taylor has questioned the timing of an announcement
 by
the Sierra Leone government that RUF leader Foday Sankoh would
be put on trial, since the RUF was still holding some 70 U.N.
personnel hostage. "It does not make any sense at this time to deal
with the question of Foday Sankoh before disarmament and
demobilisation and before elections are held," Taylor said. "The
issue of Foday Sankoh must be dealt with after we have succeeded
in bringing peace to that country. It will be foolish to do so
before then, and I hope the Sierra Leone government will not make
the mistake of trying to push or force the situation beyond
expectation." Taylor spoke to reporters at Robertsfield Airport
in Monrovia before departing for the ECOWAS mini-summit in Abuja.
The Liberian president called on all sides to adhere to the Lomé Peace
Accord. "It is true that the Revolutionary United Front has
committed some horrors, but the government of Sierra Leone must
be tactful in how to deal with this matter because two wrongs do
not make one right," he said. The RUF reportedly released
180 U.N. peacekeepers on Friday, and Taylor said he hoped the
rest would be released soon — possibly as early as Saturday.
RUF rebels have released about 300 former child combatants
ranging in age from 7 to 18, who were being cared for by the Catholic
charity Caritas at Makeni, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst said on
Saturday. He said Caritas was transporting the children to
Lungi. Makeni Bishop George Biguzzi said, however, that just 85
of the former child combatants being rehabilitated at the Caritas
Centre in Makeni had arrived in Freetown. "This was possible
thanks to the courage of two humanitarian workers of our diocesan
Caritas, Edmond Koroma and Mark Gbla," Biguzzi told the
Missionary Services News Agency (MISNA) on Saturday. "Last Sunday
they walked all the way to Makeni, still controlled by the
rebels of the Revolutionary United Front, and discovered that
there were still 86 children in our rehabilitation centre.
Miraculously they were able to escape last Wednesday and after various
difficulties finally reached Mile 91, where they found means of
transportation to take them to the capital, Freetown. Along the way
they were unfortunately intercepted various times by rebel
patrols and on one of the these occasions a child was taken by
the RUF combatants." He said 91 children at the Makeni centre had
been abducted over the past few days by the rebels. Recent
fighting has caused Caritas of Makeni to temporarily close its
rehabilitation centres at Makeni and Lunsar, but a new centre has
been opened at Lungi to received the 85 children who escaped
from Makeni. The two aid workers were quoted as saying that,
contrary to earlier reports, no homes or buildings had been burned down
in Makeni, but that the rebels had done some looting in the area.
The Sierra Leone Bar Association urged the government Friday to
ratify the Rome Statute establishing an International Criminal
Court (ICC). "Recent atrocities committed in Sierra Leone have again
illustrated the urgent need for an effective and independent
international court, in order to bring to justice and hold
accountable those responsible for serious violations of
international humanitarian and human rights law," the Association
said in a statement. It noted that when the ICC becomes
operational it would have jurisdiction over serious crimes
"committed in the context of armed conflicts not of an international
character," such as the conflict in Sierra Leone. To date, the Rome
Statute is still far short of the 60 ratifications by U.N. member
states required for its adoption.
Amnesty International has demanded that Britain investigate
allegations of torture against former NPRC military leader
Captain Valentine Strasser, currently living in London. "Strasser's
people were responsible for, among other things, torture of political
opponents," said Amnesty International spokesman Brendan Paddy.
"The government has a responsibility to investigate because
torture committed anywhere is a crime under U.K. law...(Strasser)
was the leader of a military coup and his government was
involved in committing serious human rights abuses against anyone
suspected of supporting rebel forces. We have signed an
international convention against torture and we have brought the
provisions into our law. If that's to mean anything we have to
bring alleged perpetrators to justice, otherwise...the cycle of torture
and killing with impunity will go on." Strasser was among a group
of young military officers which overthrew the APC government of
President Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1992. He headed the NPRC until
1996, when he was ousted by Brigadier Julius Maada Bio in a
"palace coup" just prior to the 1996 elections. Strasser received
a scholarship from the United Nations Development Project to
study law at Warwick University in 1997, but dropped out after
just a year. Last month the man who at age 27 became head of
state in Sierra Leone was arrested in Kilburn and accused of
damaging his former girlfriend's car. A British Home Office spokesman
confirmed reports that Strasser had withdrawn his asylum request
after leaving the university, but said he could not discuss
individual asylum requests or Strasser's current status. "We
always deal with cases individually, and of course his case is
pretty peculiar," he said.
About 170 persons demonstrated Saturday at Hatton Garden, the
heart of London's diamond district, to highlight the direct link
between the sale of "conflict diamonds" and the protraction of
the conflict in Sierra Leone. In a statement issued on Friday, the
National Association of Sierra Leonean Organisations, which initiated
Saturday's protest, noted that the RUF had controlled Sierra
Leone's diamond mining areas throughout most of the country's
nine year civil conflict. "Uninterrupted access to diamonds and
the proceeds of their sale on the international market, has
provided the RUF with the funds it requires to secure an endless
supply of arms, ammunition and illegal drugs," the group said. A
participant in the protest told the Sierra Leone Web that diamond
mining giant De Beers had contacted the group this week
requesting a meeting, which went ahead on Thursday. "They were
worried that we were advocating a total boycott of diamonds," the
source said. "They said they would be prepared to work with us and
that they supported regulating the trade."
26 May: The RUF freed a
reported 180 more U.N. personnel on Friday leaving about 75 left
in rebel hands. UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst confirmed the
arrival in Monrovia of 46 former hostages. "They are staying
overnight in Monrovia and we're hopeful there will be more
arriving there soon," he said. The rest were assumed to be
waiting to be evacuated from the Liberian border town of Foya. A
U.N. spokesman in New York said the 46 "are all in good shape,"
although the Agence France-Presse (AFP) said they had been taken
to hospital in Monrovia upon their arrival in the Liberian capital.
President Kabbah said Friday that detained RUF leader Foday
Sankoh would be put on trial "petty soon." "We are in the process
of putting together the evidence, and
 we
hope to accelerate that process," he told BBC correspondent Mike
Donkin. "We do not want to deny justice, or delay it." Kabbah
said his government was still committed to the Lomé Peace Accord
signed last July between the Sierra Leone government and the RUF.
"Because of one man’s conduct you cannot say that the agreement
is no longer valid," Kabbah insisted. "What I am saying is that
the agreement is one thing which we regard as valid, and Sankoh’s
done something wrong, he is going to be tried, and if he is
found wanting in any way, or in violation of our laws, then I
don’t see that he can claim any rights under that agreement...Sankoh is
just one member of the RUF, and he may have one or two of his
henchmen with him, but the vast majority of them — we are getting
signals that they’re interested in really putting this thing
behind us, and we want to be able to pursue that." Kabbah
sidestepped a question as to whether pro-government forces were
winning the war against the rebels. "Let’s put it this way: We
are not fighting, we are just defending ourselves, and in the
process we are containing them." He said the government's aim was
to get the RUF to obey the peace accord. "The peace agreement
clearly provided that people should have access to all parts of
the country, and the government should have its law enforcement
officers in every corner of the country, and humanitarian workers should
also be able to provide food and medicine to people in every
part of the country," he said. Kabbah said that "in terms of
numbers" the government was impressed with the U.N. peacekeeping
force, but added: "It is now left with them to acquit themselves
in a way that they will inspire confidence." Regarding the
British military presence in Freetown, the president was less
circumspect. "Britain’s role in this is one thing that I can be
most categoric about," he said. "They came in at the right time,
and the security vacuum that existed and the confidence level on
the part of the people which was way down, was dramatically
improved upon the arrival of the British. And this has really
contributed considerably to the improvement of the security situation in
the country." He said he would appeal to British Prime Minister
Tony Blair not to withdraw British forces from Sierra Leone until
stability had been restored.
Minister of Finance Dr. James O.C. Jonah said Friday that the
government would prefer to see RUF leader Foday Sankoh tried by
an international tribunal, as his
 safety
could not be guaranteed by a local court. Jonah ruled out using
Sankoh as leverage in negotiating with the rebels. "If this
government tolerates Sankoh as a bargaining chip, it would be out,"
he said. "The people are angry. They cannot trust Foday Sankoh. We
have made [word indistinct] with him before, and I just cannot see
any circumstances in which government will make Sankoh a
bargaining chip." Presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai said
that Sankoh would be brought to trial in due course, but could
give no date. "Justice delayed is justice denied. We don't want
to hold onto Mr. Sankoh for ever, but on the other hand justice
hastened is also justice denied," he said.
Human Rights Watch charged Friday that the RUF had imposed a
"reign of terror" during its week-long occupation of the Masiaka
area. Human Rights Watch has documented cases of murder, mutilation,
rape, looting and abduction against the civilian population, the
group said in a press release.
Both RUF rebels and pro-government forces have been responsible
for human rights abuses since the start of the latest round of
fighting, a U.N. human rights spokesman said in Freetown Friday.
"Civilians have been subjected to forced labor, their property has
been looted and destroyed and food and money stolen by the RUF...There
are reports of abduction, rape and physical harassment," Richard
Bennett said. He added that there was evidence of abuses by
pro-government troops as well. "We have received information
according to which the pro-government forces were responsible for
extra-judicial executions, beatings and arbitrary detentions.
"After armed confrontations on May 10 at Masiaka, representatives
from our department observed 11 bodies, apparently RUF fighters
killed during the fighting...At least two of them had head wounds
which seemed have been inflicted at point blank range." Bennett
said the U.N. was also concerned about the use of child soldiers
by both pro-government and rebel forces.
Bodies discovered in the bush Monday near Rogberi Junction were
probably those of U.N. peacekeepers, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst
said on Friday. "We're not absolutely sure, but the evidence points
to them being men of the U.N. contingent — four Zambians and one
Nigerian," he told reporters. The bodies were clad in military
uniforms, some with U.N. insignia. A U.N. team which visited the
scene this week was unable to make a positive identification of
the bodies, as they were in an advanced state of decomposition.
But Wimhurst said the U.N.'s Zambian contingent reported four
soldiers missing following fighting between UNAMSIL troops and
RUF rebels in the area on May 6. Two Nigerian soldiers were also
unaccounted for. Wimhurst denied earlier reports that the bodies
had been mutilated, but said the "remains were scattered" by wild
animals.
Pro-government forces are continuing to advance from Rogberi
Junction towards the RUF-held town of Lunsar, British military
spokesman Lieutenant Commander Tony Cramp said early Friday. "There
are no great signs of activity. Obviously there have been isolated
outbreaks," he told Reuters. "The indications are the government
forces are continuing their advance from Rogberi Junction to
Lunsar." Cramp said hundreds of Royal Marines formally took over
defence of Lungi International Airport from British paratroopers
at a ceremony on Friday morning. "They are fully deployed in
Lungi and around Aberdeen Peninsula," he said.
A new group of about 10,000 persons fleeing the fighting have
been found on Tasso Island, in the estuary between Freetown and
Lungi, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday. The group was found in
"deplorable condition" without adequate water, sanitation,
medicine or shelter, according to Fred Eckhard, spokesman for U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Pierre Sane has condemned
a provision of the Lomé Peace Accord granting a blanket amnesty
for war crimes, and has called for all those guilty of war crimes and
human rights abuses to be put on trial. He also called for the
creation of an international commission of inquiry. "Deliberate
and arbitrary killings, mutilations, rape and abductions have
continued since the signing of the peace agreement," Sane said in
a statement released in Freetown Friday. "Human rights abuses in
Sierra Leone will not end until there is an end to
impunity...This (peace) agreement provides no justice,
accountability." He said those accused of gross human rights
abuses could be tried in another state if fair trials could not be
guaranteed in Sierra Leone. Sane and Amnesty International's
researcher on Sierra Leone, Tessa Kordeczka, met in Freetown this
week with President Kabbah and other government officials,
including Justice Minister and Attorney-General Solomon Berewa.
They were also to meet with the commander of British troops and
the British and Nigerian High Commissioners, U.N. officials and
local human rights groups.
Members of Parliament and Sierra Leone's Civil Society Movement
announced the formation Friday of a Parliament and Civil Society
Task Force and a Parliament and Civil Society Movement Task Force to
"sustain and co-ordinate the current collaborative efforts between
Parliament and the Civil Society Movement - Sierra Leone."
Zainab Bangura, the National Coordinator of the civil society
group Campaign for Good Governance, called Friday for an
international tribunal to be set up on Sierra Leone. "I think it is
important that we know who are the external players behind the RUF,
who has been involved with our diamonds," Bangura said in an
interview with Radio France International. "So if you have an
external tribunal...we can also bring in the external players.
The war in Sierra Leone was fought both internally and
externally. The external forces were very, very strong." Bangura
said the external tribunal should be responsible for trying
detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh. "Foday Sankoh has become an
obstacle to our lives for too long," she said. "We have to deal
with him once and for all, so by getting him out of our lives, it
can give us an opportunity to move ahead. But if he’s tried
within Sierra Leone he will be a security risk, because (the rebels)
will always want to come for him, and then the trial must consume us
— psychologically as well as financially. I don’t think we
actually (will) be able to go through that. Bangura said the civil
society should take a leading role in addressing Sierra Leone's
problems. "I think the only people who can take the initiative
will have to be the civil society who have been part and parcel
of this problem, and also because the civil society has been
involved throughout this crisis and has played an active role,"
she said. "At the same time they also have a problem because they
think that there has to be a political leadership in the [words
indistinct] crisis, because there is a democratically-elected
government, and the civil society within the last three or four
years has come to play a role that is not normally played in
other countries." She said civil society groups were planning to
consult with their constituencies in the Western Area and in southern
and eastern Sierra Leone beginning next week. "It is only after
we have done that you can be able to come with a consensus," she
said.
Zambian President Chiluba has sent the Commander of the Zambian
Army, Lieutenant-General Geojago Musengule, to Sierra Leone to
deliver a message of solidarity to Zambian peacekeeping troops and to
thank West African leaders for helping to ensure the release of
Zambian soldiers held hostage by the RUF. "Our soldiers have not
gone to Sierra Leone for war. They should therefore, be
considered as agents of peace and not conflict," Chiluba said in a
statement to mark Africa Freedom Day. He said Musengule was
being sent to talk "to our forces and tell them that we are
together and praying for those still held (and)...to speak to
Heads of State and commend them for the efforts they were making
to ensure the release of our soldiers." Declared Chiluba: "The
unfortunate incidents of Sierra Leone will therefore, not
discourage Zambia from continuing with the noble cause of peacekeeping
in that country, nor will it affect Zambia's participation in
other peacekeeping missions in Africa."
Liberian Information Minister Joe Mulbah denied Friday that
Liberia was involved in illegal arms and diamond dealing with Sierra
Leone's rebels. In an interview in Accra, reported by Ghana
Broadcasting Corporation, Mulbah said Liberia shared a porous
border with Sierra Leone which could be easily penetrated by
illicit diamond traders and gunrunners. Liberia has often been
accused of backing Sierra Leone's RUF rebels. Figures published
by Partnership Africa Canada earlier this year documented that
over the past decade Liberia diamond sales to Antwerp alone have,
on the average, exceeded its estimated production by over thirty
times. The inference is that most of these diamonds actually
originated in Sierra Leone.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday it was continuing
to provide food assistance to new and previously-displaced
persons in Sierra Leone through "food-for-work,"
"food-for-training," and "food-for-agriculture" projects. WFP
said in its latest report it had begun registering an estimated
14,000 newly-displaced people in Kafu Bullom Chiefdom ahead of a
planned food distribution there. The WFP will deliver over 100 tons of
food by road, while assessing the needs in nearby Loko Masama
Chiefdom. In Freetown, the WFP distributed 746 tons of food to
56,106 beneficiaries during the reporting period. The number
included 26,326 displaced persons. In Bo, the WFP distributed 177
tons of food to 13,102 persons and in Kenema 192 tons of food
were distributed to 19,482 people. The WFP's office in Bo has
resumed normal programming at levels reached before the current
crisis, but the WFP said security concerns at Kenema were
hindering its operations outside of the town.
25 May: 29 Zambian
peacekeepers freed by the RUF on Monday were flown back to
Freetown on Wednesday night. Their departure from Monrovia had
been delayed by the hope that additional U.N. personnel would be freed
to join them, according to BBC Monrovia correspondent Jonathan
Paye-Layleh. Reginald Goodridge, who is spokesman for Liberian
President Charles Taylor, acknowledged logistical difficulties
Thursday, but said "we expect a sizeable number of the hostages
to be released between now and tomorrow." Taylor was designated
by ECOWAS to negotiate for the release of the detained U.N.
peacekeeping troops. The RUF has so far released 233 U.N.
peacekeepers and military observers, but are still holding about
260, most of them from Zambia, according to UNAMSIL spokesman
David Wimhurst.
President Kabbah has promised British High Commissioner Alan Jones that all
 combatants
under age 18 serving in pro-government forces will be
demobilised and removed from the front line. The pledge came
after an outcry in Britain following publication in London's
Evening Standard newspaper of 14-year old Abu Kamara, holding
what appeared to be a British rifle. Britain is expected to
supply about 10,000 self-loading rifles and hundreds of thousands
of rounds of ammunition to help the government fight RUF rebels.
The Evening Standard alleged that government checkpoints were being
manned by children as young as 12 armed with British weapons
supplied over a year ago.
UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst said Thursday that the United
Nations no longer considered detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh a
"credible" negotiating partner with whom to resume dialogue over
the peace process. The RUF "will have to find a credible
interlocutor" for continued application of the Lomé Peace Accord, he
said. Wimhurst said UNAMSIL already had "direct contacts with (RUF)
commanders in the field," but gave no details.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticised U.S. Senator Judd Gregg
 Thursday
for blocking payment of $368 million owed by the United States
for U.N. peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, East
Timor and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Gregg, who is chairman of an
Appropriations Committee subcommittee, has criticized U.S.
support for the Lomé Peace Accord and has said he will block the
funding as long as the agreement is in effect. "Let me say it is
not helpful," Annan said of Gregg's actions, and challenged him
to come up with his own peace plans if he disagreed with U.N.
efforts. He said the U.N. is "not in good financial shape," owing
hundreds of millions of dollars to member nations who have
provided peacekeeping troops. Gregg's freezing of the U.S. funds,
already appropriated by Congress, "is only going to make matters
worse," he said. "Where a peace agreement is signed but one or
more of the parties are tempted to violate it, the U.N. needs a
credible and robust presence in order to deter and discourage potential
violators," Annan told reporters, adding that U.N. peacekeepers
cannot be expected to only "keep peace between angels."
Warring parties are often "warlords and militia leaders whose only
aim is power and personal enrichment," Annan said. He pointed out
that the threat of international isolation might have no meaning for
people like RUF leader Foday Sankoh.
UNAMSIL has sent a team to the area where two journalists and
four SLA soldiers were killed Wednesday in an RUF ambush. Two other
journalists were were injured. The team was led by Deputy Force
Commander Brigadier-General Mohammed Garba, according to Fred
Eckhard, Spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), together with the Sierra
Leone
Red Cross Society have distributed non-food relief this week to
11,640 displaced persons (1,354 families), mostly women and children,
gathered at Lungi. The people were newly arrived at the town, most
of them having fled from Port Loko, Masiaka and Makeni in the
face of renewed fighting in the country. In a statement Thursday,
the ICRC expressed "acute concern" about the fate of demobilised
child combatants and other children faced with imminent
recruitment by Sierra Leone's warring factions.
Reaction to the deaths of two journalists, Kurt Schork of Reuters
and Miguel Gil Moreno of Associated Press Television News, who
were killed in a rebel ambush Wednesday near Rogberi Junction. U.S.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: "I knew (Kurt Schork) over 30 years ago; we
were in Oxford together. And I'm very sad today. He was a good
man, and if you look at all the many posts that he occupied, he
was a brave man. He went to a lot of places, a lot of the
troubled and dangerous places of the world to bring the news to
people. And I am very sad about it." MARIA DE PATROCINIO MACIAN
BLAYA (mother of Miguel Gil Moreno): "I am filled with
overwhelming sadness and grief, but in the end I find solace in
the fact that Miguel was doing the job he loved and died doing the work
he felt ordained for. He felt his mission was to give voice to
those who did not have one." U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN:
"They were doing what other journalists are doing around the
world — taking
risks so that the rest of us can keep informed. The message that they
uncovered in Sierra Leone is that the killing has not stopped."
LOUIS D. BOCCARDI (President and CEO of AP): "Miguel's death
leaves us with an indescribable sense of loss. Our pain is not
eased by the certainty that he was doing work he loved when
tragedy struck. Professional accolades fade to the background at
tragic moments like this but at least he lived to accept the
honor, just last month, of being hailed as the Royal Television
Society's cameraman of the year." GEERT LINNEBANK (Reuters
Editor-in-Chief): "Kurt Schork was a courageous reporter, a
courageous man who perhaps more than any other journalist
highlighted the plight of the Kurds during the Gulf War and later
those victims of the Balkans conflicts." RICHARD HOLBROOKE (U.S.
Ambassador to the U.N.): "What the public that watches these
pictures and doesn't really realize is the compulsion to tell the story,
which differentiates people like Kurt and Miguel from the rest
of us — the risks they take to make sure the world knows what's
happening in what otherwise would be the dark recesses of people
behaving at their absolute worst...(Kurt Schork) was almost
always right. He showed no bias. He was cheerful no matter how
awful the situation. He believed journalists could be a force for
good in the world while reporting the truth as he saw it. It is
an enormous loss to journalism." MARK LAITY (spokesman for NATO
Secretary-General George Robertson): "Overall I would say that we
have lost two superb journalists doing one of the most difficult jobs
in the world, and they are people we can ill afford to lose
because there are not many that can do it with their sense of
courage and commitment and fairness." RAMON LOBO (journalist for
El País): "Death always waits for those who look it in the
eye....My only consolation is to think that they died doing a job
they loved and which is so misunderstood, telling the truth
which few people want to hear." UNAMSIL SPOKESMAN DAVID WIMHURST:
"The deaths have shocked and saddened us all. These two men were
both very fine journalists and experienced war correspondents
and their loss is being felt far beyond this place." U.S. SECRETARY
OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: "They were colleagues and friends for
many of you. They went into dangerous areas to tell us all what was
really going on and their contribution was invaluable and my
admiration for their work and their courage is also unbounded."
24 May: Two Western
journalists, one identified as 53-year old veteran Reuters
reporter Kurt Schork (left), an American, and the other as
32-year old Associated
 Press Television News producer and cameraman Miguel Gil Moreno  (right)
of Barcelona, Spain were killed Wednesday when the two vehicles
in which they were riding were ambushed by RUF rebels just east
of Rogberi Junction. Four Sierra Leone Army soldiers were also
reported killed in the attack. Two Reuters reporters were injured
in the incident, South African television cameraman Mark Chisholm
and Greek photographer Yannis Behrakis. British military spokesman
Captain Fergus Smith said the two wounded reporters had been
treated by Jordanian peacekeepers and evacuated to the Indian
Field Hospital in Freetown. BBC correspondent Mike Donkin said
they had been treated at a UNAMSIL field hospital at the front and
later transferred to "one of Freetown's main hospitals." Their
injuries were not considered to be life threatening. Last year ten
journalists died in Sierra Leone, making it the most dangerous country
in the world for members of the press.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has
expressed outrage over what it called "the latest murderous
attack on journalists" in Sierra Leone which claimed the lives of two
journalists and left two more injured. "These journalists are
victims of a group of murderous thugs, who for years have
deliberately targeted local reporters and foreign correspondents
covering the Sierra Leone conflict," CPJ Executive Director Ann
Cooper said in a statement. "It's time the RUF and its leader,
Foday Sankoh, were held accountable for these deadly assaults,
whose aim is to eliminate independent reporting on one of the
world's worst civil conflicts."
Police in Freetown have arrested seven ex-SLA soldiers who
attacked Wilberforce Barracks overnight Sunday, killing two Nigerian
peacekeeping troops. Police said the former soldiers, loyal to
Johnny Paul Koroma, first tried to kidnap President Kabbah's
Chief of Security, Major Mohamed Aliyu, before heading to the
barracks where they attempted to free a detained colleague. In a
statement issued on Wednesday, Koroma condemned the shootings,
saying they were calculated "to willfully derail the peace
process in Sierra Leone." According to Sierra Leone Broadcasting
Service, Koroma said the perpetrators were not loyal to the head
of state, the leadership of the AFRC, or the people of Sierra Leone.
Koroma said he had assured Kabbah that a task force would be set up
to investigate the matter and that those guilty would be brought
to justice.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Commission for the
Consolidation of Peace (CCP), chaired by AFRC leader Johnny Paul
Koroma, called for the government "to institute judicial action
against, and punish without delay, all those who are found guilty of
criminal acts," including signatories to the Lomé Peace Agreement.
"The rule of law is the cornerstone of democracy and must
therefore be upheld," the statement said. The CCP called on the
government to restore the territorial integrity of Sierra Leone
by bringing all areas "previously dominated by conflict parties"
under the constitutional authority of the president, and to
nullify all mining leases, contracts and agreements entered into
by RUF leader Foday Sankoh and his Commission for the Management
of Strategic Resources, National Reconstruction and Development
(CMRRD). The CCP statement urged RUF combatants to give up their
guns, and promised the Commission would work with government and
all agencies concerned to ensure the protection of former
combatants. "The CCP reiterates its determination to pursue its
mandate by encouraging combatants wherever they may be to stop
fighting and join the peace process," the statement said. The CCP
also called for the unconditional release of U.N. personnel and the
return of their weapons as a pre-condition for the resumption of
the peace process, voiced opposition to the recruitment of child
soldiers "whether by pro or anti-government forces," and warned
against "breeding hatred and division in our society through
witch hunts against so-called collaborators, especially at this
time when national unity should be our priority."
The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) has condemned
the continued detention without charge of journalist Abdul
Kuyateh, the acting editor of the Freetown bi-weekly newspaper Wisdom.
Kuyateh was arrested on May 11 by officers of the Criminal
Investigation Division. Police have so far refused to comment on
his arrest. The Agence France-Presse cited sources Wednesday
indicating the journalist's name was found on documents found in
the ransacked home of RUF leader Foday Sankoh. The journalists'
advocacy group Reporters sans Frontières claimed last week
Kuyateh had been detained in connection with a December 1999 story
alleging the hiring of mercenaries by the government and the RUF. "We
are at pains to understand why no proper explanation has been
given on Kuyateh's arrest," the SLAJ statement said. "We are yet
to understand how a government drawing its legitimacy from a
democratic process can suddenly metamorphose into a repressive
regime as is now the case of the detained editor." SLAJ called on
the government "to renew its commitment to freedom of expression
and the rule of law by either charging Kuyateh in court now or
releasing him immediately."
President Charles Taylor of Liberia told a group of Libyan
journalists in Monrovia late Tuesday that RUF leader Foday
Sankoh was part of a solution to the crisis in
Sierra
Leone. "Foday Sankoh, regardless of what he may be, is a factor
in this process. He is not a piece of paper that will go away,"
Taylor said. "When you have a conflict like this, all sides must
be brought together. Anyone, no matter who, has the right to what
he believes." Taylor, who has acknowledged a personal
relationship with Sankoh, compared the rebel leader to PLO Chairman
Yasser Arafat. "Years ago, the struggle of the PLO was considered
a terrorist struggle and our brother Yassar Arafat was supposed
to be the number one terrorist of the world," he said. "Now he is
eating at the White House, he is eating at Number 10 Downing
Street, which means that people's minds have to change." Taylor
said should release the U.N. peacekeepers without precondition.
"You know the western world is saying that Africans do not know
how to control themselves, then when Africans come to help you
take them hostage, that's not very good." The Liberian leader
repeated his call for a ceasefire in Sierra Leone as a
prerequisite to peace. "The Sierra Leone Army and the Kamajors must
be disarmed, and then there must be room for all sides to negotiate
for whatever process they want," Taylor said.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Wednesday his government favoured an
 African
peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone, with the West playing a
supporting role. "European troops in the front line are not
necessarily helpful in achieving (a) reduction in tension," Cook told
the BBC. "It is better if the front line is provided by African
troops facing African situations." He said Britain could provide
logistics and leadership to the force. "We do not envisage any
circumstances in which our fighting units will become a combat force
within the U.N.," Cook said.
RUF leader Foday Sankoh appeared "physically fit, he looked
mentally fit" except for a superficial bullet wound on his left
leg when a Kenyan delegation met with the rebel leader in Freetown on
Tuesday, according to Lieutenant-General Daniel Opande, Kenya's
Vice Chief of Staff. Opande would only say the meeting took place
at a government building in Freetown. "When we talked about the
taking of the U.N. observers and the U.N. peacekeepers, he looked
very regretful for the action, and he actually apologised that
it should not have happened and he was personally very sorry for
what happened," Opande told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
"I have no reason not to believe that he meant what he said. But
of course history will tell what he wanted to pass on to us and
the rest of the world." Opande said Sankoh was "in the safe
custody of the government of Sierra Leone," adding: "No U.N. are
around where we met him."
The United Nations Security Council was briefed on the situation
in Sierra Leone Wednesday by Assistant Secretary-General for
Peacekeeping Operations, Hedi Annabi. In a statement read out out
following the meeting, Security Council President Ambassador Wang
Yingfan of China said Council members were deeply concerned at
reports of the discovery of bodies, possibly those of U.N.
peacekeepers, near Rogberi Junction. Members of the Council
emphasised that the RUF was responsible for the fate of the
victims. Council members also expressed their deep concern over
the humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone and reminded all U.N.
member states of their obligation to observe the arms embargo against
the RUF. Security Council members again demanded the immediate
release of all U.N. personnel detained in Sierra Leone and urged
all those with influence with the rebel group — including
Liberian President Charles Taylor — to work toward that end. In
his Fourth Report on the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone,
released on Monday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would be
sending a multi-disciplinary high-level team to Sierra Leone to
draw lessons from UNAMSIL's experience in the country. The team
will be led by former Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping
Manfred Eisele, and will assess problems and make recommendations to
improve UNAMSIL's ability to discharge its mandate. Council
members were informed of the mission, which is tentatively
expected to begin work next week.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday he hoped most of
the
remaining approximately 250 U.N. peacekeepers still being held by
the RUF would be freed by the weekend. He said he had spoken to
Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was designated by ECOWAS
earlier this month to negotiate for the hostages' release. "He
expects to be able to see some more of the detainees released
before the end of the week," Annan said. He noted that ECOWAS
heads of state were due to meet Saturday in Abuja. "Of course, I
would hope that by the time they meet, most of the peacekeepers
would be in freedom," he said.
U.S. Senator Judd Gregg said he is remaining firm in blocking funds for U.N.
 peacekeeping
operations because of his anger over U.S. support for the Lomé
Peace Accord signed last year between the Sierra Leone government and
RUF rebels. The agreement gave the RUF a say in government as
part of a power-sharing arrangement which was to have led to
disarmament by the country's warring factions. "American
taxpayers have to ask themselves why are we spending money; why
would we want to spend money to support, encourage and endorse
people who are essentially criminals," Gregg said on the floor of
the Senate. "The policy being pursued in Sierra Leone was
misdirected from the start. We shouldn’t have been making peace,
we should not have been bringing into the government people who
acted in such a barbaric way toward their own people. We should have
been taking a much harder line."
The commander of British forces in Sierra Leone, Brigadier David
Richards, said he would not want to Britain to withdraw in a
situation where chaos would likely ensue, but he maintained that a
mid-June pullout was realistic. "That decision was based to a large
extent on the advice we were able to provide to policymakers in
Whitehall," he said. "We have been working since our arrival to
ensure that we have created the conditions to allow us to come out in
mid-June. The U.N. is becoming increasingly capable and the
government forces are taking the battle forward towards the key
RUF heartland and doing it very successfully." President Kabbah's
spokesman, Septimus Kaikai, was more cautious: "I'm sure that
they will not leave us in a situation that will make us
vulnerable," he said. "They know what is taking place on the
ground." Richards argued that a new unity among disparate
pro-government militias was making them into a more effective
fighting force than had previously been the case. "They are very
keen to remain locked together, so the disparate factions that have
spoilt Sierra Leone in the past, I think, are now a thing of the
past. They are determined to do the right thing and remain loyal
to the president," he said. "A key part of the training we are
giving is to instill in the new army the right sort of codes of
behaviour and I am confident that our faith is well-placed."
An eight-member team sent to Rogberi Junction has been unable to
determine whether bodies discovered on Monday clad in military
uniforms with U.N. insignia were were those of U.N. soldiers. Further
investigation will need to be conducted, according to the Spokesman
for the U.N. Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard. He said the U.N.
is actively seeking forensic experts for this purpose.
29 Zambian peacekeeping troops freed by the RUF on Monday are
believed to be in the process of being handed over to the United
Nations, a U.N. spokesman said in New York on Wednesday. A helicopter
sent to the Liberian border town of Foya on Tuesday failed to
find any new released detainees.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said Wednesday he would like
to see a Sierra Leone peacekeeping force under a single unified
command rather than a U.N. force and a parallel Nigerian-led West
African force. Wade said in Paris that conflicts on the continent
"are a matter of concern for the whole world, not only for
Africans." "'Africa for Africans' is an obsolete concept and bad
alibi for dictators," he said. "For the United Nations and some
major powers, it is a pretext to avoid intervening and to
renounce their responsibilities."
23 May: Sierra Leone Army
(SLA) troops and RUF rebel forces clashed overnight at Rogberi
Junction, according to the SLA Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Bangura.
"We had an initial contact about two kilometres east of the
junction at midnight and one of our men was killed in the
firefight," Bangura told Reuters. "An hour later they attacked
our forces around the junction. There was heavy fighting for about 40
minutes." There was no independent confirmation as to the extent of
the fighting. Later in the day the Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported that pro-government forces had captured Lunsar and were
advancing towards the RUF stronghold of Makeni. At the same time,
AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma told BBC correspondent Lansana
Fofana that government forces had captured Lunsar and were doing
mopping-up operations to consolidate their hold on the town, but
he denied they were moving toward Makeni. But Bangura indicated
that about 300 pro-government troops were consolidating their
position at Rogberi Junction, which he described as the army's front
line. "This is our forward position. We do not hold Lunsar. I
assume that it is in rebel hands," he said. "We will be in Lunsar
soon enough, but not before I receive the necessary orders and
logistical support." Bangura said, however, that the Fifth Sierra
Leone Battalion had travelled the road to Port Loko on Monday
without difficulty. "There are rebel forces in the area. One has
to assume they may attack any time, any place, but I think we
have the forces to deal with them," he told reporters. Reuters'
Kurt Schork reported hearing the sound of heavy artillery fire
from the direction of Port Loko early Tuesday morning. Meanwhile,
the Missionary Services News Agency (MISNA) reported an RUF
attack on the northern town of Bumbuna, but said a 600-man Sierra
Leone Army contingent stationed in the town had repelled the
attack. The report gave no details.
British troops from the First Battalion the Paratroop Regiment on
the ground in Sierra Leone will be replaced by Four Two Commando
Royal Marines this week in
preparation
for a pullout of British forces next month from the country,
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told Parliament on Tuesday.
"It is a sensible military step which preserves our capability on the
ground for the remainder of this mission, while allowing the
Parachute Regiment to return to the U.K.," Hoon said. "Our
assumptions on timing remain the same. The build-up of U.N.
forces between now and mid-June is on schedule." In his Commons
statement, Hoon said "advance elements" of a Military Assistance
Training Team would arrive in Freetown shortly. "The team will
provide advice and training to help the Government of Sierra
Leone rebuild a new, effective, democratically accountable Armed
Forces and Ministry of Defence in line with the Lomé Peace
Agreement," he said. The offer of the British-led team was
announced in March by Prime Minister Tony Blair as part of an
effort to help Sierra Leone build its restructured army. Hoon
said Monday that Britain would make light weapons and ammunition
available to the Sierra Leone Army under the supervision of
British officers. "The precise distribution of arms and
ammunition will be carefully considered in the context of the
local political situation and the wider regional issues," he
said. "Our commitment to promoting stability and security in
Sierra Leone remains the same; our decision to enhance the
capability of the Sierra Leone army is an essential element of
that."
UNAMSIL has sent a team of U.N. military observers, civilian
police and a human rights officer to investigate six to eight
bodies found near Rogberi Junction, a U.N. spokesman said in New
York on Tuesday. Their task has been made more difficult because,
according to the Associated Press, SLA troops buried the bodies
late Monday in two separate graves. The spokesman said that the
U.N. had so far been
 unable
to find a forensic expert to help identify the remains. The
mutilated bodies were discovered Monday by SLA troops and a
British freelance photographer, Paul Barnett. UNAMSIL spokesman
David Wimhurst said the bodies were clad in Zambian military
uniforms, some of them bearing U.N. insignia. Barnett told reporters
some of the uniforms carried Nigerian identification. One uniform
had a U.N. insignia "Nibatt 2, UNAMSIL" on its sleeve, referring
to a Nigerian battalion, Barnett said. "They had their army ID
cards in their pockets and one had a Zambian passport," he added.
Barnett said two of the bodies had blue U.N. helmets and one had
a bullet hole in his head. The victims had been "dead for quite a
long time," possibly five or six days. Wimhurst pointed out
Monday that the RUF had been using uniforms seized from captured
U.N. peacekeepers, and said more investigation would be necessary
to determine whether the dead were Zambians peacekeepers. The
soldiers believed they buried eight bodies, but were not sure
because the corpses had been hacked to pieces and, according to
the Agence France-Presse, had been partly devoured by animals. U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement late Monday
expressing shock at the discovery of the bodies "appalled by the
culture of violence and cruelty which pervades the conflict in
Sierra Leone." Annan called for all parties to respect
international humanitarian law and recognised standards of human
rights.
Liberian President Charles Taylor said Tuesday that attacks on RUF positions by
pro-government
forces were complicating his efforts to negotiate the release of
some 233 remaining U.N. personnel held hostage by the rebels.
"The longer these attacks are carried out the more difficult it will
become in mediating a successful release of the remaining hostages,"
according to a statement issued by the Executive Mansion in
Monrovia. Taylor expressed "dissatisfaction over the slow pace of
the release of U.N. hostages owing to the continued attacks
against the RUF by government forces," the statement said, adding
"He has called for all parties to cease fire immediately in
order to allow his mediation at freeing the remaining hostages to
proceed without difficulty."
The Sierra Leone government disputed Tuesday an assertion by the
Liberian government that Sierra Leone government forces were
attacking RUF positions. In a statement issued by the Office of the
President in Freetown, the government asserted that it "has only been
defending its positions, and that in defending the positions of
its forces, they have used the defensive strategy of taking over
any position from which attacks have been launched on the
position of its forces in order to neutralise the capacity of the
enemy to continue attacking from that position." In a statement
issued by Charles Taylor's government earlier Monday, Liberia
asserted that the attacks on rebel positions were complicating
efforts to negotiate the release of the remaining U.N. hostages.
"Government does not therefore see the connection between
defending the positions of its forces and the release of the U.N.
peacekeepers who were illegally abducted," the Sierra Leonean
statement said. "It should be recalled that the ECOWAS Heads of
State, and indeed the entire international community at large, had
indicated that there should be no precondition for the release of U.N.
peacekeepers who are to be released without delay. This global
position was indeed endorsed by President Charles Taylor at a
recent ECOWAS Summit in Abuja."
A delegation of Kenyan political and military officials working
to support efforts to negotiate the release of U.N. personnel held
captive by RUF rebels in Sierra Leone have met with detained RUF
leader Foday Sankoh in Freetown. "When I saw Foday Sankoh, I got
the impression that he was sorry for having captured our
soldiers. He did say that he had no grudge with the people of
Kenya, and he had no grudge with UNAMSIL," Kenyan Minister of
State for Defence Julius L. Sunkuli told the BBC in Monrovia on
Tuesday. "He said that he did not want to fight the war any more,
and he said to me that he wanted to meet president Kabbah to
tell him that...He did not put up a face of a very brave man. He
gave an impression of a man who is unable to do much now, especially in
the kind of situation he is, namely he being in the hands of the
government of Sierra Leone." Sunkuli indicated he was not sure
whether Sankoh was sincere about wanting an end to hostilities. "It
is very difficult to judge the intentions of a man who is, who
has been captured," he said. "You cannot know if he’s applying
remorse as a strategy." Asked by BBC Monrovia correspondent
Jonathan Paye-Layleh whether Kenya would be willing to forgive
Sankoh "in the interests of continental peace," Sunkuli replied:
"Well we have nothing much to forgive him. We lost our lives, the
lives of many Kenyans. And we have recovered many of our men
back, many of UNAMSIL’s people are still away. We did inform
Foday Sankoh that it is not useful to discharge hostages in bits,
and we just want all our people out and we want our equipment
back, and that we did tell him, because we are a poor country. To
lose that amount of equipment is not good at all." The minister
said Kenya had no plans to pull out of the UNAMSIL force in Sierra
Leone. "I don’t think we should ever entertain this question,
both in Sierra Leone and whatever we go on, because we cannot let
your fellow human beings suffer just because of our own little
fears," he said.
Humanitarian organisations have expressed concern that former
child soldiers are being re-recruited by Sierra Leone's warring
factions, while other children may be being abducted. According to the
BBC, the agencies say some 40 children at a care centre in Makeni
have been taken back by their RUF commanders. The agencies also
say children ranging from 7 to 14 years old have been seen
foraging for food with pro-government forces at Masiaka. Caritas
International has said it is trying to evacuate children from
areas where fighting is taking place, the BBC said.
40 Sierra Leone Army officers ranging in rank from lieutenant to
major Monday, where they will undergo an eight-week
British-sponsored training course at the Ghana Military Academy,
according to Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service. The officers will
be trained by military instructors from Ghana and Britain.
Some of the 29 Zambian peacekeepers freed by the RUF on Monday
have related stories of mistreatment while in rebel captivity.
"It was my first time to be captured so far. You could be dragged
here and there just like that, being beaten [words indistinct], being
hanged like animals," one of the Zambian solders told BBC Monrovia
correspondent Jonathan Paye-Layleh. Another described his
experience as "very difficult." "Of course when we are captured
we are stripped naked. Everything was taken from us," he said.
"We were beaten with [butts] and we were packed in a small
mini-bus which carries about 15 passengers but we were almost
50." A third soldier told Paye-Layleh that he had been badly
tortured. He said the peacekeepers had been tied up and had been
given only four mangoes to eat per day. He said he had not been
beaten. "No, no beating," he said. "Just fires the weapon in the
air then points at you, you know."
Libya will provide two Ukrainian-chartered helicopters to assist
in the evacuation of U.N. personnel from Sierra Leone, Liberian
President Charles Taylor announced Monday on his private radio station.
He said the helicopters were due to arrive in Sierra Leone on
Tuesday. Last Friday Taylor complained two helicopters sent by
Libya earlier had been too small to be of use. "They sent two toy
helicopters," he said.
Kamajor militiamen in Bo say they are preparing for an attack
against the RUF in Kono District, BBC correspondent Lansana Fofana
said on Tuesday after visiting the city. Fofana quoted one commander
as saying they were only waiting for adequate logistics to mount
an offensive. "He says he’s very impatient, his fighters are very
impatient," Fofana said. "I saw a number of Kamajors (at the
Kamajor headquarters), some carrying rocket-propelled grenades,
AK-47 and [word indistinct] rifles. They were battle-ready and
they were saying they would move on Kono and capture it if they
are encouraged by the authorities to do so." In Kenema, however,
Fofana said Kamajor militiamen and RUF rebels were mining
side-by-side, creating an "uneasy calm" in the town. "It is no
secret in Kenema," he said. Obviously people go back and forth to
Tongo and other mining towns around Kenema District, the Kenema
town itself...In Tongo, for instance, RUF people are there —
that’s well known. There are Kamajors as well. What I learned
from it all — and it is very interesting — is the fact that the
Kamajors have warned the RUF not to attempt to play any mischief.
That 'we are here side by side, if you attempt to do anything
that’s a bit out of the way we will take you on.' And basically
they are getting along. Everybody’s finding diamonds and making
money for themselves." Fofana said on his way from Bo to Kenema
is observed Kamajor militiamen mining for diamonds. "They will
not say who they are mining for, but they were all around the
diamond field," he said.
22 May: Two Nigerian U.N.
peacekeeping troops and three ex-SLA soldiers loyal to AFRC
leader Johnny Paul Koroma were killed in a shootout at
Wilberforce Barracks overnight Sunday. The clash was apparently
triggered by an attempt by a group of former soldiers to free a
colleague who was in detention. According to BBC correspondent Mike
Donkin, the ex-SLA soldiers first descended on the home of
President Kabbah's chief of security, Major Mohamed Aliyu. "In a
gun battle, two militiamen died," Donkin said. "The rest of the
group then attacked the Nigerian peacekeeping battalion’s
barracks in an apparent effort to free one of their number
detained there. In the firing which followed, two of the U.N.’s
peacekeepers were killed and another was injured."
29 more Zambian peacekeeping troops were freed through Liberia on
Monday, with a message that detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh
should be freed within 13 days. "You are given 13 days in which
Sankoh should be released. When you go, tell the U.N. to keep off. This
is an internal issue," one of the freed peacekeepers quoted RUF
field commander Colonel Issa Sesay as saying. He did not specify
what would happen if the government failed to turn Sankoh over.
The freed U.N. soldiers spoke of maltreatment by the RUF rebels.
Zambian Sergeant Sanyangwe Davies said their group of hostages
was beaten and tied to a tree. "We were given mangoes to share,"
he said. A similar account was given by Warrant Officer Phiri
Shadreck: "We just ate virtually nothing. We stayed hungry almost
the whole day. It wasn't easy to go through," he said. "These
guys are very dangerous people. They could have killed us any
time."
Prior to this latest announcement, UNAMSIL spokesman David
Wimhurst told the BBC that "slightly below 300" U.N. personnel
remained in RUF captivity. "We don’t have a good idea of where they
are, and we haven’t had for some time," he said. "All we know
is they’re held by the RUF somewhere in Sierra Leone." Wimhurst
said the primary contact with the RUF was being made by Liberian
President Charles Taylor. "(Taylor) has instigated contacts with
the RUF and it’s through his efforts that we’ve been able to
secured the release through Liberia of 204 so far," he said.
"He’s assured us that the goal is to have all the detainees
released as soon as possible."
Pro-government forces have advanced along the Freetown - Makeni
highway toward the RUF-held town of Lunsar, local journalists
reported on Monday. The Agence-France Presse (AFP) quoted an independent
radio reporter as saying the troops had reached the town of
Mamusa, just outside Lunsar. There has been no independent
confirmation of the report. In Kambia, the AFP cited an
unconfirmed report that the RUF conscripted civilians over the
weekend in the towns of Rokupr, Bamoi, and Kawula, and that the
rebels had regrouped at the towns of Madina, Mambolo and Moribaya
in Samu Chiefdom. The AFP quoted "at least six witnesses" as
saying RUF rebels were digging trenches around Kambia Bridge to prevent
an advance by pro-government forces.
The departure of 776 Bangladeshi peacekeepers was delayed Monday
as they waited for cargo aircraft to transport them and their
equipment to Sierra Leone. "We are ready, but we need proper aircraft
so that men and equipment can go together," a defence source was
quoted as saying. He said they had been offered an Airbus but
instead opted for cargo aircraft. "We are on a 24-hour alert and
will fly to Freetown as soon as the aircraft arrive," the source
said.
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Secretary of State for Africa, Peter Hain,
 told
Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Monday that Britain would
agree to Sierra Leone's request to supply arms and ammunition to
pro-government forces fighting an offensive against RUF rebels.
"Clearly we don't want a situation where the United Nations is being
deployed behind a Sierra Leone force which is taking on the rebels,
and that force does not have ammunition," Hain said. The minister
also told the Committee that Britain had turned down a request
by President Kabbah in April to have a British officer
effectively take over as Sierra Leone's Chief of Defence Staff,
to replace the late Major-General Maxwell Khobe. Hain called
Kabbah's proposal a "crazy idea" which would have put a British
officer in charge of an army "which did not in effect exist."
Asked whether the request, which was turned down by the foreign
office before it reached the minister, should have been taken
more seriously, Hain replied: "When you get a request, even from an
embattled president, you don't always stand to attention." Asked
whether British troops on the ground in Sierra Leone might intervene
to rescue a missing British aid worker or a British military
observer trapped by the RUF in Kailahun, Hain said: "You would
not expect us, with a very effective British deployment, to turn
our backs on British citizens...caught in the crossfire."
Britain's opposition Conservatives are urging that British
soldiers be sent to strike at RUF forces in the bush if there is a
realistic chance of success, the Telegraph newspaper reported on
Monday. In a speech to the Royal Commonwealth Society, shadow
foreign secretary Francis Maude called on ministers to state
openly that their aim is the military defeat of the RUF. "If the
government's advice is that by extending the British mission for a
few weeks and extending it in terms of what the mission is,
there is a serious prospect the British contingent could actually
defeat the RUF, we would support that," he said. "The only
condition is that they should be open and clear about what they
are doing."
Sierra Leonean soldiers and a British freelance photographer
reported Monday the discovery of at least six bodies clad in
Zambian military uniforms, some with U.N. peacekeeping insignia, raising
fears that the dead may be Zambian U.N. troops abducted by the
RUF earlier this month. The bodies, which had been hacked to
pieces, were found in the bush about half a mile north of Rogberi
Junction. "These bodies were wearing uniforms that bear the
United Nations symbol, and some of the uniforms had a
clearly-identifiable Zambian country name patch on them," UNAMSIL
Spokesman David Wimhurst told the BBC Focus on Africa programme.
"The bodies themselves are not identifiable; they’ve seriously
decomposed. They’re essentially skeletal. They appear to have
been shot. There are some skulls with bullet holes in them." He noted
that it could not yet be determined whether the bodies were
actually those of Zambian peacekeepers, because RUF fighters had
stripped the captured U.N. personnel of their uniforms and were
using them. "So the fact that we have bodies wearing Zambian
uniforms doesn’t necessarily — at this stage anyway — indicate
that they are definitely Zambians," he said. "We are therefore
launching a thorough investigation to try and identify these
remains." The Associated Press reported that Zambian passports
and military identification cards, many of them containing bullet
holes, were found in the pile of corpses and uniforms.
Pro-government troops estimated the total number of bodies, including
other bodies scattered in the area, as numbering between nine and
eleven.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his Fourth Report on the United
Nations
Mission in Sierra Leone, has recommended that the U.N. Security
Council increase the authorised strength of the U.N. peacekeeping
force to 16,500 troops, but said UNAMSIL should continue to operate
under its current mandate. On Friday the Security Council raised
the ceiling on troop strength from 11,100 to 13,000 to
accommodate new peacekeeping contingents expected to arrive over
the weekend. Annan suggested the force may need strengthening
again when the new peacekeepers arrive in order to "establish the
security conditions throughout the country required for the
successful implementation of aspects of the peace process,
including disarmament and the holding of democratic elections." Among
his immediate concerns, Annan said, were the release of U.N.
personnel held hostage by the RUF, an end to "hostile acts" by
rebel fighters, and their full cooperation in retrieving the
dead, wounded and missing. He also recommended the Council
strengthen sanctions to "prevent RUF commanders from reaping the
benefits of their illegal exploitation of mineral resources, in
particular diamonds." Annan said detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh
should be held responsible for the recent crisis in Sierra
Leone, and that as leader of the rebel group he should be held
"accountable for his actions and those of RUF, and for the safety
and well-being of all those who have been detained." The U.N.
would have to draw lessons from its experiences in Sierra Leone, the
secretary-general said. "The force, which had been designed,
equipped and deployed as a peacekeeping force, was quickly forced
into actual combat with one of the parties that had pledged to
cooperate with it," Annan noted. He added that the turn of events
had caused many problems within UNAMSIL, including the areas of
command and control, cohesiveness of the force, the flow of
information, equipment and preparedness of the troops, and
overall coordination.
Sierra Leone has welcomed Friday's action by the United Nations
Security Council to increase the authorised strength of the
UNAMSIL force from 11,100 to 13,000 troops. In an address Monday to the
General Assembly's Special Political Committee, Deputy Permanent
Representative (Political Affairs) Dr. Sylvester E. Rowe said his
delegation "was encouraged by the assurances given by members
and non-members of the Council" that the U.N. would not abandon
Sierra Leone, and pleased that there was a consensus that the
U.N. should continue to fulfill its commitment to the country.
"In our view, the Council sent a clear message to the RUF and
others, that it would not be deterred by any acts of terrorism
and intimidation, nor by attempts to disparage the entire mission
of the United Nations in Sierra Leone," he said. Referring to
the abduction of U.N. personnel this month by RUF rebels, Rowe
insisted that the U.N. had not failed in Sierra Leone, and that
Sierra Leoneans still had confidence in the organisation to help them
to restore peace and security throughout the country. The
ambassador argued that the success or failure of U.N.
peacekeeping efforts should be judged "on the basis of the
readiness and sincerity of combatants...to abide by the
commitment they made in signing a peace agreement" and by the
ability of the U.N. "to adapt its concepts of peacekeeping, its
basic perceptions about armed conflicts involving
non-governmental actors, as well as its previous mandates and rules of
engagement" based on lessons learned. "We welcome last Friday’s
decision of the Security Council to respond to the prevailing
circumstances in Sierra Leone," Rowe said. "We trust that the
Council would not hesitate to respond speedily and effectively, in the
event of any further breach of the peace by the RUF and its
internal and external allies."
Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday that RUF rebels should disarm voluntarily or be
 disarmed
by force, because violence in Sierra Leone threatens stability
in the sub-region. Jackson, who is President Clinton's Special Envoy
for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa, returned to the United
States after holding talks with government officials in Nigeria,
Liberia and Mali. In a telephone interview with reporters,
Jackson condemned the reported killing of more U.N. peacekeepers
by the RUF, saying it showed "the contempt they have for
democracy. They must be held accountable." He said Nigeria was
ready to lead a military force into Sierra Leone to impose peace.
"But these troops must have a peace enforcement mandate, not a
peacekeeping mandate," Jackson said. "Otherwise they will be
targets" for the rebels of the Sierra Leone Revolutionary United
Front. The RUF must disarm and demobilise voluntarily or be
disarmed and demobilised. They must not retain military power
because that threatens democracy." He told reporters that
continued fighting in Sierra Leone could "create a domino effect of
instability in the region." "There is a real obligation to
secure democracy in Sierra Leone," he said. Jackson also called on
Congress to unblock funds for the U.S. share of UNAMSIL peacekeeping
efforts. The money is being held up by Senator Judd Gregg, who has
voiced opposition to provisions of the Lomé Peace Accord which
gave the RUF a role in government. "Holding up resources
jeopardizes more lives," Jackson said. "If U.S. troops are not
going in, then the burden is on Congress to provide financial
support for allies who are ready to help."
European Union foreign ministers expressed "deep concern" Monday
over continued violence in Sierra Leone, and condemned "the
attacks on UNAMSIL peacekeepers by the Revolutionary United
Front, the RUF's continuing detention of U.N. personnel and its
blatant violation of the Lomé Peace Agreement." The ministers,
gathered in Brussels for their monthly General Affairs Council meeting,
said that although it was stabilising somewhat, the security
situation in the country remained highly volatile. "The Council
calls once again on the RUF to end all violence, to release all
detainees unconditionally and safely, to disarm, and to implement
the Lomé Peace Agreement, which remains the basis for lasting
peace and stability in Sierra Leone," the ministers said in a
statement. "(The Council) for its part agreed to consider
urgently what practical support the EU might give in order to
help the UN fulfil its mandate and to strengthen the U.N. presence in
Sierra Leone over the coming weeks."
U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday that a
hold on U.S. payments to the United Nations for peacekeeping
efforts in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, East Timor and Congo was adversely
affecting both the U.N. and the U.S. "We have $226 million in unpaid
bills, despite having the funds already appropriated," he said.
The funds are being blocked by Senator Judd Gregg, who chairs a
key subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee
responsible for State Department funding. In the case of Sierra
Leone, Gregg said in a Washington Post editorial that he would
continue to block funding as long as the Lomé Peace Accord was in
force. Gregg has frozen a total of $368 million in funding for
the current fiscal year; the $226 million figure represents
unpaid bills to date. Boucher said that as a result of Gregg's
actions, "the United Nations either has to defer payments to nations
that are providing peacekeepers or skimp in some other area. Either
way, it damages U.N. peacekeeping." In New York, U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said a continued hold on the money
"is going to hamper our activities," adding "I hope that the
other members of the Senate would work with the senator concerned
to remove the holds."
21 May: RUF rebels have
released an 54 more United Nations personnel, UNAMSL spokesman
David Wimhurst said on Sunday. The freed peacekeepers were handed
over to Liberian officials in the border town of Foya and
evacuated by helicopter to Monrovia, Wimhurst said. They were
flown to Freetown by plane a few hours later. The group was made
up of 42 Zambians, 10 Kenyans, a Malaysian and a Norwegian,
Wimhurst said. Three were reported injured and, according to a Reuters
reporter in Monrovia, two of them were carried on stretchers.
About 280 U.N. personnel are believed to be still held by the
RUF. Felix Downes-Thomas, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special
Envoy in Liberia, said "quite a lot more" U.N. peacekeepers were
due to be released on Monday.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will call on the U.N. Security Council
 to
consider widening sanctions in Sierra Leone to prevent rebel leaders
from providing from the illicit sale of diamonds, the BBC reported
on Sunday, referring to an advance copy of Annan's latest report
on Sierra Leone due to be presented to the Security Council this
week. According to BBC United Nations correspondent Mark
Devenport, Annan is proposing an increase in U.N. personnel to
16,500, consisting of "the addition of two infantry battalions, a
logistics battalion, a light artillery unit, helicopter gunships
and armed patrol boats." Devenport said Annan believed this
would be sufficient for UNAMSIL troops to gradually deploy
forward, but not to be able to take over RUF strongholds. "If the
mandate of the U.N. soldiers is changed to authorize them to impose
peace throughout the country, then the number of peacekeepers
would need to increase yet again," Devenport said.
The Sierra Leone Army said it repelled a rebel attack at Rogberi
Junction Sunday, but Reuters said it was "difficult to tell how
much resistance" the pro-government forces faced. Reuters
correspondent Matthew Bigg said one one threat seemed to come
from soldiers at the rear shooting over their colleagues in
forward positions. "The 15-minute burst of fire by about 60 troops
showed how unstable the frontlines are — and the jumpiness of
government soldiers," Bigg observed. "It was just a pocket of
marauding rebels who are trying to find their way back to their
concentrated area," Second Lieutenant Ken Jabbie said later,
adding that the RUF would have used greater force if they had
really wanted to retake the town. Meanwhile, pro-government
military forces were said to be massing Sunday at Magbelli Bridge, about
45 miles from Freetown, for an expected attack on the RUF-held
town of Lunsar. According to Reuters, trucks ferried hundreds of
soldiers across the bridge over the Rokel River Saturday to a
temporary encampment consisting of a number of mud-brick houses.
The pro-government forces, consisting of SLA soldiers, the ex-SLA
"West Side" unit, and Kamajor militiamen, have reportedly been
supplied with food, ammunition and uniforms, and unified under a
single command.
Additional peacekeeping troops from Zambia, Bangladesh and India
have begun arriving in Freetown, two days after the U.N. Security
Council raised the maximum authorised strength of the UNAMSIL force
from 11,100 to 13,000. BBC correspondent Mike Donkin said the new
forces would be used to support an offensive by pro-government
troops against the RUF along the Freetown - Makeni road east of
the capital. "Sierra Leone Army units backed by militiamen are
now pushing beyond the town of Masiaka, which has changed hands
three times in the past week," Donkin said. "As they advance the
U.N. troops move in behind to hold the ground gained. But in the
jungle and the bush there’ve been no decisive battles and it’s
hard to assess who holds the upper hand." In Dhaka, a Bangladeshi
defence official told the Agence France-Presse that the first
contingent of 150 Bangladeshi troops were set to leave for Sierra
Leone on Monday "unless there are any last-minute hitches." The
Bangladeshi contingent will consist of 776 men, including 46
officers. They were scheduled to leave earlier, but technical
problems delayed their departure. About 18 U.N.-chartered Canadian
aircraft will fly the soldiers to Freetown, the defence official said.
Any Nigerian forces in Sierra Leone should be commanded by
Nigerian officers, President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Saturday.
In a Reuters interview, he said the
 United
Nations provide financial support and a more robust mandate. "We
don't mind who commands the U.N. forces in Sierra Leone, but the
Nigerian formation should be commanded by a Nigerian commander,"
Obasanjo said in Abuja. "We are saying that the peacekeeping mandate
which only more or less allows you to fire back in self-defense may
not be adequate for you to enforce the Lomé Peace Agreement in
Sierra Leone. So if you give us the green light, in 24 to 48
hours we can have five battalions there on the ground
operational." Meanwhile France, often considered a rival to
Nigeria in the sub-region, has called for a larger Nigerian role
in resolving the conflict in Sierra Leone. "It does not seem to
me in keeping with  the
sense of history that western countries should send
expeditionary corps to all corners of Africa to restore law and
order," French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine (right) said on
Saturday. "People must go back to work on the political accord on
which the country's political future must be based, and the
neighbouring African countries must become more involved, because
Sierra Leone's ethnic-commercial conflict with a background of
diamonds extends well beyond the country's borders...I believe
that Nigeria, the region's largest country, now truly advancing
towards democracy under the leadership of a respected head of
state, should play a greater role."
As many as ten more Kenyan soldiers are missing and feared dead
in Sierra Leone, according to a report by Kenya's KTN television. The
report quoted UNAMSIL Chief of Staff Colonel Michael Fundi as
saying an armoured personnel carrier carrying ten Kenyans went
over a bridge on May 9 after being hit by a bazooka. Two Kenyan
peacekeepers were earlier reported as missing and presumed dead.
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said Sunday that while the fate of detained
RUF
leader Foday Sankoh was a matter for the Sierra Leone government,
Britain would be concerned if Sankoh were to continue to play a role.
Under the terms of last year's peace agreement, Sankoh was made
chairman of the government's Commission for the Management of
Strategic Resources, National Reconstruction and Development
with the protocol rank of vice president. "It's a matter for them
to decide what should happen to him next, "but obviously we
would be concerned that he should no longer have any kind of an
influence over Sierra Leone," Hoon said. "He was the one who
broke the peace accord, he's responsible for the recent upsurge
in violence." The minister said Britain had discussed a request
for more ammunition with President Kabbah. "We have not yet taken
any specific decision but we certainly will be examining it very
carefully," he said. Hoon indicated that Britain would continue its
commitment to Sierra Leone even after the paratroopers currently in
the country pull out. "For some time we have had advisers
present," he said. "That is something we will
continue...Obviously we have to have regard to the safety of
anyone who goes there to train the army of Sierra Leone and when
the situation is safe we can take that forward."
President Kabbah urged the RUF Saturday to return to the
positions they held before the Lomé Peace Accord and to halt offensive
action. He said the rebel groups should allow civil servants to
enter the areas under their control so that the administration
could be rebuilt. "I appeal to you, the RUF, to commit yourselves
to the disarmament," Kabbah said in a nationwide address.
Information Minister Dr. Julius Spencer said Saturday that many
RUF fighters were still anxious for peace. "It is clear that the
vast majority of the combatants are fed
up
with fighting, but some of those at the top of the hierarchy,
who obviously are very selfish, want things for themselves so
they keep their men fighting," Spencer told Reuters. "As far as
Foday Sankoh and the RUF is concerned, we believe that we need to
separate the individual from the organisation...We know for a fact that
there are many RUF members who are not involved in fighting now
and who did not share the attitude of Foday Sankoh and some of
his commanders." Spencer said that for the peace process to
continue, the RUF would have to stop all hostile actions, allow
complete freedom of movement of U.N. forces, and free all
hostages, including civilian and U.N. peacekeepers along with
their weapons. The alternative to the peace agreement was
military action, he said. "The government will have no
alternative but to take military action, in a defensive posture largely,
against those who are mounting attacks against government
positions." Spencer added that a blanket amnesty for war crimes
did not apply to acts committed after the signing last July of
the Lomé Peace Accord.
A delegation of Kenyan military and government officials left
Monrovia for Freetown early Sunday, with the aim of travelling to
Kabala. "We are going to Kabala — we're going to that little town to
see the rest of the (Kenyan) battalion," said the Vice-Chief of
Genera Staff of Kenya's armed forces, Daniel Opande. Opande said six
Kenyans were among the 334 U.N. personnel still being held by
the RUF, and in a Reuters interview late Saturday he expressed
concern about a link being made between the release of the
peacekeepers and the fate of RUF leader Foday Sankoh. "We do not
want to believe that there should be conditions on the release of
the hostages," he said. "Of course, naturally one would think
that that is what is happening. Definitely it gives us cause for
concern. Without (Sankoh's arrest), this thing would have been
completed by now." He added that the release of the detained
peacekeepers had "more or less trickled down to nothing in the
last few days."
The crisis in Sierra Leone is expected to be on the agenda when
15 European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday.
Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office ignored reports from
former High Commissioner Peter Penfold about the impending crisis in
Sierra Leone, according to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.
According to the article, one of Penfold's last acts was to warn
of the coming crisis and to appeal for British military officers
to assist the pro-government forces. The request was later turned
down.
Two officials from London-based Amnesty International will arrive
in Freetown Monday for talks with government and U.N. officials on
the human rights situation in Sierra Leone. Amnesty International
Secretary-General Pierre Sane and Sierra Leone researcher Tessa
Kordeczka are expected to meet with President Kabbah, Justice
Minister and Attorney-General Solomon Berewa, and Foreign Affairs
Minister Dr. Sama Banya, as well as with UNAMSIL officials. The
two will also meet with "human rights defenders and Amnesty
International members currently in the frontline," a press
release said.
A search is underway for a British aid worker missing in Sierra
Leone since May 9, when he is believed to have visited the town of
Songo, the scene of fighting between pro-government forces and the
RUF. Engineer Alan Smith, 55, from Birmingham, arrived in Sierra
Leone on May 3. He was said to be visiting an educational project,
travelling with donations for a local education charity, and it
is feared he may have been abducted at an RUF checkpoint. "The
U.N. mission are looking for him, British forces are, as far as
they are able in the areas they are operating in, which are
fairly limited, and the Sierra Leone police are also looking for
him," a British foreign office spokeswoman said on Sunday. "We
have been concerned about his whereabouts for some time. We have
been trying hard to locate him," said Defence Secretary Geoff
Hoon. "That effort continues but obviously it is a matter of
great anxiety to us."
Iran has voiced support for Sierra Leone's government, and
expressed hope that the latest crisis in the country could be solved
peacefully. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has always supported the
constitutional government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and has
remained a friend of the Sierra Leone nation since the start of
the crisis in that country," said Iranian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi late Saturday. "Foreign powers have
not refrained from doing what they can to fuel the conflict and
unrest in that country," he said, adding that the conflict in
Sierra Leone was the result of intervention by foreign powers in
that country's domestic affairs. Asefi expressed Iran's concern
over the violation of the rights of innocent people and called
"for the restoration of peace and tranquility with due respect for
the sovereignty of the law."
The U.S. Special Envoy for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa,
Rev. Jesse Jackson, arrived in Bamako, Mali on Sunday, where he
repeated his demand for the
immediate
and unconditional release of U.N. hostages by the RUF. Jackson
ruled out any linkage between the release of the U.N. personnel and that
of detained RUF leader Foday Sankoh. Before leaving Monrovia,
Jackson said there was "no moral equivalence between what the
U.N. peacekeepers in Sierra Leone want to do, and what Foday
Sankoh and the RUF have done to the people." Referring to his
talks with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Liberian
President Charles Taylor, Jackson said: "There is one thing
consistent — the commitment to preserve and maintain democracy in
Sierra Leone, and to make certain in the future that the RUF no
longer have the ability to interfere with the integrity and the pursuit
of democracy in Sierra Leone." Jackson told BBC Monrovia
correspondent Jonathan Paye-Layleh that his remarks May 12 comparing the
RUF and South Africa's African National Congress had been
misunderstood. "There is no moral equivalence between the ANC
political organization and the RUF, a terrorist organisation; no
comparison between Mandela, an international statesman, and Foday
Sankoh, who is an international outlaw, but the idea is that
what is the PLO in Israel, or Britain and Ireland, ANC in South
Africa...when you finally have peace is when the extremes find
out that there are more advantages in peace than in war," Jackson
said. "And, the deal was basically working in Sierra Leone, but
the RUF broke the deal shooting through a crowd and killing unarmed
people and taking U.N. hostages, that's a level of international
criminal behavior that is unacceptable. But, war is risky and
peace is risky, but peace is worth the risk. War has little
fruits, and peace has rich fruits. And, for peace, it is worth
going the last mile."
20 May: Two Sierra
Leonean fisherman were reported missing Saturday after their boat
collided with a British Royal Marines landing craft which,
according to differing accounts, was on a reconnaissance mission
or was practicing landing procedures near Freetown. Neither boat
was carrying lights. Five fisherman were rescued and two were
missing. A search for the missing men involved a Lynx helicopter from
the frigate HMS Argyle and, after daybreak, paratroopers in
rubber boats. The fishing boat was in violation of Sierra Leone's
11:00 p.m. nighttime curfew, and may have decided to remain at
sea for that reason.
U.S. President Bill Clinton said Friday he had authorised the Defence Department
 to
provide up to $20 million to UNAMSIL and other international
forces working to stabilise the situation in Sierra Leone. The
assistance will take the form of military transport, supplies,
equipment and services. "Sierra Leone's people have suffered far
too much for far too long, and they need immediate assistance to
prevent a return to full-scale civil war," Clinton said in a
statement. "Our African and other partners have taken a stand to
restore peace and hope to Sierra Leone. We will stand with them."
Clinton pledged the U.S. "will do what is necessary for Sierra
Leone so the international community can get the job done,"
adding: "We have a genuine opportunity to make a difference, to
give them a chance for a better future, and to aid the cause of
stability and democracy in Africa."
Two field artillery guns were being airlifted Saturday from the
amphibious helicopter carrier HMS Ocean to British paratroopers
on the ground in Sierra Leone. The field guns of the Royal Artillery 29
Commando have a range of 17 kilometres, and are similar to two
weapons flown in on Thursday night during a landing exercise.
Former RUF field commander Sam "Mosquito" Bockarie has accused Britain of
prolonging
the war in Sierra Leone. In a Reuters interview published on
Saturday, Bockarie insisted that the RUF was still a force to be
reckoned with. "It is Britain that has prolonged the war in
Sierra Leone, because they do not want to bring in the right
procedure to bring lasting peace," Bockarie said. "No troops can
defeat the RUF on the ground." Bockarie went into exile in
Liberia in December following a public rift with RUF leader Foday
Sankoh. "I was insisting that the ECOMOG leave and the U.N.
should deploy simply because I knew we had fought the Nigerians
for the past six or seven years," Bockarie said. "We felt if the
Nigerians remained to maintain peace there, it wasn't going to be
peace — we would fight, like what is happening now." The former
RUF commander, who himself abducted two Médecins Sans Frontières
workers in Kailahun last December, predicted the RUF would eventually
release all of their U.N. hostages, still thought to number about
350. "I feel they must be released, because the president here
(Liberian President Charles Taylor) is doing very well," he said.
"In any case where you want to see proper peace, you have to do
the right thing — try to let the people feel that they have a
right, and that respect is given to them, and they release them
to you. You cannot use just your power." Bockarie, who met Friday
with Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Clinton's Special Envoy for
the Promotion of Democracy in Africa, denied that he had
committed atrocities in Sierra Leone's civil conflict. "For me to
look at somebody and just shoot you or cut your hands off — I'm just
not that type," he said. And despite orders from Taylor and
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo not to return to Sierra
Leone until after the disarmament was complete and elections had
been held, "Mosquito" hinted that he might not be willing to
wait. "We can't wait indefinitely to return home. Why should I be
here — I didn't fight to become a refugee," he said.
19 May: The United
Nations Security Council voted unanimously to adopt a
British-sponsored resolution increasing the authorised strength
of the UNAMSIL force in Sierra Leone to 13,000. U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to recommend an increase next
week to 16,500 troops, but Britain pressed for a vote this week
because peacekeeping troops expected to arrive in Sierra Leone
over the weekend would put the force over its current 11,100
troop limit. In a letter to the Security Council, Annan said the
increase to a 13,000 troop limit was necessary because "as a
result of the recent attacks by the Revolutionary United Front
against UNAMSIL personnel and the resumption of hostilities, it
was deemed crucial to accelerate the deployment of military units
that member states had already committed for service with
UNAMSIL."
Royal Marine commandos have staged a trial landing on the beaches of Sierra
 Leone
overnight, a British military spokesman said on Friday. As part
of the exercise, two British warships, the frigate HMS Chatham
and the amphibious helicopter carrier HMS Ocean (pictured left),
operating as part of the Amphibious Ready Support Group (ARG)
sailed eight miles up the Freetown River. Helicopters from the
Ocean reportedly carried marines and artillery ashore as part of
an operation to test their landing plans. Reconnaissance units
from the British 42 commando aboard the Ocean took part in the
exercise, which was drawn up to reinforce the troops of the First
Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, who are already on the ground.
Freetown was reported quiet overnight Thursday, a U.N. spokesman
said in New York on Friday. Fred Eckhard, the Spokesman for the
U.N. Secretary-General, said the U.N.'s primary concern was still the
release of some 350 U.N. troops still being held by the RUF. "We
have no new information concerning them," he said.
RUF leader Foday Sankoh is in government custody, "well protected
and in a safe location" while investigations proceed into a
series of RUF attacks against U.N. personnel which began on April
30, the Sierra Leone government said Friday. In a statement issued
Friday by the Office of the President, the government insisted it was
committed to the Lomé Peace Accord, but laid out what it said
were conditions the RUF would have to comply with for the peace
agreement to be implemented. These included the immediate and
unconditional release of U.N. peacekeepers and their equipment
and the freeing of all abductees held by the rebels, including
women and children. The government demanded the RUF stop its
attacks and withdraw to positions held by the rebel group prior
to the coming into force of the cease-fire agreement last May,
warning "our troops will continue to defend themselves... (by) taking
over any position from which an attack is launched on their
positions in order to neutralise the capacity of the enemy to
continue attacking from that position." The government also
demanded the RUF withdraw from the diamond-rich Kono District,
remove all impediments to the movement of civilians and
humanitarian organisations, and commit to the simultaneous and
speed disarmament of all armed groups.
A Jordanian battalion of U.N. peacekeeping troops was said to be
consolidating its positions at Masiaka, Reuters reported on Friday.
Burkina Faso denied Friday that it was involved in supplying arms to rebel
 movements
in Africa in exchange for diamonds. "Burkina Faso, which has
always persevered against every adversity, categorically denies the
gross slur that it supplies arms to rebel movements," the government
said in a statement Thursday night. In March, a United Nations
committee investigating sanctions-busting in Angola named
Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore (pictured right) as having
received "substantial contributions" to his political campaigns
as well as "direct personal payments" from UNITA leader Jonas
Savimbi in return for permitting his country to be used to
transship arms from Eastern Europe to the Angolan rebels. Burkina
Faso has also been accused of supplying false end-user
certificates for arms shipments that were destined for RUF forces
in Sierra Leone.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair referred Friday to his
country's historic responsibilities and "our own interests" in
providing assistance to Sierra Leone. In a broadcast to the nation,
Blair praised British troops in Sierra Leone and said British
paratroopers had helped "to bring new stability and hope to a
people who have suffered terribly." Referring to the RUF
"campaign of terror," Blair said: "This isn't war as we
understand it. It is an appalling savagery inflicted upon the
civilian population in which rape and slavery and mutilation are
the everyday weapons. It's a campaign of butchery in which — as
we've all seen on our television screens — young children have
had their arms and their legs hacked off as a warning to others."
Blair said the mission of British forces in Sierra Leone was to
evacuate British citizens, to secure the airport, and to assist the
United Nations in flying in reinforcements. "I should emphasise our
forces are not there as combat troops," he said. "They are not
there to fight a civil war. Their task is to get British citizens
out — and those U.N. reinforcements in. They are also working closely,
as part of their role, with the U.N. forces already on the
ground, giving them logistic support and advice. Blair said
British troops had helped evacuate Britons and other nationals to
safety, and raised the morale of U.N. and Sierra Leone
government troops. "And perhaps, most of all, re-assured the
people of Sierra Leone by demonstrating the rest of the world would
not abandon them to their fate," he said. "I know there are
those, of course, who believe that we should do nothing beyond offer
some words of sympathy and condemnation. But that would be to
turn our back in effect on those poor defenceless people in
Sierra Leone, when we could do something to help them. It's one
of the reasons why Britain counts in the world. Britain is seen
to have values and be prepared to back them up."
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister of State for Africa Peter Hain
 rejected
Friday allegations that British military forces were illegally
occupying Sierra Leonean territory. "British forces are in Sierra
Leone at the request of the Government of Sierra Leone and with
the blessing of the U.N. They are evacuating British nationals.
They are complying fully with domestic and international law,"
Hain said. "It is the RUF who are consistently operating outside
domestic and international law and who have committed gross human
rights abuses. Harangues from such people on spurious legal
points will be seen for what they are worth. (RUF leader Foday)
Sankoh has committed serious breaches of the Lomé Agreement. How
he is dealt with is a matter for the Government of Sierra Leone in whose
custody he is."
A week after his remarks to reporters caused a diplomatic row and
put his visit to Sierra Leone in doubt, Sierra Leone's Foreign
Minister said Friday the government
would
welcome the Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Clinton's Special
Envoy for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa. "The government
had wanted that clarification (of Jackson's comments) and he's
done so," said Minister of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation Dr. Sama Banya. Last week Jackson suggested that RUF leader
Foday Sankoh should be coaxed back into the democratic process,
and that Sankoh's voice "would be a very positive one." Jackson
also said all the parties in the Sierra Leone conflict had blood
on their hands, and he compared the RUF to South Africa's African
National Congress in the transition period to democracy. But
this week Jackson insisted he had been misunderstood, and he
blamed Sankoh and the RUF for the current crisis in Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, Jackson called on the RUF to release all U.N.
personnel they were holding, and warned they would be held accountable
for attacks on U.N. peacekeepers. "All the hostages should be
freed and freed now. There is no basis for delay, there is no
basis for negotiation," Jackson said on his arrival at
Robertsfield Airport in Monrovia, Liberia. "The peacekeepers
cannot be target practice for the RUF...For such behavior there
must be accountability." Jackson said it would be a "huge
mistake" for the RUF to link the release of the peacekeepers to
the release of their leader, Foday Sankoh, and he repeated his
support for a strengthened Nigerian-led force with a
peace-enforcement mandate. "They (the Nigerians) have the power to
remove RUF as a military consideration in negotiations," Jackson
said.
Liberian President Charles Taylor said Friday that his efforts by
his mediation team to negotiate the release of U.N. personnel
held by the RUF were being hampered by heavy rains around the
Liberian border town of Foya, making roads impassible, and by a lack of
helicopters. Taylor complained that two helicopters sent by Libya
were too small to be of use. "They sent two toy helicopters," he
said. Meanwhile, Liberian Foreign Minister Monie Captan revealed
that a 26-member Kenyan delegation had arrived in Monrovia to
support negotiations for the release of U.N. personnel held by
the RUF. In Nairobi, the Kenyan newspaper The Nations reported
Friday that five injured Kenyan peacekeeping troops had been
returned home. The five had been among a contingent of Kenyan
troops who broke through RUF lines at Makeni, but were attacked
by pro-government troops at Kabala who mistook them for rebels
wearing stolen U.N. uniforms. Two other Kenyans, were believed
killed, but the RUF has refused to turn over their bodies and so
they are officially listed as "missing in action," The Nation
said. Of 25 Kenyans originally detained by the RUF, only 15 are still
held captive.
Russia's Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian
Parliament, is not expected to consider until June 7 a request by
President Vladimir Putin to send four Mi-24 military helicopters and
115 troops to work with the UNAMSIL force in Sierra Leone. The
Federation Council is being asked to approve the mission for a
two-month period, which can be extended at Putin's request.
Gibril Massaquoi, Special Assistant to RUF leader Foday Sankoh,
has demanded Sankoh's release as a precondition to restart peace
negotiations. "Our leader must be released and we must go back to the
negotiation table," Massaquoi told the Agence France-Presse (AFP)
from by satellite telephone from Makeni. "If they put our
leadership on trial, we are not going to sit back and watch that
for a second time. We will answer force with force and dialogue
with dialogue." Massaquoi, who fled Freetown after RUF supporters
opened fire on demonstrators in front of Sankoh's residence on
May 8, blamed the Sierra Leone Army for for the incident. 19
persons were killed and some 50 wounded in the shooting and its
aftermath, at least two reportedly summarily executed by RUF
fighters. "They put unarmed civilians in front and militia men behind
with weapons," Massaquoi said. "We are not in for war. But with
the kind of provocation as in Freetown and if we are attacked in the
provinces, we have no option but to defend ourselves." Massaquoi
accused the Sierra Leone government of not respecting the Lomé Peace
Accord. "We want to go back to the negotiating table at a very
practical level, to make sure that all parties comply with what they
signed," he said. "We are reluctant to talk to these politicians
as we know their tricks...We want the international community to
ensure that the 2001 elections take place." Massaquoi again
denied that the RUF was holding U.N. personnel, and insisted that
RUF field commanders were searching for "those who fled into the
bush."
A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
said Friday that about 650 Sierra Leoneans from the Port Loko area
had arrived in Guinea, bring to nearly 2,000 the number of new
arrivals since the beginning of May. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond
said in Geneva that the refugees reported heavy fighting between
pro-government troops and the RUF. There are estimated to be tens
of thousands more internally displaced people in Sierra Leone,
but there are no signs of further large movements toward Guinea,"
he said.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday that renewed
fighting in Sierra Leone is seriously disrupting the work of
thousands of farmers and jeopardising the
 country's
rice production. In a statement issued in Ivory Coast, the WFP
said the worst-affected areas were in Bombali and Kambia
Districts in Northern Province, where the agency was forced to postpone
food distributions to farmers. "With the recent upsurge of
hostilities, many farmers have been displaced and many others lack the
seeds and tools which would enable them to start cultivating
before the heavy seasonal rains set in soon," WFP Representative
in Sierra Leone Patrick Buckley was quoted as saying. In Bo, the
agency has begun food distribution to some 3,000 farmers. If
security conditions permit, the WFP will also begun food
distributions to some 18,000 farm families in Kenema and Pujehun
Districts, the statement said.
Fatou Sankoh, the wife of RUF leader Foday Sankoh, alleged Friday
that a demonstration outside her husband's Spur Road residence on
May 8 was organised by an unnamed "senior official member" of
the Sierra Leone government. "Bodyguards assigned to protect my
husband responded to the mob and at one point — fearing for my husband's
life — the guards opened fire on the mob and, sadly, casualties
resulted," she said in a press release issued in New York. "My
husband was quickly taken from the scene and became unavailable for
a time." Mrs. Sankoh said that following "a reward booty
allegedly offered," her husband was seized by "elements of the
Kabbah government," and publicly humiliated and detained. Fatou
Sankoh, nee Mbaye, is said to be a naturalised American citizen,
originally from Senegal. She described herself in the statement
as a lawyer and the president of a non-governmental organisation.
She and Foday Sankoh were reportedly married in February just
prior to the rebel leader's controversial trip to Ivory Coast and
South Africa. In her press release, Mrs. Sankoh called her
husband's treatment "unlawful and outrageous." "My husband was
approached by a mob, was protected by his personal security guards,
taken away from the life-threatening situation, and was subsequently
'captured' by members of the same government which provided him
with security guards," she said, adding: "Humiliation of this
leader who is loved — almost revered — and supported by an
impressive organisation will not go unnoticed. There can be
serious consequences for this government-sanctioned behavior."
Fatou Sankoh expressed her belief that her Foday Sankoh, when
given the opportunity, would "provide detailed statements of the
state of the Lomé Agreement from the perspective of his
organisation."
18 May: Another 15 U.N.
hostages were released to the Liberian Mediation Delegation
Thursday, Liberian President Charles Taylor was quoted as saying.
He said the 15 had already crossed into the Liberian border town
of Foya to await evacuation to Monrovia. "President Taylor did not
mention the nationalities of the new batch of release hostages,
but he said a Kenyan general who was also set free had decided to
remain with the rebels until his colleagues are released," said
BBC Monrovia correspondent Jonathan Paye-Layleh. Taylor added he
expected the RUF to free 30-40 wounded peacekeepers still held in
Sierra Leone. "We are hoping that by today's end everything will
have been arranged for the evacuation of these wounded
personnel," he said. In Freetown, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst
said 13 freed peacekeepers had arrived in Freetown on Thursday, 67
fewer than expected. "I can't tell you why we got that
misinformation. We were told by Monrovia that there were going to
be 80 people. It turns out that's not the case," Wimhurst said.
Some 330 U.N. personnel still remain in RUF hands. "We don't know
how many are left, if any, in Foya," Wimhurst told reporters.
"The pace of release was never set out in concrete." Meanwhile,
Wimhurst said 44 more freed U.N. peacekeepers were returned from
Monrovia to Freetown on Wednesday night — 40 Zambians and four
Kenyans. He declined to comment on whether the arrest Wednesday
of RUF leader Foday Sankoh could complicate negotiations for the
remaining U.N. peacekeeping troops and military observers. "Our
position on the detainees remains the same as it has been: their release
has to remain unconditional. Unconditional and immediate," he
said.
The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote Thursday
on a British proposal to increase the authorised size of the UNAMSIL
force in Sierra Leone from 11,100 to 13,000. Britain's U.N.
ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, requested the immediate vote because
new troops arriving from India, Bangladesh and Jordan will put
the force over its limit by the weekend. In his report to the
Security Council due next week, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is
expected to propose 16,500 troops for Sierra Leone. Meanwhile,
ECOWAS nation defence ministers and chiefs of staff meeting in
Abuja said Thursday they were ready to send 3,000 more troops to
Sierra Leone. ECOWAS Information Director Dr. Adrienne Diop said
seven countries had pledged to contribute troops and equipment.
"The mission of ECOMOG in Sierra Leone will be that of peace
enforcement," she said, in a reference to the more limited
mandate of UNAMSIL. Nigerian Chief of Army Staff Major-General
Victor Malu, who formerly served as ECOMOG force commander, said
that the force should be under Nigerian leadership. "We are of
the view that if we take command of the force its activities will be
more result-oriented, because we understand the terrain better,
and we will have more troops on the ground," he said.
 RUF
leader Foday Sankoh underwent surgery overnight to have a bullet
removed from his leg, and was recovering Thursday, UNAMSIL
spokesman David Wimhurst said. Sankoh "received medical attention
yesterday for an injury to his leg, and he is recovering from
that," he told reporters. Wimhurst added that the RUF leader
"remained in the hands of the Sierra Leone government."
Britain mounted a show of force in the skies over Freetown
Wednesday night in a warning to RUF rebel forces not to launch further
attacks. According to the BBC, a British Harrier jet passed low
over the capital while several military helicopters flew
overhead. In London, British Defence Secretary Geoffrey Hoon said
rebel troops who attacked British paratroopers on Tuesday had
been "well armed and well organised."
RUF leader Foday Sankoh's Special Assistant, Gibril Massaquoi, rejected a
 suggestion
Thursday that Liberian President Charles Taylor was working in
the interest of the rebel group. "The thing is plain: His role is
to see the peace process in Sierra Leone is being speeded up and
that all parties to the agreement adhere to that particular
signatory," Massaquoi said. "I think that is what he’s trying to
do, not that he’s siding us or he’s trying to seek our interest.
That is not the issue at all." Massaquoi escaped from Freetown
following the RUF attack on demonstrators outside Sankoh's home
on May 8, and reached Makeni on Wednesday night. On May 5,
Massaquoi denied the RUF was holding U.N. personnel, suggesting
instead they had lost their way in the bush — a position he maintained
on Thursday. "Immediately the searching goes on, if we see any
one of them in the bushes, we have to release them to President
Taylor," he said. "I think he is the immediate country by us. We
have to release them to him. I think President Olusegun Obasanjo
has already told us that if we have any one of them, if we are
fortunate to find them, let us make sure that we deposit them to
Liberia so that the situation will calm down and we try to see
our best with them, get back to the table and resolve the whole
episode." Massaquoi dismissed a suggestion that the RUF had lost
credibility as a result of the current crisis, and he attacked
British Prime Minister Tony Blair for describing the rebel group as
brutal. "That is what he will say because they are all supporters of
President Kabbah," he said. "That is what he will say. You have
to ask him whether the British troops he sent in Sierra Leone,
whether they are part of the U.N. peacekeeping forces. They are
all part of the criminals or the politicians you have in Freetown
there. They are all part of them. So they will only say
something in favour of them. They do not even know what is
happening on the ground."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has requested that the
Federation Council, Russia's upper house of Parliament, approve a
measure to send four military helicopters and a contingent of
about 105 Russian troops to Sierra Leone. "The Russian military
contingent will act as part of the U.N. peacekeepers in the area
determined by the U.N. Security Council to conduct an operation
for maintaining peace in Sierra Leone," Putin wrote in a letter
to House spokesman Yegor Stroyev. Its mission would be to ensure
security for U.N. personnel with "air escorts for land convoys,
reconnaissance flights, air operations and patrol and rescue
flights," according to the Itar-Tass news agency.
Justice Minister and Attorney General Solomon Berewa said Thursday the
 government
would resist pressure from Sierra Leoneans to "take drastic
action" against RUF leader Foday Sankoh, but he said the government
"might not be as accommodating with him" as it had been in the
past. "No views have yet been crystallized as to what to do,"
Berewa said. "Foday Sankoh committed a lot of crimes. He himself is a
very vicious man and has a lot of vicious boys around him...The
government might use a different technique this time to deal with
him." Berewa said. "We misjudged him to be a rational human
being."
Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was designated by ECOWAS
last week to negotiate for the release of U.N. personnel held by
the RUF, made what he called a
"quick
trip" to Bamako Thursday for consultations with Malian President
Alpha Oumar Konare, the current chairman of ECOWAS. Afterwards
Taylor told Radio Mali he was not in a position to answer
questions. "I think we do not want to say or do anything that
will give cause to jeopardize the release of these hostages," he
said. "I have come to brief the chairman of ECOWAS on the
activities, what they have accomplished, what are the difficulties,
what are the demands, and to seek guidance on how we can continue
until we resolve this matter." Lewis Brown, who heads the
Liberian negotiating team, travelled with Taylor to Bamako.
"Consultations continue around the clock. Things are developing
very fast," said Taylor's spokesman, Reginald Goodridge.
Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived in Nigeria Thursday, where he met in
the Benin City with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. Jackson,
who is U.S. President Bill Clinton's Special Envoy for the Promotion
of Democracy in Africa, is seeking ways to help bring about the
release of U.N. personnel held by the RUF in northern and eastern
Sierra Leone. "The RUF had a golden opportunity to disarm, to
disengage and rejoin the society," Jackson said in Nigeria.
"They, in a real sense, violated the whole world when they chose
to maintain their armament, when they chose...to take U.N.
soldiers hostage...The RUF must not be allowed to exist as a
military threat to Sierra Leone." Prior to leaving the United
States, Jackson told the BBC that his role was to "touch base
with the regional leaders about what are the next steps beyond stopping
the fighting, beyond capturing Sankoh, to protect the integrity
of the democracy of Sierra Leone." Said Jackson: "There was a
very tense moment with the jubilation of (Sankoh) being captured,
but Sierra Leone is not freed, it is not free until the RUF drop
their guns and disengage, until the gunrunners who have been
carrying out the country stop doing so. It requires a long-term
commitment to stability and security to the democracy of Sierra
Leone and a commitment to its development."
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it is
continuing to operate in Sierra Leone despite renewed fighting
which broke out on May 5. "As
soon
as hostilities broke out, the ICRC and the local Red Cross set
up a first-aid post on the Hastings-Waterloo highway in the Freetown
area, where violent clashes took place. The most seriously wounded
were evacuated to Connaught Hospital in Freetown," the ICRC said
in a press release. The statement said there had been no
interruption in the ICRC medical programme at Kenema Government
Hospital and, after a ten-day interruption, the agency had
resumed distribution of basic supplies to vulnerable persons in
the country. The ICRC said that although the current lack of
security had placed limits on its activities, it had managed to
meet the needs of a group of 300 persons in a village about 20 km. from
Kenema. The entire programme to supply seed and supplies should
benefit approximately 300,000 people, including internally
displaced people, returnees, and particularly vulnerable groups.
The ICRC noted that it is working with the Sierra Leone Red Cross
Society to restore contact among relatives dispersed by recent
events, and especially to find the parents of children separated
from their families.
UNAMSIL force commander Major-General Vijay Kumar Jetley told the Bangalore
Deccan
Herald Wednesday that some 200 Indian peacekeeping troops remained
under siege by RUF forces in eastern Sierra Leone. "I am concerned
for the safety of the Indians and also for the safety of other UN
troops taken as hostages of whom only 93 have been released,"
Jetley said in a telephone interview. "These are Zambians and
Kenyans who are part of the U.N. force. They were originally in
Makeni and Magburaka, then they were taken to a place called
Koidu, which is the heart of the diamond mining area. From there
they have been moved to the Liberian border." He said when Kenyan
and Zambian troops attempted to disarm RUF fighters in Makeni,
the rebels retaliated by taking Kenyan and Zambian hostages, and
by surrounding the Indians in Kailahun. When Jetley sent a patrol of 23
other Indian soldiers to investigate, they were held up in the
town of Kuiva. "They held them up, they didn't let them go
forward, they didn't let them go backwards," Jetley said. "They
said 'sorry you cannot proceed further, these are our orders.'
But it's a sort of a friendly relationship. The second in command
and the other officer have been permitted to go up to Kailahun.
Its an uneasy truce. "It's a blow hot, blow cold situation,
depending on what happens to their leader, Foday Sankoh. They
keep getting orders on a radio that Sankoh used to keep." The
general said despite the current tensions, the Indians were
popular with the people of Kailahun, especially as they had looked
after the welfare of the local people. "We found people with bullets
still in them after several months and our doctors attended to
them," he said. Jetley said "senior citizens of Kailahun, led by
the paramount chief, who was the RUF Party representative in the
area, presented the Indian peacekeepers with a memo "saying they
were very happy with the Indian commanding officer and we're fed
up with the fighting, we want peace to prevail and so on and so
forth." Said Jetley: "It shows there is a desire on their part to
break away from the nonsense that is going on."
Human Rights Watch expressed concern Thursday at "credible
reports" pro-government forces in Sierra Leone were torturing and
executing suspected members of the RUF, including RUF fighters
who had completed the DDR programme. Human Rights Watch warned
that government-condoned attacks on former RUF combatants who had
completed rehabilitation programmes were not only war crimes, but could
lead many RUF fighters to return to active fighting.
17 May: RUF leader Foday
Sankoh, who vanished May 8 after his supporters opened
fire on a crowed of demonstrators in front of his home, was
captured in
 Freetown
early Wednesday morning. "Just before six o'clock this morning
Foday Sankoh was detained by a combined team all working
together," a police spokesman said. "The detention took place in
the Spur Road area of Freetown. Foday Sankoh was saved from an
angry crowd and initially taken to Cockerell Defence Headquarters for
his own safety. He was later taken to a safe place. He has a leg
injury and we do not know how he received this. He is currently
in Sierra Leone police custody and is safe. He is receiving the
best possible medical treatment available for his injury. A major
police inquiry is continuing and more information will be given
at a later date." BBC correspondent Lansana Fofana said the rebel
leader, who had been searched for throughout the capital, had
apparently been hiding out in a shack less than 150 yards from
his residence. Another account, published by the London Press
Association (PA News), suggested Sankoh had returned to his house
accompanied by one man — possibly a bodyguard — after hiding out
in the hills. He was spotted by a man taking his young nephew to
Muslim prayers. Witnesses said Sankoh asked to be taken to the
Nigerian High Commission. Instead the man alerted soldiers.
"There was a struggle and, according to some reports, Sankoh drew
a silver revolver but it was empty," PA News said. "He was
quickly overpowered and shot in the leg by a soldier known as
'Scorpion'. The man with Sankoh was also shot and was,
reportedly, close to death." AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma
confirmed Wednesday morning that his men had taken Sankoh into
custody. "He was arrested somewhere behind his house, just by the
hills, and he was taken to Lumley Police Station and then
finally brought to me," he told the BBC Network Africa programme.
"It was because my men made the arrest, and and they did took
him to the police station, and they in turn sent him to me, and I
handed him over to the government." Koroma said he did not meet
with Sankoh, but instead attempted to calm the crowd from his
veranda. The rebel leader was paraded naked through the streets
of Freetown by Sierra Leone Army troops before being being taken
to Defence Headquarters at Cockerill. From there, according to
Lieutenant-Commander Tony Cramp, spokesman for the British forces
in Sierra Leone, Sankoh was flown in a British helicopter to a
"secure location" at Lungi International Airport, where he is
being held by the Sierra Leonean authorities in what Information
Minister Dr. Julius Spencer called "protective custody." BBC
West Africa correspondent Mark Doyle quoted eyewitnesses as saying
Sankoh was put on a stretcher and taken under heavy guard to a
Royal Air Force helicopter.
Information Minister Dr. Julius Spencer said early Wednesday that no decision had
been
made on whether to prosecute RUF leader Foday Sankoh. "It
depends on what he does and his attitude, that what will determine what
the government does," Spencer told the BBC Network Africa
programme. He said the government was still committed to the
peace agreement signed with the RUF in Lomé, Togo last year. "The
government wants peace," Spencer said. "That has been our
position all along. It is not in the interest of this country for
us to go back to all-out war. And we are trying to avoid that as
much as possible. The government will do what is necessary to
ensure that there is peace. If it is determined that going along
with the Lomé Agreement is absolutely useless, then the
government will take a position. But as of now the government’s position
is that we still believe that the Lomé Agreement is viable and
we are going to go along with that as long as possible."
REACTION to Sankoh's capture: BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY ROBIN
COOK: "I welcome the news today that the rebel leader Foday
Sankoh has been arrested and is now in detention. This deprives the
rebellion of its leadership and encourages us in the hope that we may
be able to stabilize Sierra Leone and stop the rebel advance...I
hope it means that it will deprive them of the reason for
continuing their fight, and encourage them in the view that we
have actually put the rebel advance into reverse and that we are
on our way to our objective of stabilising Sierra Leone and
putting the peace process back on track." REGINALD GOODRIDGE,
Spokesman for Liberian President Charles Taylor: "There is
definitely cause for concern...The fact that their leader has
been arrested may throw a stumbling block in the way of the release of
further hostages. Sankoh is a key part of the Lomé accord. It all
depends on how the Sierra Leone government decides to proceed."
UNAMSIL FORCE COMMANDER MAJOR-GENERAL VIJAY KUMAR JETLEY: "Now at
least they (the RUF) have got some sort a leader. Earlier they
were doing things in isolation..."I think the peacekeepers are
already being released in Liberia. The Liberian president is
working on that already and many are on the border already, The
process has already started on getting them released." U.S.
SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: "Today we had some good
news, that Foday Sankoh has in fact been captured." U.S. STATE
DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN RICHARD BOUCHER: "The fact that he was in
the peace process was a decision of the government and the people
of Sierra Leone. And the next step in either the peace process or with
him personally is up to them as well. I'm not going to push them
toward one direction or the other." BRITISH DEFENCE SECRETARY
GEOFFREY HOON: "(Whether to release Sankoh) is a matter for the
government of Sierra Leone, but clearly we would prefer that
should not happen." UNITED STATES U.N. AMBASSADOR RICHARD
HOLBROOKE: "I think it's a positive development that he is
located and he's in a position where he is going to be able to be
dealt with appropriately, and that he will not be able to
continue the outrageous agreement-breaking ways that he has pursued."
RUSSIAN U.N. AMBASSADOR SERGEY LAVROV: "I think we'd have to
reassess Lomé given all the events, the latest developments."
BRITISH U.N. AMBASSADOR SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: "There needs to
be, we hope, a realization by all sides that we must come back to
the Lomé Agreement and to a political route forward, and Foday
Sankoh's role in that must be judged by the government of Sierra
Leone and by the U.N." CHINESE U.N. AMBASSADOR WANG YINGFAN: (On
how Sankoh's arrest will impact the U.N. peacekeeping mission)
"It depends on how this development is handled by the government
of Sierra Leone." SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN SEPTIMUS
KAIKAI: "A lot of these things are being sorted out now. Our main
concern now is that we can...bring peace to our country." RUF
COMMANDER COL. BAO: "We are totally against it. We don’t believe
the people in the United Nations want peace in this country. They
should not have allowed our leader to be humiliated by useless
politicians like Kabbah and others. That is why we are now trying
to put our matter across ECOWAS, because we know ECOWAS did well by
bringing peace to this country. It is the United Nations and Britain
who have derailed the whole peace process." AFRC LEADER AND CCP
CHAIRMAN JOHNNY PAUL KOROMA: "I think as far as I am concerned I
think he should be tried. And I particularly when he killed
civilians who were demonstrating in front of his house. I think
he has something to answer." AFRC SPOKESMAN PRINCE EDWARD NICOL:
"It is a victory for Sierra Leone, a victory for common sense and
a victory for the peace process." CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
SPOKESMAN MICHAEL O'SHAUGHNESSY: "We welcome the news Foday
Sankoh has been arrested in Freetown. The government of Canada
hopes this will contribute to restoration of a durable peace in
Sierra Leone. We await the reaction of the government of Sierra
Leone."
The RUF has released 80 more U.N. peacekeepers held by the rebel
group for two weeks, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst said on
Wednesday. "Eighty more have come to (the Liberian border town of)
Foya," Wimhurst said in Freetown. He said 44 others, part of the 139
who arrived in Foya on Sunday, "have arrived from Foya to Monrovia
and should return to Freetown tonight." Wimhurst said 81
Zambians and 14 Kenyans had already arrived in Sierra Leone's
capital. Meanwhile Lewis Brown, the spokesman for the Liberian
mediation team working for the release of the U.N. hostages, said
the RUF had agreed to release 30-40 wounded U.N. personnel. "If
we have to move them by road it will be a disaster," Brown told
Reuters. He said the RUF had toughened its negotiating stance in
the wake of the arrest of RUF leader Foday Sankoh. "The general
developments in Freetown have made the discussions harder," Brown
said. "When you talk as negotiators, you get the feeling the RUF
consider him as a key part of the process." In a related
development, Libya said Wednesday it would send helicopters to
help with the evacuation of injured UNAMSIL troops who have been freed
by the RUF and who have arrived in the Liberian border town of
Foya, according to Libya's JANA news agency.
600 more peacekeeping troops were expected to arrive in Freetown
Wednesday, to be followed soon by 1,400 Indian solders, UNAMSIL
spokesman David Wimhurst said on Wednesday. He said the new arrivals
consisted of an infantry unit, a mechanized battalion and an
artillery battalion. A battalion of Jordanian troops and a
battalion of Bangladeshis are expected at the end of the month.
United Nations peacekeepers and Sierra Leone Army troops fought a
two-hour battle with RUF fighters at Port Loko late Tuesday into
Wednesday, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst told reporters. He said the
RUF forces attacked pro-government positions armed with mortars,
light arms and rocket-propelled grenades. Six Sierra Leonean
troops and a Nigerian UNAMSIL soldier were killed in the attack,
and ten others — five Sierra Leonean soldiers and five U.N.
peacekeepers — were wounded. A U.N. spokesman in New York said
the attack on Port Loko involved about 500 RUF troops. "In the
end the attack, which was a serious one, was repelled," he said.
Wimhurst said Port Loko was reported calm Wednesday afternoon.
ECOWAS nation defence ministers and chiefs of staff meeting
Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria have agreed to send additional troops
to Sierra Leone under a changed UNAMSIL command structure, a
high-ranking Nigerian military officer told the Agency
France-Presse (AFP). "There was a general consensus that the
countries present would contribute more troops," he said. "It was
agreed they would go in under UNAMSIL, if funding and a changed
command structure are agreed with the U.N...It was agreed the
command structure must reflect the country with the preponderance
of troops." Nigeria, with four battalions in Sierra Leone, is
currently the largest contributor of troops to the UNAMSIL force.
British paratroopers clashed with rebels at Lungi Loi early
Wednesday morning, near Lungi International Airport. Four of the
were reported killed in the exchange of fire. "We believe a force of
40 rebels came down the road towards the Parachute Regiment
position," British military spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Tony
Cramp told reporters. "There was an engagement lasting
approximately ten minutes, after which the rebels fled." Another British
officer, Captain Cameron Jack of the First Battalion Parachute
Regiment, said four rebels were killed and a woman civilian
wounded in the shootout. "Twenty-five pathfinders in the platoon
were attacked by 40 RUF at 0045 this morning and they responded
for ten minutes," Jack said.
A coalition of pro-government forces consisting of Kamajor
militiamen and soldiers of the AFRC's Westside unit loyal to Johnny Paul
Koroma pushed as far as the Magbelli Bridge over the Rokel River
Wednesday, according to a report by Reuters. Their commanders
said they met no resistance, and said their advance was slowed
only by the need to consolidate their flanks and consolidate
their logistics. Samuel Cole, a Westside commander, said their
aim was to link up with loyalist troops moving east from Port
Loko towards RUF strongholds. "We lack food, ammunition and
communications," he said. "The farther we go up the road, the
more critical the supply problem becomes." Cole said some of his
men were fired upon Tuesday by a government helicopter gunship by
mistake "because they didn't know we had advanced so far and
thought we were rebels." Reuters said most of the villages along the
road had been deserted by residents. "The rebels came on Sunday.
There were hundreds of them. Some were on foot, some were in
vehicles," said Salliou Kamara, the CDF chairman of Robonka.
"They burned our village to get our people out. Most of our people
are still in the bush. We have brought our CDF troops back but not all
of them have weapons."
Rev. Jesse Jackson, U.S. President Bill Clinton's Special Envoy
for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa, was scheduled to leave
Wednesday for Nigeria, which is
considering
deploying additional troops in Sierra Leone. Jackson's mission
was delayed by one day while he sought to clarify remarks he made
to reporters last week which upset the Sierra Leone government
and infuriated civil society groups. Jackson suggested that
Sankoh needed to be coaxed back into the political process, that
Sankoh's voice "would be a very positive one," and that all
parties in Sierra Leone had blood on their hands. On Monday
Jackson "clarified" his position to say that " Foday Sankoh and
the RUF alone are responsible for the current crisis in Sierra
Leone." After Nigeria, Jackson will visit Liberia, Mali, Guinea, and
Sierra Leone, security conditions permitting, according to State
Department Spokesman Richard Boucher. Boucher said Jackson's
mission would be to consult with regional government on how the
U.S. could support their efforts to resolve the Sierra Leone
crisis and to bring about the release of some 350 U.N. personnel
detained by RUF forces. On Friday, Jackson indicated he would
seek out RUF leader Foday Sankoh, but Boucher said Monday there
was "no plan for him to meet with" the rebel leader. When asked
whether the change was a result of instructions issued by the
U.S. government, Boucher replied: "We've obviously stayed in
touch with Reverend Jackson as he prepares for his trip. I'm sure he
knows the view that we're expressing here now." Jackson will be
accompanied on his West African visit by Ambassador Howard F.
Jeter, Deputy Assistance Secretary of State for African Affairs,
and State Department staff.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took American lawmakers to task
 Wednesday
for blocking funds to support U.N. peacekeeping operations in
Sierra Leone, Kosovo, East Timor and the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Under the current funding formula, the U.S. is responsible
for one third of U.N. peacekeeping costs. Calling their action a
"grave mistake," Albright said their rationale "boiled down" was
that the operations didn't come with a guarantee of success.
"Troublemakers in these regions cannot simply be wished away;
they must be contained, captured, convicted or converted which,
in every case, requires resources," Albright said in an address
to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "For example, in Sierra Leone
there are two realistic and possibly overlapping alternatives.
One is to beef up the existing U.N. operation, which Congress
isn't allowing us to fund. The other is to back a voluntary
coalition of the willing. Of course, the Senate bill would cut
our voluntary peacekeeping request by one third." Albright said that
despite resource constraints, "the administration is doing its best
to help the U.N. and regional leaders restore order in Sierra
Leone, secure the release of detainees and try to create the
conditions of an enduring peace."
Human Rights Watch called on the Sierra Leone government
Wednesday to ensure that RUF leader Foday Sankoh received a fair trial
for what it called "his crimes." The human rights group said that
extensive evidence had been compiled on crimes against humanity
carried out Sankoh's followers. "But that evidence should be
carefully compiled and presented in a court of law. Sankoh should
be informed of the specific charges against him as soon as
possible, according to fair trial standards," the groups said in a
press statement. The Sierra Leone government has not yet said
whether it would seek to put the RUF leader on trial, and said
Wednesday that Sankoh is being held in protective custody. "There
is a good case against (Sankoh), but it must be presented
soberly and carefully, before impartial judges," Peter Takirambudde,
Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Africa Division as quoted
as saying. "Otherwise, the cycle of violence in Sierra Leone
will only continue." Takirambudde suggested that the capacity of
the Sierra Leonean judiciary was in question and that the
possibility of an international tribunal should be considered.
"At the core of the crisis in Sierra Leone is the question of
impunity," Takirambudde said in the statement. "If the
international community can send investigative teams into Kosovo
to document war crimes, it should be prepared to do the same for
Sierra Leone. The perpetrators of abuse must be held
accountable."
Following the arrest Wednesday of RUF leader Foday Sankoh,
Amnesty International repeated its call "for all those
responsible of committing human
 rights
abuses to be brought to justice." The human rights group has
opposed a blanket amnesty for war crimes committed during the country's
civil conflict "because it violated international law and failed
to address the gross human rights abuses, including war crimes
and crimes against humanity, committed during the conflict,"
Amnesty said in a statement. The statement argued that the RUF
had failed to live up to the provisions of the Lomé Peace Accord.
"Neither RUF members nor anyone else should continue to benefit
from the amnesty in that agreement," Amnesty said. "The killings,
mutilations, rape and abductions which continued after the
amnesty are, in any case, not covered by the amnesty and those
responsible must be brought to justice." Even if the blanket
amnesty were not annulled by the Sierra Leone government, the
statement said, the international community should move to bring those
responsible for serious violations of human rights or
international humanitarian law to justice. "Any state may request
the extradition of suspected perpetrators of human rights abuses
for trial in its own courts," Amnesty said. "If the Sierra Leone
government does not submit the cases of such suspects to its own
courts, it must nevertheless comply with any extradition
request."
16 May: 93 of the 139
U.N. peacekeeping troops released by RUF rebels to the Liberian
government last week have arrived back in Freetown. The
peacekeepers — 79 Zambians and 14 Kenyans — were among a group
freed by the RUF on Friday. They reached the Liberian border town
of Foya on foot Sunday. 15 were flown to Monrovia Sunday in a
helicopter chartered by the Liberian government, but the remaining 124
were stranded for at least two more days awaiting transportation.
The remaining 46 U.N. troops will be evacuated from Foya on
Wednesday. "They'll rest up, feed, wash and have a good night's
sleep," UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst said of the returning
peacekeepers. He said none required immediate medical attention.
The U.N. troops were dressed in uniforms donated by the Liberian
government. Their own uniforms were seized by the RUF.
Liberian President Charles Taylor said Tuesday that the acting RUF commander,
General
Issa Sesay, had agreed to free additional wounded U.N.
peacekeepers. "Between 30 and 40 of the personnel are wounded. Some
are in a serious condition," Taylor told reporters in Liberia.
"We are concerned about the fate of the 30 to 40 personnel that are
wounded...They can't be brought in by road because it will take
three days for them to reach the Liberian border, so there is a
need for logistical assistance to go into Sierra Leone and
airlift them out in non-enemy helicopters." Taylor said mediation
team which negotiated the release of 139 U.N. personnel last
week was "still present on the ground" in Sierra Leone. "There
are a whole bunch of demands," he said.
Liberian Foreign Minister Monie Captan, in a BBC interview
broadcast on Tuesday morning, said that 124 U.N. peacekeepers whose
release by the RUF was negotiated by Liberia last week, were still in
Foya. The Liberian government flew 15 others to Monrovia in a
chartered helicopter, but said the country didn't have the
resources to airlift the others. "We have been trying to obtain
assistance, logistical assistance, to transport them to
Monrovia," Captan told the BBC Network Africa programme. "As you
are aware, the roads from Foya to Monrovia are very bad. We are
quite frustrated though that up to now there has not been a
single U.N. helicopter in Liberia to begin the process of
transporting the freed U.N. peacekeepers from Foya to Monrovia despite
the fact that we’ve made that representation to them. We are
quite disappointed and frustrated, and we thought that be now
there should be no reason for any of those 124 peacekeepers to
still be sitting in Foya without proper medical attention,
feeding and so forth." In Freetown, UNAMSIL spokesman David
Wimhurst acknowledged problems in evacuating the U.N. personnel.
"Since yesterday we have had two helicopters on the ground in
Monrovia ready to fly to Foya, where the vast majority of our
personnel are now staying," Wimhurst said. "We have not been able
to do that for reasons that are not completely clear. But it seems
that the Liberians themselves will be flying their aircraft into Foya
and bringing our people out." He said a special representative
of the UNAMSIL force was currently in Monrovia. "The longer this
goes on, the more concerned we become about their physical
situation, their health," Wimhurst said. "We're afraid they may
be suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. There are
third-hand unconfirmed reports that they may be in a worse
condition." Captan said he believed the RUF was willing to
negotiate the release of the remaining U.N. detainees. "But we
are very concerned that in a process of negotiating the release
of these U.N. peacekeepers there is a continued situation of
hostilities existing," he said. "You can’t negotiate the release
of hostages when people are fighting. There must be a cessation of
hostilities by all parties. That’s the only way you can negotiate."
The Liberian foreign minister said he had "absolutely no
information" on the whereabouts of RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who
disappeared a week ago after his men opened fire on demonstrators in
front of his residence. "We went to Freetown, the United Nations
said that they do not know," Captan said. "And that is quite
surprising to us, because we understand that Foday Sankoh had
over 30 bodyguards from the United Nations, and for him to have
disappeared without their knowledge is sort of confusing. The
government says they don’t know, so we really don’t know where he
is."
Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has told British Chief of
Defence Staff General Sir Charles Guthrie that Nigeria is ready
"to come to the rescue" of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Sierra
Leone. Nigeria already has four battalions serving with the U.N. force.
Abubakar said if Nigeria were to send additional troops, possibly
outside of UNAMSIL, the U.N. would have to pay the cost. ECOWAS
foreign ministers and chiefs of staff are scheduled to meet
Wednesday in Abuja to do decide on the organisation's military
response to the deteriorating security situation in Sierra Leone.
ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate called on the United Nations
Security
Council Monday to change UNAMSIL's mandate to allow for the use
of force. Currently, U.N. peacekeepers are allowed to use force
in self-defence and to protect civilians under imminent threat of
attack. Kouyate said following a meeting of one-day meeting of
the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council UNAMSIL's command
structure should be changed "with ECOWAS countries
predominating." "If the U.N. Security Council hesitates in
changing the mandate, ECOWAS countries may be forced to go on
their own in Sierra Leone with a peace enforcement mandate," he said.
About 150 Indian peacekeeping troops arrived in Freetown on
Tuesday, according to a U.N. spokesman in New York. Fred Eckhard, the
Spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, said an additional 600
Indian soldiers were expected on Wednesday. Eckhard said all
UNAMSIL expatriate civilian staff who were evacuated to Banjul
last week had now returned to Freetown.
Russia said Tuesday it was possible that Russian troops might be
assigned to supplement the UNAMSIL force in Sierra Leone. "The
Russian side, at the request of the U.N., is ready to allocate
its helicopter contingent," said Leonid Ivashov, head of Russian
Defence Ministry's main directorate for international military
cooperation. "This consists of four Mi-24 helicopters and the
corresponding personnel, consisting of 104 men. There will also be an
interaction group working directly with the U.N. mission. The unit
has been put together, its technical readiness is quite high, and
they are just waiting for the order to take off."
One of the RUF's commanders in Makeni, Colonel Augustine Gbao,
has accused UNAMSIL of holding RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who
disappeared last week from his Spur Street residence in Freetown
after his men opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators. "They
should release our leader so that we should revisit the Lomé
Peace Accord," Gbao told the BBC's Network Africa programme in an
interview broadcast Tuesday morning. The RUF commander, who said
he was speaking from near Masiaka, insisted that the rebel group
was not alone in violating the terms of the peace agreement
signed between the government and the RUF last July, and he claimed that
the accord called for disarmament only after all the other
provisions of the agreement had been executed. "The SLPP
government headed by Kabbah and his cohorts have violated the
Lomé Accord," Gbao said. "For instance, all the 37 articles in
the Accord — nothing has been done about it. The only thing they
are chosen is RUF to disarm." He told the BBC that the rebels
were holding on to their weapons for fear of being attacked by
pro-government forces if they disarmed. "We have not disarmed
yet. The people are molesting us," he said. "They don’t have
regard and respect for the leadership of RUF. What about more
when we are disarmed? They will just arrest us. Put us in a container
and then chunk (sic.) us into the sea. That is the aim of the
U.N. and Kabbah presently. According to the peace accord,
disarmament should come last. That is what is written up in Lomé
Peace Accord. Disarmament should come last. We should not use
army to disarm, and all the other articles written and then they
don’t follow it — don’t implement these things. How do you expect
us to disarm?" Gbao made no reference to RUF attacks on U.N.
peacekeeping forces or the approximately 350 U.N. personnel still
believed to be held by the rebels, but he denied that his forces had
carried out attacks on villages near Freetown. "We have never
attacked any town or villages," he said. "Tejan Kabbah’s
militia, the ex-SLA under Johnny Paul Koroma, and the United Nations
attack our positions at Lunsar, Gberi Junction, and Masiaka, and we
have to defend ourselves. That is all there is to it. We are
committed to the Lomé Peace Accord. We will never violate it."
UNAMSIL force commander Major-General Vijay Kumar Jetley has
approved a more offensive role for U.N. peacekeepers in countering RUF
rebels, according to Brigadier David Richards, the commander of
British forces in Sierra Leone. He said U.N. troops would move
out from Freetown into the countryside. "(Jetley) is
orchestrating a move forward back into the country." Richards
said the development was a change in strategy for the U.N. force.
"I think it is, in terms of a plan. It is definitely...a move
east and to some extent south...towards the RUF heartland." On
Monday, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative in
Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, urged pro-government troops not to take
the offensive, and appealed to both sides to return to the
positions they held before the current crisis. "Our point is that
all sides should stop hostilities and go back to the positions
where they were and not attempt to move from those positions," he
said.
British officials have reportedly said that the role of British
forces in Sierra Leone could be expanded to supply pro-government
troops fighting the RUF with ammunition. But British forces spokesman
Lieutenant-Commander Tony Cramp denied Britain was about to arm
Sierra Leone's militias, although he said ways of helping
pro-government forces, "including supplies," was being examined.
In London, a British Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said Britain
was not arming Sierra Leonean troops "in this particular
situation," but added: "It is something that would never have
been ruled out. We'd have to reflect very carefully on it...but
it is not something we are considering at the moment." She noted
that Britain had already provided arms and training equipment to
the new Sierra Leone Army in the past "make them more efficient."
Richards told reporters that six additional battalions of U.N.
peacekeepers, rather than the two expected, might be on their way
to Sierra Leone. Any increase in the size of the UNAMSIL force
beyond the 11,100 troops authorised would have to be approved by the
U.N. Security Council.
British Foreign Minister Robin Cook will urge Russia to support a
crackdown on illicit diamond dealing in Africa, which is fueling
some of the continents conflicts, a foreign office spokesman said on
Tuesday. The spokesman said Cook will seek support for a diamond
certification system when he meets Wednesday with Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov in Moscow. Foreign Office Minister Peter
Hain told Parliament Tuesday that the trade in "blood diamonds"
was perpetuating conflicts in Africa. "We totally oppose the
blood diamond trade in places like Angola and Sierra Leone. Its
it those blood diamonds that continue to fuel conflict in those
regions," he said. "That is why we pushing for an international
self-certification scheme by the diamond trade, backed by
governments, to stop this trade in blood diamonds and make sure
the type of dreadful conflict we are seeing in Sierra Leone is
not perpetuated by the diamond trade that keeps them going."
British and Nigerian commanders met Tuesday to resolve
differences which had created friction between the British force and
Nigerian UNAMSIL troops at Lungi. "Both commanders have agreed
boundaries at Lungi. One British soldier was told by a Nigerian
soldier: 'If you don't tell us what you are doing you will get
shot'," said Brigadier David Richards, the commander of British
forces in Sierra Leone. "I am confident that this is a
non-problem. We had told the Nigerians what we were doing but it
did not get down to soldier level." The Nigerian commander,
Brigadier General Alex Garaba, said there had been an isolated
"local dispute" which had been resolved. Garaba suggested that a
lack of liaison by the British troops had been responsible for
the problem. "If someone is coming in new to that place, you
should announce it," he said. "If you do not start deployment
with liaison, you will run into incidents." Earlier, Nigerian
UNAMSIL troops reportedly warned British paratroopers that unless
they sought permission to patrol they could be shot at on "suspicion
of being white mercenaries." British senior military spokesman
Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Sharpe said he didn't think a real problem
existed. "This can all be worked out at a low level," he said.
"Liaison at the appropriate level will be carried out. We are all in
the same business. We may not be U.N. but we are here for the
common good." UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst called the
friction that appeared to have developed between the Nigerians
and the British "unfortunate." "The British soldiers are here on a
specific mission. We have a specific mission. So far we have
managed to mesh our common interests pretty well," he said. "I
expect and hope that this particular difference will be resolved
at battalion level if not higher." A British government spokesman
in London also downplayed the report. "We are not aware there
are any problems with the Nigerian forces. This is overblown
reporting from people out in the field," he said.
600 Sierra Leoneans have fled to Guinea's Forecariah Province
over the past three days, bring to 1,000 the total number of new
arrivals since renewed fighting between pro-government forces and the
RUF earlier this month, United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Kris Janowski said in Geneva on
Tuesday. He said the new refugees were coming from Kambia
District. "It seems that rebels controlling the border area in
Kambia have now decided to let civilians enter Guinea while
concentrating on fighting government troops reportedly advancing
towards Kambia from the direction of Freetown," Janowski said. He
said the new arrivals were being transferred to the new camp of
Kalako, adding that the UNHCR had transferred additional staff to
Forecariah Province and was prepared to accommodate up to 25,000
people. In Sierra Leone a recent attack on the Waterloo-Port Loko
axis has created a displacement of civilians into Freetown,
Janowski said. The UNHCR estimates the number of new arrivals in
the capital at 20,000, in addition to 60,000 displaced by earlier
fighting and some 6,500 Liberian refugees. Up to 10,000 people
have also taken refuge near Lungi International Airport, where
British paratroopers have taken over responsibility for security.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was due to leave for West Africa Tuesday in his role as
President
Clinton's Special Envoy for the Promotion of Democracy in
Africa, has postponed his departure, according to spokesperson for
Jackson's Rainbow-Push Coalition in Chicago. A White House official
was quoted as saying Jackson would probably leave on Wednesday.
The delay comes amid a firestorm of criticism by the Sierra Leone
government, parliamentarians, and civil society groups in Sierra
Leone and abroad after Jackson told journalists on Friday that
RUF leader Foday Sankoh had a political role to play in Sierra
Leone and needed to be coaxed back into the political process. In
Freetown Tuesday, state radio announced that Jackson was not
welcome by the government because of his statements allegedly
expressing sympathy for the rebels. On Monday, Jackson attempted
to do damage control, on the one hand accusing Reuters of misquoting
him, and on the other saying his comments Friday had "apparently
been misunderstood." In a prepared statement, he went on record
as blaming the current crisis in Sierra Leone on Sankoh and his
RUF rebel movement. "First and foremost I'd like to make it clear
that Foday Sankoh and the RUF alone are responsible for the
current crisis in Sierra Leone. I condemn fully and unequivocally
the violations of the Lomé Agreement by the RUF," he said.
Jackson also drew a comparison Friday between the RUF and South
Africa's African National Conference in the transition period
leading to democracy in that country. "The purpose was not to
compare the RUF and the ANC — there is no equivalence between the
two," he said on Monday. "The ANC could do this because it held
the moral high ground and had the support of a majority of South
Africans. The RUF has neither." Jackson told Reuters Sankoh had
"discredited himself in the eyes of the people of Sierra Leone and
many in the international community" by violating the terms of
the Lomé Peace Accord. He said if the RUF wanted to play a
long-term role in Sierra Leone it must disarm, demobilise and
transform itself into a political party. "To assess the situation
we must first respect the legitimate democratic government of
Sierra Leone — it has no equivalent and is the government as
recognized by the world community — and offer the support Kabbah
needs for stabilising that government and support ECOWAS in the
regional efforts — that's what we must do," Jackson said. The Lomé
Peace Agreement offered the RUF a window of opportunity...to help
bring peace to all the people of Sierra Leone, yet the RUF has
wasted that opportunity." In a conference call with Sierra
Leonean journalists and politicians Monday afternoon, Jackson
repeated his call for the RUF to disarm, to return to the
negotiating table and to release the U.N. peacekeepers they are
still holding. According to VOA, Jackson said he was committed to
helping bring peace to Sierra Leone, and appealed for his
audience's support. "We ought to turn to each other and not on each
other, because we really are on the same side of history, fighting
for peace and justice," he told them.
Amid a diplomatic row over remarks made last week by Rev. Jesse
Jackson, President Clinton's Special Envoy for the Promotion of
Democracy in Africa, who
 was
quoted as saying that Minister of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation Dr. Sama Banya warned Tuesday that unless
Jackson explained his comments, the Sierra Leone government would be
unwilling to receive him. Banya spoke to BBC West Africa
Correspondent Mark Doyle before he received Jackson's
clarification of his remarks. "He is comparing the RUF and its
leader Foday Sankoh with the ANC and its leader Nelson Mandela. I
think that, as I told the American ambassador, that is an insult
not just to South Africa but to the entire African continent,"
Banya said. "Then he talks about blood being on everyone's hands.
Now that is not an even-handed statement. Anybody who is
familiar with what has happened in the last nine years, especially in
the last 24 months, will see that blood is on the hands of just one
group of people. With all that I think that we need a
clarification of this or it will be difficult to receive him."
Banya said he had received Jackson's clarification but had not
had time to look at it. "Until I have studied that I will not be
able to make comments on it," he said. Banya insisted that the
RUF were "bandits," not revolutionaries, and demanded that
Jackson withdraw the comparison of the RUF to Nelson Mandela's
ANC. "We want a retract of that statement before we can make up
our mind to receive him, and that means civil society has to be
appeased," he said. "The mood in the country is an angry mood,
and it will not be in his own interest to come into Sierra Leone in this
atmosphere, unless the position is really clarified."
Canada said Tuesday it will send 30 military cargo specialists to Freetown to help
 speed
up cargo operations at Lungi International Airport. Defence
Minister Art Eggleton said in a statement that Canada was
responding to a U.N. appeal to help cope with increased traffic
at the airport caused by a speed-up in the deployment of UNAMSIL
troops in Sierra Leone. "It was agreed we could contribute
Canadian Forces airport support personnel and equipment for this
ever-increasing critical U.N. mission," Eggleton said. The
Canadian troops will be deployed within ten days at an estimated cost of
C$1.1 million (US $739,000).
15 May: UNAMSIL spokesman
David Wimhurst confirmed Monday the release of 139 U.N.
personnel in Liberia. "This is obviously a very positive
development. It shows that the crisis around our detained
personnel is moving into a new phase," Wimhurst said. "We knew
there was a plan by President Taylor to get our people out into
Liberia. At that time we understood the first number would be 13.
Overnight it mushroomed to 139...We hope very much that all of our
detained personnel will be released as soon as possible and brought
back to Sierra Leone." Originally Wimhurst said the U.N. hoped to
airlift the 15 former detainees in Monrovia to Freetown on
Monday, while UNAMSIL was planning relief flights to the Liberian
border town of Foya where the remaining 124 were said to have
arrived. Late in the day, however, Wimhurst said the U.N.
peacekeepers would likely be returned to Sierra Leone on Tuesday.
"It is unlikely there will be any movement tonight," he said.
"We haven't been able to get to Foya. The Liberian government
says the 15 are in a hotel in Monrovia, but we haven't seen
them." The spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, Fred
Eckhard, said in New York that the freed U.N. personnel were thought
to be mainly Zambians, but he said precise numbers would have to be
confirmed. Eckhard referred to the additional 18 U.N. military
observers and peacekeeping troops who were let go in Kailahun on
Sunday, saying they had been released from detention and
transported from Giema to Kailahun, where they had been based. He
added that they were "neither detained nor free to move."
Meanwhile, BBC Monrovia correspondent Jonathan Paye-Layleh told
the BBC Network Africa programme that the group of 139
peacekeepers had been released by RUF commander General Issa Sesay after
a delegation sent to Sierra Leone by Liberian President Charles
Taylor negotiated with the RUF for the detainees' release. Taylor
was designated to negotiate with the RUF at an ECOWAS
mini-summit held in Abuja, Nigeria last week. Paye-Layleh said
the U.N. personnel were released on Friday, but had only arrived
in Liberia by foot on Sunday morning. "Those who are keeping (the
U.N. captives) are saying if they want the process to go on as
it started, then the attack on RUF positions should stop," he
said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that the RUF's release of 157
peacekeepers
in Sierra Leone was a "welcome development" and that the U.N.
was working hard for the release of the other hostages, and to
consolidate and stablise the U.N. mission. "As you can imagine,
the morale is good, and the men are encouraged by this," Annan said.
In a statement issued later by his spokesman, Fred Eckhard, Annan
stressed the important role played by Liberian President Charles
Taylor in bringing about the detainees' release. He said he was
gratified by the progress made so far, but would encourage
Charles Taylor to press on until the roughly 350 remaining
detainees held by the RUF were released and their weapons
recovered.
Sporadic mortar fire was reported in the Port Loko area overnight
Sunday, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Monday. Freetown was
said to be relatively calm, he said, adding that UNAMSIL was conducting
regular reconnaissance flights. The airlift of a battalion of
Indian peacekeeping troops by a Canadian Airbus and commercial
aircraft is expected to be about half complete by the end of the
day, he said. Eckhard told reporters that the estimated 20,000
people who had moved into Freetown to flee fighting last week had
begun returning to the Waterloo area over the weekend. New
displacements of between 7,000 and 9,000 persons were reported in
the area between Port Loko and Lungi. Insecurity had prevented
an assessment of the situation in the Masiaka area, he said.
The
commander of the UNAMSIL force, Major-General Vijay Jetley, told
reporters Sunday that it was important to negotiate with RUF
leader Foday Sankoh. "He is the cult figure of the RUF. I think
we have to negotiate with him," Jetley said. "He is the one who
is still calling the shots." Sankoh disappeared last Monday
following demonstrations in front of his home in Freetown which
turned violent when his supporters opened fire on the crowed. His
whereabouts are currently unknown.
Justice Minister and Attorney-General Solomon Berewa said Monday that there had
been
no change in the legal status of the Lomé Peace Accord as a
result of the current crisis in Sierra Leone. "It is very much the
same as it was before on the 7th of July last year," Berewa told the
BBC. "We are still trying to ensure that the terms of it are
implemented." He said he saw no reason to renegotiate the terms of
the agreement. "Everybody agrees, not just ourselves, but the whole
international community is in agreement that the terms in here
are the best we that can have and the best [word indistinct] for
bring peace to Sierra Leone," he said. "I don’t think
renegotiating it is on the cards at all."
The journalists' rights group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF -
Reporters without Borders) protested Monday over the arrest of Abdul
Kuyuteh, the acting editor of the weekly Wisdom Newspaper. According
to the RSF, Kuyuteh was detained on May 11 by officers of the
Criminal Investigation Division in connection with a story he
investigated in December 1999 about the alleged hiring of
mercenaries by the government and the RUF.
Former RUF field commander Sam "Mosquito" Bockarie has denied rumours that he
has
been involved in the renewed fighting between the RUF and
pro-government forces in Sierra Leone. Bockarie was exiled to Liberia
last year after he publicly broke with RUF leader Foday Sankoh.
BBC Monrovia correspondent Jonathan Paye-Layleh said he asked
Bockarie about the rumours in Monrovia on Sunday. "I talked to
him and I confronted him on the issue, and said that he didn’t
have any reason for going back to Sierra Leone to fight,"
Paye-Layleh told the BBC Focus on Africa programme. "He said that
was not true, and I did not have any reason to disbelieve what
he is saying because I have not really seen him in any military
mode. I've seen up and down his brand-new jeep with a few
fighters who followed him to Liberia. So if he is doing that it has to
be very surreptitiously done, but there are no indications that
he is shuttling between here and Freetown to fight as people
claim."
Dr. Francis Kai-Kai, the Executive Secretary of the National
Commission for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration
(NCDDR), told the Sierra Leone
 Web
Monday that the DDR programme had been brought to what he called
a "temporary halt" as a result of the RUF's attacks against U.N.
peacekeeping forces and the rebel group's expressed unwillingness to
disarm according to a mutually agreed timetable. "The other main
faction, the CDF, has officially decided to hold back until the
current crises are settled," Kai-Kai said. "As for the
AFRC/exSLAs, they were poised to continue the disarmament and to
enter a Military Re-integration Programme. This programme would
have seen them through a selection and screening exercise for
possible re-entry into a restructured national army. The
unsuccessful ones would have gone through the demobilisation and
re-integration programme." He said the official position was that
the programme is still ongoing and that the government was
appealing to all combatants, especially to the RUF, to continue
disarming according to the programme. "We are yet to see a response,
even in the Eastern region, where the RUF is apparently not at all
keen on resuming any hostilities," he said. The last figures on
disarmament, issued May 4 before the current crisis, which has
seen rearming on the part of the warring factions, were: RUF -
4,501; AFRC/ex-SLA - 5,768; CDF - 8,735; Current SLA - 3,804;
Others - 1,463; Total - 24,271. Total weapons and ammunition
handed in by the RUF, AFRC/ex-SLA and CDF - 14,792 and 255,653,
respectively.
British Secretary of State for Defence Geoffrey Hoon told Parliament Monday that
British
forces in Sierra Leone had secured Lungi International Airport and
so far evacuated almost 450 persons from the country. Hoon said
Britain had made it clear that its forces would not be deployed
in a combat role, but were providing advice to UNAMSIL and
technical military advice to the Sierra Leone government and to
the U.N. in New York. "In this context, whilst our forces remain,
we shall do what we can to assist the U.N. Mission," he said.
"Its success is essential to ensuring long term peace and
stability in Sierra Leone...Our presence has helped to ensure
confidence and has contributed to the stabilisation of the
situation." Hoon said that once the U.N. peacekeeping force was up to
its full authorised strength of 11,100 troops, the British presence
at the airport would no longer be necessary. "I can assure the
House that U.K. forces will stay no longer than is necessary," he
said. "However, even when our forces do withdraw, we will not be
ending our political or diplomatic support for the UN or indeed
for Sierra Leone. When it is safe to do so, we will continue with
our programme of assistance to help train and build effective,
democratically accountable Sierra Leonean Armed Forces, which we
announced in April. We will also continue to contribute military
observers to the U.N. Mission, and if required, technical advice
to UNAMSIL...But there is no question of the U.K. taking over the
UN Mission or of being drawn into civil war."
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet told
 reporters
following a closed-door briefing of the U.N. Security Council
Monday that the position of U.N. peacekeepers in Sierra Leone is
improving, and that the situation in the country was never as bad
as some news accounts indicated. Miyet said not one member of
the Security Council had suggested the Sierra Leone mission be
abandoned. "Just because you believe that at some point you will
have failures and difficulties, and each situation is different,
you do not say, 'For the sake of the U.N. I close my eyes to what
is happening in these countries and leave hundreds of thousands of
children, women and men starving or killed in a country because I do
not want to damage the image of the U.N." Miyet acknowledged that
some of the U.N. peacekeeping troops were poorly equipped at the
start of the mission. He emphasised that the international
community should provide sufficient resources to ensure that U.N.
peacekeeping missions are successful.
New York-based Human Rights Watch called Monday for a tightening
of the U.N. arms embargo on Sierra Leone's RUF rebels, and noted
what it said were persistent
reports
of arms shipments to the rebel group over the past year. "The
crisis in Sierra Leone can't be solved without addressing the
question of weapons supply for the rebels," Lisa Misol of Human
Rights Watch's Arms Division said in a statement. "With peace
unraveling in Sierra Leone, rebels can be expected to activate their
arms supply channels unless the U.N. takes firm steps to stop
them." The group also called on the U.N. Security Council to
authorise U.N. forces to monitor Sierra Leone's borders,
especially that with Liberia, as well as roads and airstrips in
RUF-controlled areas and to halt any arms shipments they detect.
Human Rights Watch also urged the Security Council to order an
official inquiry into illegal arms shipments to the RUF, including the
role of illicitly-mined diamonds originating in rebel-controlled
areas of Sierra Leone "in order to identify the illicit channels
of supply, expose embargo violators, and devise strategies to
halt these flows."
U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher referred Monday
to comments last week by Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Bill
Clinton's Special Envoy for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa, that
it was important to bring RUF leader Foday Sankoh back into the
peace process in Sierra Leone. "I guess what we would have to say
is (Sankoh) has a chance to play a positive role, to demonstrate
some sincerity by releasing the U.N. detainees, by ordering a
ceasefire, by reopening the channels of communication to discuss a
genuine, credible peace process for Sierra Leone," Boucher said.
"We've made quite clear that what we are looking for and what
Rev. Jackson will do during his trip is to reinforce regional
efforts to secure the immediate release of U.N. hostages that are
held by the rebels, to restore the ceasefire and to return to
implementation of a credible peace process under the Lomé Accords."
Jackson will travel to Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali and
Nigeria from May 17 to May 22nd.
Oluyemi Adeniji, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy in Sierra Leone, called
 on
the Sierra Leone government Monday not to go on the offensive
against the RUF. At a press conference in Freetown, Adeniji said both
sides should return to their pre-crisis positions, and he urged the
government not to pursue the rebels but to find ways of reviving
the peace accords. "Our point is that all sides should stop
hostilities and go back to the positions where they were and not
attempt to move from those positions," he said.
14 May: RUF rebels have
released 139 U.N. personnel into Liberian custody, Liberia's
President Charles Taylor said on Sunday. Taylor said 15 of the
group had been flown to Monrovia in a government-chartered
helicopter, while the remaining 124 were waiting to be evacuated
from the Liberian border town of Foya. Taylor said the freed
detainees had been held by the RUF in Kailahun District. According to
figures received by the Sierra Leone Web, however, only 41 U.N.
personnel were believed held in Kailahun District as of Saturday —
18 in Kailahun and 23 in Kuiva. Those in Kailahun were handed
over to Indian peacekeeping troops in Kailahun earlier on Sunday.
In a ceremony at Liberia's Executive Mansion attended by the
U.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Liberia, Felix
Downes-Thomas, Taylor introduced two "smiling but tired-looking
men wearing new uniforms" whom he said were freed Kenyan and Zambian
peacekeepers, the Associated Press reported. Taylor also criticised
the United States, which he said had refused to provide air
transport for the captives. Instead, Taylor said, they had been
forced to walk for three days through heavily-forested areas of
eastern Sierra Leone to reach Liberia. There was no immediate
comment from the United States. Taylor also warned that continued
attacks by pro-government attacks against the RUF rebels "threaten
the lives" of the remaining U.N. captives.
RUF rebels handed over 18 captive U.N. peacekeeping troops and
military observers to UNAMSIL on Sunday, UNAMSIL spokesman David
Wimhurst said in Freetown. The U.N. personnel, including 11 unarmed
military observers — one from each of the contributing countries —
and 7 Indian troops were handed over to a contingent of Indian
UNAMSIL soldiers in Kailahun, who themselves remain surrounded by
RUF troops. The Russian Embassy in Guinea identified one of the
freed observers as Lieutenant-Captain Ufimtsev. A second was
identified as Major Andrew Harrison of Britain. No further
details were available. "We are encouraged by this decision of
the RUF to no longer detain our men," said Wimhurst. "We would
like to see the rest of our people being detained released as
soon as possible...We have yet to reach an agreement with the RUF
to allow the 11 military observers to move to Freetown."
Control of the strategic junction town of Masiaka has changed
twice Sunday in back-and-forth fighting between pro-government
forces and RUF rebels, but is now reportedly in the hands of
Sierra Leone Army troops. The town was seized briefly Sunday morning by
rebel forces, after having been taken by loyalist forces on
Saturday. Earlier Sunday, SLA Colonel J. Nelson C. Youe, aka
"Prayer," told journalists the rebels had launched a surprise
attack at about 6:45 a.m., which lasted for an hour. "Now they
are on the run and we are pursuing them," he said. Subsequent
updates reported opposing forces holding opposite sides of the
town before an an SLA major told Reuters his troops had withdrawn
to take up defensive positions.
President Kabbah urged RUF fighters Sunday to lay down their weapons and join
 the
Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme, and — in what
appeared to be an acknowledgement that the government is not in
direct contact with RUF officials — appealed to those with access to RUF
field commanders and combatants to "let them know...that the
cause for which the RUF had been fighting is lost." Kabbah said
RUF fighters who laid down their arms had nothing to fear. "Their
safety is assured," he said. "Let them know that this grieving
but resilient nation, is ready to receive them as members of this
great family we call Sierra Leone. Together, we can all join in a
collective effort to use our human and natural resources, not in
destroying, but in building our country, for the benefit of us
all."
Britain's Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir Charles Guthrie, arrived in Freetown on
 Sunday,
where he held talks with President Kabbah and later with the
commander of the UNAMSIL force, Major-General Vijay Jetley. Guthrie
insisted that British forces would leave Sierra Leone as soon as
possible, and said there were no plans to land the Marines 42
Commando. "They give us some flexibility by being as sea. It
gives us more options," he told reporters. "We will go as soon as
we can, as soon as the mission is completed. We are now
optimistic that its going to happen by mid-June." But Guthrie
declined to give a specific date for the withdrawal. "I can't
give you an actual date. If we had a plan we wouldn't tell you,"
he said. "We are here to evacuate people, secure the airports. We
are not part of the U.N." There are currently some 700 British
military personnel on the ground in Sierra Leone. Guthrie is
expected to inspect British paratroopers securing Lungi International
Airport on Monday.
The commander of the British forces in Freetown, Brigadier David
Richards, said on Sunday that Sierra Leone's capital was secure.
"The situation is much more stable now," he said. "I believe that
Freetown is now secure by the U.N. and by the new government
forces." He told the BBC that RUF leader Foday Sankoh seemed to be
"out of commission" and speculated that the rebel leader might
even be dead. "We do not believe that Foday Sankoh has yet reasserted
authority over the RUF, which is split. The government is trying to
exploit that split and I think they have some chance of
success," Richards said. "The situation is much more stable now.
The difference between what it was like when we arrived and today
is remarkable, and I am not claiming any credit for that. It has
been a delight to watch how the U.N. and government forces have
managed to regain the initiative, and clearly we have been able
to be of some assistance to them. The rebels are now well clear
of Freetown, which is now secured by the UN and government
troops." Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Sunday
that he expected British troops in Sierra Leone to be withdrawn
within a month. "We expect this to be over in a month. We want it
to be over in a month, and we want to keep that deadline there
as pressure on the U.N. to get their people there in a month," he
said. "We don't want that timetable to slip."
13 May: Documents found
in RUF leader Foday Sankoh's looted house provide "circumstantial
material" showing the rebel leader was planning "to stage a very
violent
and bloody coup" this week, Justice Minister and
Attorney-General Solomon Berewa (left) alleged on Saturday. "We have
materials on the coup plan. This is not a speculation. Some of his
associates are giving us more details and telling us what Sankoh
had in mind," he said. Berewa said plans for the coup, which he
said was to have taken place on Tuesday, were upset by a peace
demonstration Monday in front of Sankoh's house. RUF supporters
fired into the crowd with automatic weapons and a
rocket-propelled grenade. 7 people were killed in the attack and
12 more in the violence which followed. Sankoh himself
disappeared shortly after the demonstration and his whereabouts are
currently unknown. Berewa said other documents found in Sankoh's
house related to the sale of illicit diamonds, the recruiting of
child soldiers by the RUF, and financial favours granted to RUF
supporters. Berewa alleged that Sankoh, who under the Lomé Peace
Accord was made chairman of the government's Commission for the
Management of Strategic Resources, National Reconstruction and
Development (CMRRD) with the protocol rank of vice president, had
tried to trade or sell diamonds abroad to enrich himself and
fund the RUF. During a trip to South Africa, purportedly for medical
treatment, Sankoh made deals "in a reckless manner," Berewa
said. The RUF leader reportedly presented one diamond company with a
list of supplies he wanted, including drugs, military equipment,
radio and television gear, political campaign materials and
school supplies. Berewa said officials found documents describing
negotiations with several "well-known" companies and individuals
based abroad. "The names are so many," Berewa said. "Foday
Sankoh was anxious to have power." One businessman, named as
Mitchell Phillip Nicholas, reportedly suggested to Sankoh that he
could smuggle gems by helicopter from Kono District to
neighbouring Liberia or Guinea. There was also said to be a
comprehensive list showing that Sankoh had received 2,134
diamonds — 347 carats in gem-quality stones and 95 carats in
industrial-grade stones worth some $150,000 — from RUF mining
activities between August 1999 and January 2000. According to BBC
correspondent Lansana Fofana, Berewa also alleged that some of
the documents found in Sankoh's home dealt with the RUF's
practice of abducting children for use as soldiers. "There were
documents pointing to the forceful capture of hundreds of
civilians by the RUF and, according to these documents, they were
specifying where these people were abducted, when they were
trained, who trained them, and where they are located right now,"
Fofana said.
Pro-government forces, led by the ex-SLA's "Westside" unit, have
retaken the town of Masiaka from RUF rebels, according to
reporters who reached the town on Saturday. "We killed 23 rebels
riding this highway on Friday night. We ambushed them," the
unit's commander, "Colonel" Salifou Keita Cissey, told Reuters.
He claimed he had burned the bodies "because I don't like to see
them." There was no
 independent
confirmation of his claim. Sierra Leone's Acting Chief of
Defence Staff, Colonel Tom Carew, inspected the town as the
Westside fighters celebrated their victory by firing their
assault rifles into the air. "We are trying to get a coalition of
forces that will stand and defend the people," he said. Earlier,
Carew (pictured right) told reporters that the RUF advance on Freetown
had been turned back by pro-government forces. "The offensive has
not only been stopped, but we are chasing them away and I want
to believe they will never see Freetown," he said. "We are not on
the offensive yet, we are still on the defensive, but if they
come and attack us we will not sit by to see them enter Freetown,
so we will pursue them wherever they go until they stop
attacking us. If they stop attacking us, we will stop."
RUF forces twice attacked pro-government positions at Port Loko
overnight Friday, according to a statement by Sierra Leone's
Ministry of Information. "Armed rebels attacked Port Loko twice
last night at 5 p.m. and at 10 p.m.," the statement said. "The attacks
were repelled by loyal government troops. The area is still
firmly under control...Government forces have advanced from the
Waterloo area as far as Mile 38, Mile 38 is now firmly under
government control."
Three RUF fighters involved in Thursday's attack against UNAMSIL
troops at Mile 91 were captured Friday and taken to Bo, where they
were interviewed by BBC Bo Correspondent Prince Brima. "Speaking to
me in an interview at Bo Police Station, one of the rebels told me
that they attacked Mile 91 in order to cut off the highway
linking the capital Freetown and Bo, the second city," Brima. "He
also alleged that 400 mercenaries from Burkina Faso arrived in
Makeni from Liberia four days ago and are now preparing to launch
a full-scale offensive to capture Freetown." There has been no
independent confirmation of the allegation.
Eleven ECOWAS foreign ministers met in Freetown Saturday for the
third meeting of the Joint Implementation Committee (JIC), set up
under the Lomé Peace Accord to monitor the peace process in Sierra
Leone. Also expected to attend the meeting was OAU
Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim, the U.N. Secretary-General's
Special Representative to Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, British
and Libyan officials, and an official from the Commonwealth. In a
statement, the Sierra Leone government said it remained "fully
committed" to meeting its obligations under the peace agreement,
and said it was ready to resume implementation of the agreement
under "auspicious" circumstances. The statement called on the RUF
to release more than 500 U.N. personnel, together with their
weapons, equipment and personal effects; to return all weapons seized
from the Guinean peacekeeping contingent in February; to
relinquish control of Kono, Makeni, Magburaka and other areas to
UNAMSIL and the government with immediate effect; and to disarm,
simultaneously with other combatant groups and submit to the
Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme.
The government also called on the international community to
provide the resources to speedily implement a credible DDR process.
At least six British warships had arrived in Sierra Leonean waters by Saturday
 evening.
They were said to include the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious,
the frigates HMS Cumberland, HMS Chatham and HMS Argyll (pictured
left), the amphibious helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, and a supply
ship, the RFA Fort Austin. The convoy is reported to be carrying
some 1,000 royal marines. "The ships are moving into the region and
will gather off Sierra Leone, but you won't see the Illustrious
or Ocean close in to the shore," a Ministry of Defence statement
said. "We cannot say at this stage whether anyone will be going
ashore."
As of Saturday, 508 U.N. personnel are still believed held
captive by RUF rebels in northern and eastern Sierra Leone, a diplomatic
source told the Sierra Leone Web. These include 18 in Kailahun,
23 in Kuiva, 32 in Makeni and Magburaka, and 434 others, mostly
Zambians, in other places, the source said, adding: "Presumably
most are in Koidu and vicinity."
U.S. President Bill Clinton has notified Congressional leaders
that a small number of U.S. military personnel run the risk of
getting caught up in hostilities in Sierra Leone, National Security
Council Spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Saturday. He said Friday's
notice referred to the fact that military personnel are involved
in airlifting peacekeeping troops and supplies to Freetown on
behalf of the United Nations. "Given the situation, we thought it
appropriate to consult with Congress," Crowley said. "We've kept
the (Capitol) Hill fully informed as this has unfolded."
12 May: RUF rebels and
UNAMSIL troops, backed by pro-government militias, fought a
three-hour battle between U.N. forces and RUF rebels near Mile
91, the BBC reported on Friday. According to BBC Bo Correspondent
Prince Brima, fleeing residents said the rebels attacked Guinean
peacekeepers on two fronts late Thursday, but were driven back.
"Both Guinean UNAMSIL troops and pro-government Sierra Leone Army
militias occupying the area, backed by a helicopter gunship, were
able to repel the attacks after a fierce three-hour battle," Brima
said. "Truckloads of pro-government militiamen were this morning
seen heading for the area to confront possible further attacks."
In Freetown, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst said Nigerian
UNAMSIL positions at Port Loko had been the target of sporadic
firing throughout Thursday night. "Our soldiers returned fire,"
he said. "They suffered no casualties. That was the major
overnight incident. Today everything here is quiet, particularly
Freetown is secure." A Sierra Leone Army commander, Major Francis
Sowa, told Reuters that RUF rebels attempting to advance on
Freetown this week had been driven back to to Magbuntoso, about
38 miles from the capital. "Our position was attacked in the
early hours of today by the rebels while we were mopping up to
push forward," he said. "Their attack on our position will let
them understand that we are ready to pursue them anywhere they go this
time, as they suffered heavy losses. By tomorrow my joint forces
will definitely get to Masiaka." In London, a British Foreign
Office official suggested that the situation in Sierra Leone was
beginning to stabilise. He noted the RUF had not made any
significant advances in the past 48 to 72 hours and said
pro-government militias had "made a quite good account of
themselves" in fighting with the rebels. Britain's Ministry of
Defence downplayed the number of RUF fighters involved in a
reported advance on Freetown. "The ministry view is that it is
less dramatic than some views we're seeing...in the media. We
think there are 1,500 RUF altogether engaged in this current move
west," a defence official said.
Funeral services were held at the National Stadium Friday for 19
persons killed on Monday when RUF supporters fired on a crowd of
demonstrators in front of RUF leader Foday Sankoh's Spur Street
residence, or in the aftermath of that attack. A crowd of about
20,000 mourners, including President Kabbah, cabinet ministers,
parliamentarians, civil society groups, family members and
ordinary people, attended the gathering. Following the ceremony,
thousands lined the route from the stadium to the Kissy as the
thirteen flag-draped coffins of civilians were transported to the
cemetery in an open trailer. The six soldiers killed were buried
in a military cemetery on the other side of the capital.
Canada will send two Canadian Forces officers trained in military
officers to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping
Operations to help the U.N.
peacekeeping
force in Sierra Leone develop a capacity for rapid response,
Canadian Defence Minister Art Eggleton (pictured left) said in a
statement issued on Friday. In addition, Canada's Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade will fund two officers
from developing countries. He said the Canadian government would
also provide 1,700 helmets and 1,700 fragmentation vests to the
poorly-equipped peacekeeping force, enough to outfit two
battalions of troops. This donation, valued at C$864,000, follows
a request by the U.N. to provide these items to troops who had
arrived in Sierra Leone without protective equipment. "The current
crisis in Sierra Leone and the hostile actions against the U.N.
peacekeeping mission deployed there demonstrate the serious need to
develop within the U.N. system a real capacity for rapid reaction,"
Eggleton said. "Canada's assistance will improve the the U.N.'s
ability to help and the equipment we are donating will
significantly improve the personal protection of troops in Sierra
Leone." The  Canadian
government also announced Friday it would donate C$5 million
(U.S. $3.4 million) in emergency humanitarian aid. "This
humanitarian aid will be flexible and targeted to those most in
need," said Minister for International Co-operation Maria Minna
(right). "As soon as it is safe for aid workers to return to
Sierra Leone, we will move quickly to start directing this new
aid to help the tens of thousands of individuals and families
that are caught in the middle of the conflict."
Many peacekeeping troops sent to Sierra Leone were poorly
prepared for their mission, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the
French daily newspaper Le Monde in an interview published on
Friday. "Our soldiers are badly trained and badly equipped,"
Annan said. "You know that countries which supplied us with
soldiers were supposed to equip them fully and train them well.
That was not entirely the case here. Some soldiers arrived
without even a uniform." He added that Western countries should
have committed forces to UNAMSIL. "Obviously I am disappointed,
very disappointed. I am not alone in this. Anyone who believes,
or says they believe, in multilateral affairs must be
disappointed." Annan, however, welcomed the presence of British
troops in Sierra Leone. "The presence of British soldiers has
allowed us to guarantee security at the airport, which helps us a
lot," he said.
Rev. Jesse Jackson compared Foday Sankoh's RUF Friday to South Africa's African
National
Congress in the transition period before independence, and said
the rebel group still had a political role to play in Sierra Leone.
Jackson, who is U.S. President Bill Clinton's Special Envoy for the
Promotion of Democracy in Africa, is leaving Tuesday for West
Africa to search for a solution to the latest crisis in Sierra
Leone, and to seek the release of some 500 U.N. personnel
detained by the RUF. Last year Jackson, with U.S. backing,
pressured the Sierra Leone government into signing a cease-fire
agreement with the RUF which set the stage for the negotiation of
the Lomé Peace Accord. "The voice of the RUF in Sierra Leone is
Foday Sankoh's voice, and his voice would be a very positive
one," Jackson said in a conference call with reporters in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "The support that he needs to turn the RUF
into a political organisation is deserved...The same type of thing
must happen for the RUF (as with the ANC), as we seek to get them
to put their confidence in a democratic political process."
Jackson said he believed Sankoh, whose whereabouts have been
unknown since Monday, was still alive, and he said he would make
finding the rebel leader a priority. "One of the things I would
want to do early on is to seek not only the whereabouts of Foday
Sankoh but to assure him of some port of safety if he can hear
our voice," he said. "I would tell Sankoh to make himself become
visible and make an appeal to release the U.N. peacekeepers. It
would be of immense value to Sierra Leone, the Congo and the rest
of Africa. "With Sankoh missing, it has added to the tension."
He said his first stop would be to meet with Liberian President
Charles Taylor, who has acknowledged a close relationship with Sankoh in
the past. ECOWAS leaders asked Taylor on Tuesday to become
"personally involved" in attempting to free the U.N. troops.
"The peacekeepers must not be used as bargaining chips. Their role is
too significant to be captured and used that way," Jackson said.
"If Charles Taylor can talk to the commanders and they hear that,
that would be positive," Jackson said. "It would be different if
he were encouraging the fighting, but he's not."
The commander of the British forces in Sierra Leone, Brigadier
David Richards, called on U.N. troops to adopt a much more
belligerent military strategy and to "take the battle forward"
alongside pro-government forces fighting against the RUF rebels.
Speaking on Radio Democracy FM, Richards said "our job now in the
short term, using the new SLA, is to take the battle forward,"
adding that the pro-government alliance "do whatever is
necessary, increasingly into the interior" of Sierra Leone. A
British Defence Ministry spokesman told the Agence France-Presse
that Richards was not referring to British troops, which Britain
has said are in the country for the purpose of evacuating British
and other foreign nationals and to provide security at Lungi
International Airport. But Richards indicated that the British
troops might become more deeply involved in that originally intended.
"That mandate is being liberally interpreted insofar as the
activities that I need to conduct in order to ensure the safe evacuation
of British nationals, which will continue to be my ultimate
priority, allows me to do other activities to make sure I can
efficiently evacuate people," he said.
British paratroopers are manning checkpoints alongside Nigerian UNAMSIL troops in
the
Freetown suburbs of Aberdeen and Lumley, BBC correspondent Lansana
Fofana reported on Friday. "In Freetown here the security remains
watertight," Fofana told the BBC Network Africa programme.
"There have been joint patrols involving U.N. troops and Sierra
Leonean military personnel and around Aberdeen and Lumley Beach area
British paratroopers could be seen very much in action, and they’ve
been rigorously searching vehicles and commuters. They’ve set up
roadblocks and they’re working actively in collusion with
Nigerian U.N. troops."
British Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Charles Guthrie will
visit Sierra Leone over the weekend, Defence Minister of State
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean told the House of Lords on Friday. She
said that Guthrie, who will be accompanied by Foreign Office
officials, wanted "to look at events on the ground." He will also
visit Senegal and Nigeria, she said. Britain currently has 900
paratroopers and support troops in Sierra Leone, and is sending
600 Royal Marines, who will be kept in reserve. A British
aircraft carrier, the HMS Illustrious, is due to reach Sierra
Leone's coastal waters by Monday at the latest, and other British
warships are expected to reach the country before then.
The Joint Implementation Committee on the Lomé Peace Accord will
meet in Freetown on Saturday, according to Sierra Leone
Broadcasting Service (SLBS). According the Sierra Leone's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, OAU
Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim, the U.N. Secretary-General's
Special Representative to Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, and
representatives of the U.K. Libya and the Commonwealth will
attend.
310 troops from the Jordanian Special Forces arrived in Freetown
on Friday, bringing the total number of UNAMSIL troops in Sierra
Leone to about 9,200. The deployment of the rest of the Jordanian
battalion, as well as Indian and Bangladeshi peacekeepers, will be
accomplished using a mixture of commercial and military aircraft, a
U.N. spokesman said. He said the deployment of the Indian
battalion is scheduled to begin on Monday. In Washington, a U.S.
State Department spokesman said a U.S. C-17 military aircraft
transported the Jordanians' ammunition to Freetown. Meanwhile,
the United Nations has turned down an offer by the United States
to ferry some 800 Bangladeshi peacekeeping troops to Sierra Leone
because it would take too many flights, tripling the cost as
compared to commercial aircraft. "We decided not to use the U.S.
aircraft for this airlift because capacity of the plane offered
of 40 metric tons would have required too many sorties and clogged up
the airport," a U.N. official said. The U.N. has instead
chartered larger planes from commercial carriers, for a cost of
$6 million as compared to the $15-17 million the U.S. would have
charged. But the official said the U.S. is expected to help
elsewhere with ferrying in supplies. U.N. officials have also
noted the limited capacity of Freetown's main airfield. Lungi
International Airport is only capable of handling two or three
flights a day, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters in New
York. He said the U.N. had requested heavy load teams to increase the
number of heavy-lift flights into Lungi.
One of the four RUFP ministers who joined the Sierra Leone
government last year as part of a power-sharing formula agreed upon in
the Lomé Peace Accord has denounced RUF leader Foday Sankoh for
perpetuating killing in Sierra Leone." Minister of Lands Housing,
Country Planning and the Environment Peter Vandy read a
nine-point statement over state radio and television Thursday
night withdrawing support for Sankoh on behalf of himself and
other undisclosed members of the RUF Party. Vandy said that the
group "totally dissociate ourselves from the unwarranted
violations of the Lomé Peace Accord by Foday Sankoh," adding: "We
stand fully by the government and the people of Sierra Leone to
see the fulfillment of the peace agreement without any conditions
attached." Vandy said the RUF's political wing was committed to
"lasting peace in Sierra Leone," and supported Tuesday's call by
ECOWAS leaders meeting in Abuja to restore peace in the country by
military means if necessary.
U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume
said Friday that an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 persons had
arrived in Freetown since the beginning of the week. "People are not
in bad shape, but they obviously are frightened and fear rebel
attacks," Berthiaume said in Geneva. She said the WFP would begin
distributing supplies and registering people Friday to get a clearer
idea of the numbers involved. In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred
Eckhard said Friday only a small number of people were still
arriving in Freetown, and many internally-displaced persons were
returning to areas near Waterloo.
About 100 civilian employees of the UNAMSIL force who were
evacuated to Banjul earlier in the week were scheduled to return to
Sierra Leone Friday as the security situation in Freetown has
stabilised. "A little more than 100 members of the non-essential
staff who had been redeployed in Gambia several days ago, are
returning at this moment to UNAMSIL," UNAMSIL spokesman David
Wimhurst said. "The present conditions justify their return."
Sierra Leone has been ranked 30th among African soccer teams by
FIFA, world football's governing body, despite being among the 25
teams to qualify for the second round of the World Cup playoffs last
month. FIFA Rankings: 1. South Africa 2. Morocco 3. Tunisia 4.
Egypt 5. Zambia 6. Cameroon 7. Ivory Coast 7. Ghana 9.
Nigeria 10. Angola 11. Democratic Republic of Congo 12. Zimbabwe
13. Senegal 14. Algeria 15. Burkina Faso 16. Gabon 17. Mali 17.
Namibia 19. Togo 20. Guinea 21. Congo 22. Mozambique 23. Kenya 24.
Malawi 25. Liberia 26. Uganda 27. Mauritius 28. Libya 29.
Tanzania 30. Sierra Leone.
11 May: Pro-government
forces clashed with RUF rebels between Newton and Songo Thursday,
about 30 miles from Freetown. "There was heavy fighting
beginning at 1300 (1:00 p.m.) on the road between Newton and
Songo. It went on for at least an hour," said UNAMSIL spokesman
David Wimhurst. "U.N. forces were not engaged." Reuters reporters
who witnessed the battle said helicopter gunships pounded the
rebels, while Nigerian ground troops serving with UNAMSIL used
anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons to
recapture territory beyond Waterloo. According to one witness, the
rebels were wearing uniforms and blue caps confiscated from
captured U.N. troops in an effort to fool pro-government forces.
While the Nigerians took an active part in the fighting,
peacekeepers from Jordan, India and Kenya sat in their
white-painted vehicles ten miles behind the front line and took
no active part in the fighting, Reuters said. No casualties were
reported. Earlier Thursday, Wimhust told reporters the rebels had
attacked the towns of Newton and Port Loko overnight. "U.N.
troops at Newton and Port Loko came under fire from the RUF during the
night and the early hours of this morning," he said, adding that
the RUF fighters had used rocket-propelled grenades at Port Loko
and fired from armoured personnel carriers at Newton. "The blue
helmets returned the fire and reported no casualties," Wimhurst
said. "There are unconfirmed report of RUF casualties in both
these areas." The Agence France-Presse, however, quoted a Sierra
Leone government source as saying two SLA soldiers were wounded
at Port Loko in a battle which lasted 90 minutes. BBC
correspondent Lansana Fofana reported Thursday morning that the
rebels had also attacked Mange-Bureh, and attributed the two
attacks to RUF troops who had been driven from of Rogberi
Junction. The BBC reporter said UNAMSIL troops had taken part in
the fighting in Port Loko. "The U.N. troops have been very much drawn
into combat," he said. "In Port Loko, I understand, they were
giving real support to the pro-government forces. And as you know very
well, the former AFRC and SLA soldiers are in the thick of the
whole action. So it’s not just the loyal Sierra Leone government
troops. It’s a combination of all forces opposed to the RUF
attempt to overrun the country." Meanwhile, as British Chinook
transport helicopters helped UNAMSIL position military equipment
and vehicles around the capital, Wimhurst said the U.N. was
tightening its defences around Freetown in preparation for a
possible RUF offensive. UNAMSIL positions "are solid and becoming
more solid by the hour," Wimhurst said. "We have laid our plans
and the necessary steps are being taken militarily to protect the
capital. Plans have been made to ensure that Freetown remains
exactly what it is called - a free town."
Earlier Thursday, pro-government forces and UNAMSIL peacekeepers
were said to be consolidating their defensive positions along the
Freetown-Waterloo road amid reports that the RUF was preparing for an
assault on Freetown. Former Sierra Leone Army soldiers loyal to
AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma rushed to Waterloo on Wednesday,
and late in the day said they had succeeded in driving RUF forces
back to Newton. There was no independent confirmation of the
claim. AFRC spokesman Prince Edward Nicol said President Kabbah
had authorised the ex-SLA soldiers to defend the capital. "The
U.N. still insists their mandate is not to fight. We are not
waiting for them," Nicol said. UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst
acknowledged that the former soldiers had been armed. "The SLA
has rearmed itself and we have urged them to behave responsibly,"
he said. A diplomatic source in Freetown told the Sierra Leone Web on
Wednesday that the government had given the the ex-soldiers some
arms "and some were just taken." The Associated Press quoted a
pro-government army commander Thursday morning as saying the rebels
had advanced to Waterloo, but military sources have denied this.
Wimhurst told reporters that peacekeeping troops had come under
fire overnight at Newton, about 25 miles east of Freetown. BBC
correspondent Lansana Fofana reported early Thursday that the RUF
was no nearer than 47 miles from the capital. "I spoke to
defence sources yesterday, they were telling me it is not true
that the rebels came as close as Waterloo," Fofana told the BBC
Network Africa programme. "The panic and pandemonium was created
basically by civilians who were carting away their property from
those areas so that the rebels don’t overrun those places. But
militarily speaking they were saying that the rebels are nowhere near
Freetown." Fofana cited reports, not independently confirmed, that
"Masiaka has been fully consolidated by the AFRC, SLA and other
government forces."
Kenyan UNAMSIL troops which had been encircled by RUF troops at
Makeni and Magburaka broke through rebel lines on Tuesday with the help
of UNAMSIL's Indian Rapid Reaction Force, UNAMSIL spokesman David
Wimhurst said on Thursday. He gave no details on the number of
troops involved, but they were subsequently reported to number
about 200. According to a statement by Sierra Leone's Ministry of
Information, the troops from Makeni arrived in Kabala, where
Sierra Leone Army troops opened fire on them, mistaking them for
rebels wearing captured U.N. uniforms. A second group of Kenyans
from Magburaka reached Bumbuna without incident, the statement
said. Nine wounded Kenyans were taken to hospital in Freetown,
where seven of them were treated for bullet wounds. Three were reported
to be in serious condition. Two more were injured when
they fell from their truck. A U.N. spokesman in New York said the
Kenyan troops had not been counted as part of some 500 U.N.
peacekeepers held by the RUF rebels in northern and eastern
Sierra Leone.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested Thursday night
beleaguered
U.N. peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone might need more troops
and a broader mandate to combat RUF rebels and salvage the
country's peace process. Addressing a late-night emergency meeting of
the Security Council, Annan noted he was not opposed to a call by
West African leaders on Tuesday that the U.N. force take on a
more aggressive "peace-enforcement" mandate, and he welcomed an
offer by ECOWAS to contribute additional troops to Sierra Leone,
possibly as the nucleus of a rapid reaction force which he
said would be the best way to provide UNAMSIL with the combat
capability it needed. "The ECOWAS offer of troops is very
important in this respect but it is contingent on financial and
logistical support from other member states," he said. Several
nations, including Britain, Canada and Malaysia, stressed that any new
troops be kept under U.N. command. Annan pointed out that the
total current troop offers might exceed UNAMSIL's maximum
authorised strength of 11,100, and he urged the Council to revise
the force's mandate to allow for the increases. Annan also
hailed the expedited deployment of the remaining peacekeeping
contingents earmarked for UNAMSIL. "We have to consolidate and reinforce
our troops so that they can defend themselves and their mandate
effectively, and so they can help stabilise the situation," Annan
said. "I am glad to say the additional troops are on their way,
including units with battle experience and with combat equipment,
such as artillery and helicopter gun-ships." "It is vital that
the world should not now abandon the people of Sierra Leone in
their hour of greatest need," Annan told the council. "I plead
with you, let us not fail Sierra Leone. Let us not fail Africa.
This time, in this crisis, let us back words with deeds, and
mandates with the resources needed to make them work. The plight
of Sierra Leone and its people has become a crucial test of that
fundamental solidarity between peoples, rising above race and above
geography, which is the most basic guiding principle of this
organisation."
Addressing the U.N. Security Council Thursday on behalf of the
Organisation of African Unity, Algerian Ambassador Abdallah Baali
called the crisis in Sierra Leone one of the most serious to ever face
the United Nations. "This test of the U.N. mission in Sierra
Leone shows very clearly that the mandate and resources are not
and never were appropriate to the situation," he said. He urged
the Council to give the U.N. force a more combat-oriented
mandate. But British Ambassador Stuart Eldon cautioned against
such an "over-hasty approach" and said the Council's focus should
be on getting the existing force in a position to enforce its
mandate. "The secretary-general was right to point out that
changing UNAMSIL's mandate will not of itself change it into an
effective mission," Eldon said.
Sierra Leone's Permanent Representative to the United Nations,
Ambassador Ibrahim M. Kamara, urged the Security Council Thursday
to "take the lead in
 ensuring
the safety and security of the people of Sierra Leone." Kamara
said it was time to put aside questions of blame over failures by
the U.N. peacekeeping force. "It is about time we move ahead
because the situation in Sierra Leone is still serious," he said.
"It is still a threat to international peace and security. It is
a situation which the Security Council must resolutely address as a
matter of urgency." Kamara welcomed moves to bring UNAMSIL up to its
full authorised strength with the rapid deployment of additional
troops. "We hope that this process would be expedited in order
to avoid any deterioration of a situation which, we are happy to
report, continues to improve to the extent that civilians can now
go about their business without hindrance," he said. "We expect
the Council to consider its options, and take appropriate and
effective measures to deal with the new situation which has
emerged in our country." The ambassador said his government was
still committed to the Lomé Peace Accord and believed that,
despite the RUF having "seriously violated" the provisions of the
agreement, it was still implementable. "Government is also aware
that a large proportion of the members of the RUF were not in
support of the abductions of UNAMSIL personnel, and the refusal by Foday
Sankoh to voluntarily disarm his combatants, Kamara told Council
members. "They are fed up with war and want the country to move
ahead." He called on RUF members to take advantage of the amnesty
granted by the Lomé Peace Accord and to cooperate with the
continued implementation of the government's Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration programme. "Failure to do so
will result in the amnesty being forfeited," he warned. "This
will result in their being declared war criminals, with all the
consequences flowing from that, including being hunted around the
world."
Additional peacekeeping troops on on their way to join the
UNAMSIL force in Sierra Leone, a U.N. spokesman said in New York on
Thursday. "Two Jordanian parachute companies, comprising about 240
troops, supported by a 31-strong medical unit are expected to fly
to Lungi airport in Sierra Leone within 48 hours," said Fred
Eckhard, the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general. "The
remainder of the Jordanian battalion is expected to be ready to
be deployed by the end of the month." He said a second Indian
battalion would be ready for deployment on Monday. "The Indians
have also offered one mechanized unit, one special forces unit
and one attack helicopter unit," he said. "The Bangladesh
battalion is also expected to be deployed next week." The new
troops and their equipment are being airlifted to Freetown with the
assistance of Canada, the United States, Russia and the Netherlands.
Eckhard acknowledged reports that government and U.N.
troops had been involved in fighting with the rebels. "Everyone
has a mandate to fight back when attacked," he said. "There
were two separate attacks last night on U.N. positions. We fired back
and we repelled the attackers." But Eckhard said the U.N. had to
be careful of "fighting alongside the elements there that we
went in to disarm," a reference to the fact that the Sierra Leone
Army had rearmed its men in order to deal with the RUF
offensive. He noted reports that elements of the RUF had been
crossing the border from Liberia in eastern Sierra Leone, but
said that in the capital tension had "reduced somewhat." U.N.
reconnaissance flights "do not show the RUF in an organised
position ready to pounce on Freetown," he said.
Meanwhile, he said, tension had eased in Freetown and UNAMSIL's
position was growing stronger every day. "Are we comfortable?
No." he said. "We are coping." The spokesman said some of the 266
U.N. personnel who had been evacuated to Gambia and Guinea were
being recalled to Sierra Leone "in light of the new
requirements."
Four U.N. military observers held by RUF rebels at Makeni since
Tuesday last week escaped on Saturday and were picked up on Tuesday
after walking for three days through the bush to reach Magburaka — a
distance of about 40 miles. One of the four, Royal Marines
commando Major Phil Ashby, said the four had escaped over the
wall after RUF fighters made specific theats against them. They
then headed for Magburaka, walking by night and hiding by day,
but made little progress through the bush. "We considered that if
we kept moving at night, assuming everyone was a potential RUF
soldier, we would still be there in a year," Ashby said. "We
took a decision that we would approach the locals. We got to a
village where someone spoke English. The whole village was
incredibly helpful." Ashby said the villagers helped the U.N.
observers at the risk of their lives and provided a guide who led them
out of RUF-held territory and to the protection of the Kamajor
militia. A courier with a bicycle took Ashby's dog tag to the
nearest UNAMSIL post, several hours away. Eventually an SAS unit
arrived by Landrover, and the four soldiers were airlifted to
Freetown in a Chinook helicopter. "They had a satellite phone, so
we knew they were on their way, but the battery packed up after
24 hours," said British military spokesman Lieutenant Tony Cramp.
The four were identified as as Major Phil Ashby, Major Andrew
Samsonoff and Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Rowland of Britain,
and Major David Lingard from New Zealand. Meanwhile, the RUF released
two detained U.N. personnel on Wednesday: Major Suresh Karki, a
Nepalese military observer who was suffering from malaria, and
Lance Corporal Paucho Singh Chouan of India. U.N. spokesman Fred
Eckhard quoted Karki as saying that neither he nor the 19 people
held with him had been mistreated by the rebels.
Representatives of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) and the
U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) were due to travel to Waterloo again
Thursday to determine the numbers of people on the move and their
requirements, a U.N. spokesman said. On Wednesday the mission
estimated the population in settlements along the road to
Waterloo at about 20,000, with another 10,000 to 20,000 people in
the centre of Waterloo. There are also reports of population
movements towards Freetown, the spokesman said. The only people
able to move toward Freetown are those from the Waterloo area, the
humanitarian mission said. Residents from Masiaka and Rogberi were not
able to pass the RUF and have presumably gone into the bush. The
WFP said it was continuing to provide food to children in
southern Sierra Leone, and would would proceed with deliveries to
those registered in camps or holding registration cards for
Waterloo and Grafton camps, which have been abandoned by
displaced persons fearing a rebel attack. The WFP-chartered
vessel "Salvator II" has arrived off the coast of Freetown and is
available to support humanitarian operations in Sierra Leone, the
spokesman said.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said Thursday that while the United Nations
would
be required to fund any new deployment of Nigerian troops in Sierra
Leone, his government would not necessarily insist they be under a
separate command. "What we are saying is that since our soldiers
have operated in Sierra Leone for so many years, they know the
terrain, they know the people, and we are saying that if our five
battalions, for instance, we have to operate under the U.N.
auspices we will want them to be commanded as a formation," he
told the BBC during a stopover at London's Gatwick Airport. "We
will not want them to be taken one battalion here, one battalion
there. And that stands to reason, because they can then function
most effectively that way." Obasanjo said the new force would
have a mandate for peace enforcement, rather than just for
peacekeeping. "That is also the decision of the leaders of the
sub-region," he said. He suggested that the U.N.'s restricted mandate
to use force had prevented U.N. soldiers from reacting
appropriately when attacked by the RUF, leading to the "most
unacceptable situation of almost a whole battalion of U.N. being
taken as hostages by the rebels." Obasanjo said the main purpose
of the U.N. being in Sierra Leone was to ensure the
implementation of the Lomé Peace Accord, which meant "persuading"
the RUF rebels to comply. "The RUF knows Nigerian troops and
Nigerian troops know the RUF. So its a question of persuading,
and if they know that the Nigerian troops are there to enforce an
agreement, they will be persuaded," he said. But the Nigerian
president declined to commit himself to a statement guaranteeing that
the Sierra Leone government would not be allowed to fall to the
RUF. "It is not for Nigeria or even for the U.N. to determine a
government for Sierra Leone," he said. But the point is this: If
the peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts in Sierra Leone fail,
then U.N. peacemaking effort and peacekeeping effort will be
gravely endangered."
Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was designated by ECOWAS on Tuesday to
"involve
himself personally" to bring about the release of up to 500 U.N.
personnel detained by the RUF and a resumption of the peace
process in Sierra Leone, has called on the rebel movement to stop
all military action. "I want to use this occasion to call upon
the RUF to call off any any attempt on their part to invade
Freetown," Taylor said upon his return from the ECOWAS mini-summit in
Abuja. "I think it will be counter-productive and not in the best
interests of peace. I call upon the RUF to cease and desist
immediately from any and all contemplations of such attacks. And I
think instead of talking war, war, war we should be talking
about peace, peace, peace."
Memorial services will be held Friday at the National Stadium in
Freetown for peace demonstrators killed by the RUF Monday outside
the Spur Street residence of RUF leader Foday Sankoh. "As at now
we expect to bury 19 persons tomorrow, including two female
demonstrators," a source in Freetown told the Sierra Leone Web.
"There will be a big lay out at the National Football Stadium
tomorrow at 14:00 hours (2:00 p.m.) and thereafter interment at the Race
Course Cemetery" in the east end of Freetown.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair assured his cabinet Thursday
that British troops had not been sent to Sierra Leone to engage
in combat, according to his spokesman, Alastair Campbell said. "The
prime minister emphasised that we do have extra responsibilities as a
former colonial power, it would be wrong not to be there, but
emphasised the troops are there for evacuation, not for combat,"
Campbell said. The British press has questioned in recent days
whether moves by British paratroopers to secure Lungi
International Airport, to position U.N. peacekeepers and
reportedly to help UNAMSIL with tactical planning represented
"mission creep." But a Ministry of Defence spokesman said the
British military's actions were consistent with its mission in
Sierra Leone of providing "a secure environment for safe
evacuation" of British nationals. "Whilst we have capacity and we
are there...we are open to requests to assist," the spokesman
added. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook warned Thursday evening that
the British troops would defend themselves if they came under
fire. "If our troops are attacked, they will fight back, I don't
want the rebels to be under any misunderstanding about that," he
said. "They would be very wise not to attempt anything that posed
any form of threat to our forces."
U.S. President Bill Clinton said Thursday he was sending his Special Envoy for
Democracy
in Africa, Rev. Jesse Jackson, to return to West Africa and work
with regional leaders "for a peaceful resolution of this crisis"
in Sierra Leone. "Rev. Jackson has been actively involved in our
diplomatic effort to help the people of Sierra Leone realize
their peaceful aspirations," he said. Clinton also announced that
he had instructed the U.S. military to provide assistance to
accelerate the deploy of troops to the UNAMSIL force. "A U.S.
military transport aircraft is now in Jordan to move ammunition
and supplies that are needed immediately for the Jordanian
elements in Sierra Leone," he said. Clinton welcomed an offer by
ECOWAS countries, and Nigeria in particular, to send additional
troops to Sierra Leone. "We intend to support the commitment West
African nations have made to send additional troops to Sierra
Leone to restore peace," Clinton said. "A U.S. military team is
now in Nigeria to determine what assistance might be needed from
the international community to outfit and transport these forces as
quickly as possible."
A Sierra Leonean newspaper reporter was among those killed on Monday when RUF
 supporters
fired on a crowd of protesters outside the home of RUF leader
Foday Sankoh, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) said on Thursday. Saoman
Conteh was shot while covering the demonstrations for the New
Tablet newspaper. He was confirmed dead on arrival at Connaught
Hospital, RSF said.
Australia advised its nationals Thursday to leave Sierra Leone,
and advised against all travel to the country. "The security
situation in the country has deteriorated," the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said in a travel advisory. "While a peace
agreement has been signed by warring factions, fighting has
resumed in breach of the agreement and the security situation
could deteriorate further."
Thousands of Freetown residents are fleeing the capital by ferry
for the relative safety of Lungi, BBC correspondent Sylvester Rogers
reported on Thursday. "Some of them have bundles here and there,
mattresses, buckets, cooking utensils and so many other items which
they are carrying," Rogers said. He added that many people said
they felt secure in Lungi because British paratroopers had
deployed in the town. "The exodus here is actually quite
extraordinary, because any trip of the ferry will take along
thousands of people," he said.
Human Rights Watch called Thursday for a new authority capable of
coordinating U.N. and non-U.N. military efforts in Sierra Leone,
with "a clear mandate and
capability
to quickly address the grave threats to the civilian
population." In a press release accompanying an open letter to
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Anna, the group urged the "augmented
force" to adopt what it called a "zero tolerance" policy for
human rights abuses, including those committed by its own troops.
"Human Rights Watch has documented serious abuses on the part of all
parties to the conflict in Sierra Leone including some of those now
fighting on the government side," the statement said. "Recent
reports have suggested that suspected members of the rebel
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) have been summarily executed in
Freetown in recent days. Human Rights Watch urged that the rights
of captured combatants and suspected rebels be respected." The
group also called for the U.N. to deploy human rights monitors to
provide information on human rights abuses which may be taking
place outside of Freetown. "Previous experience in the civil war
has shown that in periods of both offensive action and retreat,
the RUF has often committed its most heinous atrocities," the
human rights group said. "Collecting this evidence is a key first
step toward holding perpetrators accountable, and, with time, deterring
further atrocities."
10 May: A coalition of
new and former Sierra Leone Army soldiers and Kamajor
militiamen drove RUF rebels from Waterloo to Newton, military sources
were quoted as saying on Wednesday. Meanwhile, United Nations
peacekeeping troops
 were
positioning themselves for the possibility of a rebel attack on
Freetown. Fred Eckhard (pictured right), the spokesman for the U.N.
secretary-general, said UNAMSIL "has been consolidating its
positions, particularly concentrating troops around the entry points
into Freetown" and would do whatever was necessary to defend
itself and the Sierra Leone government. "We hope that it's not
going to come to a pitched battle, but in effect we're preparing
for one," he said. Eckhard said the peacekeepers were not
configured to do battle and were "basically in a defensive mode,"
but were "anticipating for the worst, which would be an attack
on Freetown." In the city itself, British paratroopers committed
four RAF Chinook helicopters to move Jordanian troops to
defensive positions near the capital, while British army planners
began helping UNAMSIL prepare new positions, plans and tactics.
According to a London Press Association pool report, two troops
of SAS soldiers, about 40 men, were helping in U.N. efforts to stabilise
the situation.
Sierra Leonean troops loyal to AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma
have recaptured the Masiaka from the RUF and are advancing toward
Lunsar, Koroma announced
 early
Wednesday. There was no independent confirmation of the claim. In
a broadcast over Voice of the Handicap radio, Koroma said the
pro-government troops had killed 20 rebel troops, captured a vehicle and
a large quantity of ammunition. Koroma, who in 1997 led a
short-lived military junta which shared power with the RUF,
announced a formal alliance with RUF leader Foday Sankoh when the
two men arrived in Freetown in October. But Koroma and Sankoh
soon fell out over political and personal differences, and their
troops clashed repeatedly in northern Sierra Leone. The
Associated Press reported "truckloads of pro-government soldiers
and militiamen bristling with weapons" speeding toward Masiaka
Wednesday, only about 35 miles from the capital, while thousands
of civilians were arriving in the capital, fleeing what they said
was a rebel advance. Reuters quoted "fleeing civilians and
military sources" at a UNAMSIL checkpoint at Jui as saying RUF troops
had reached Mokolo Junction. Witnesses reported seeing a contingent
of heavily-armed reinforcements heading for the area led by
Sierra Leone's new Acting Chief of Defence Staff, Colonel Tom
Carew, Reuters said. BBC correspondent Lansana Fofana, in a Focus
on Africa segment, said rebels had been reported at the highway
settlement of Four Mile, less than 30 miles from Freetown.
"Defence sources told me this afternoon that the rebel activity
around Four Mile is a consequence of the Masiaka battle" where
rebels fleeing the fighting with government troops had surfaced
in the village, Fofana said. But despite reports of renewed
fighting, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst stressed that the capital was
safe. "Freetown is not going to fall to the RUF," he said.
A United Nations humanitarian assessment team set out from
Freetown on Wednesday to determine the needs of thousands of people
flocking into the capital to escape a reported rebel advance. The
team will travel as far as security conditions permit in the
direction of Waterloo, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in New
York, adding that the dispatch of such a team was standard
operating procedure in such crisis situations. The team is made
up of representatives from the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the U.N.
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Okabe
said.
The search for missing RUF leader Foday Sankoh moved to western
Freetown Tuesday amid rumours that Sankoh had escaped into the
hills surrounding the capital. "Yesterday the Sierra Leone Army
dispatched a huge contingent of soldiers who were combing the bush
around Malama and the west end of town because it was rumoured
that Foday Sankoh was hiking on the hills trying to escape from
the city," BBC correspondent Lansana Fofana said on Wednesday.
"And that was in fact why there was amount of gunfire around that
part of town. It created panic among the people. But later on
defence staff officials told me that it was basically a hunt for
Foday Sankoh." Fofana told the BBC's Network Africa programme
that about 20 RUF officials had been rounded up in Freetown.
"Among them are some of their chief functionaries like (RUFP
spokesman) Eldred Collins; I believe three or four of their ministers
and deputy ministers, including one guy called 'Leatherboots'
(RUF commander Idriss Kamara) and a number of other people who
are hangers-on to Foday Sankoh at his residence at Spur Road," he
said. "Initially they were said to be detained at the Defence
Headquarters, but they have been referred to the police and I
understand they have been taken to the maximum security prison in
Freetown."
UNAMSIL currently has 8,936 U.N. peacekeeping troops in Sierra
Leone, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Wednesday. He said
battalions from Bangladesh, India and Jordan are expected to arrived
between May 20 and 31, in an effort to bring UNAMSIL quickly up to
its full authorised strength of 11,100 soldiers. Eckhard said he
had no accurate figures on casualties, but noted that Nigerian
troops had sustained casualties during the fighting with the RUF
at Rogberi Junction, while Kenyan troops had also been injured in
recent fighting.
India said Wednesday it will send a battle-tested battalion of infantry troops to
 join
the United Nations peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone next week.
About 800 troops from India's 18th Grenadier Regiment, which was
decorated last year for its role in the conflict in Kashmir,
"any time after Monday to join up with some 1,600 Indian
peacekeepers" already in Sierra Leone, the Agence France-Presse (AFP)
quoted a military source as saying. The source said the Indian
soldiers would be flown to Russia, from where they would be
airlifted to join the UNAMSIL force.
Canada said Wednesday it had accepted a request from the United
Nations to provide airlift support to UNAMSIL aimed at accelerating
the deployment of approximately 1,772 peacekeeping troops from India
and Bangladesh to Sierra Leone. "The worsening situation in
Sierra Leone calls for prompt action. I'm pleased Canada is able
to respond at such short notice, demonstrating once again, the
level of professionalism of the Canadian Forces and its
commitment to UN peace support operations," Canada's Minister of
National Defence, Art Eggleton, said in a press statement. A
CC-150 Polaris (Airbus) with up to 20 air force personnel will
depart Wednesday for a mission which is expected to take from two to
three weeks. The aircraft will transport troops from airports in New
Delhi, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh to Lungi International
Airport.
Russia will send four military helicopters and 105 soldiers to
Sierra Leone to help strengthen the UNAMSIL force, the Interfax
News Agency reported on Wednesday. The news agency said all
pertinent documents had been prepared and submitted for approval to the
upper house of Parliament. The Deputy Head of the Russian Defence
Ministry's Main Directorate for International Cooperation,
Lieutenant-General Nikolai Zlenko, told Itar-Tass that the final
decision would be made after it had been approved by the
Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's Parliament. U.N.
spokesman Fred Eckhard said Wednesday that UNAMSIL had no
helicopter gunships, but told reporters in New York that some
were being ordered from Russia and could be in Sierra Leone by
the end of the month.
Information Minister Dr. Julius Spencer called on Britain Wednesday to end the
"major
discrimination" against African countries when it comes to
peacekeeping. "If the British government and British military
provide significant support with men and materials to the U.N. force,
the whole situation will change very quickly," Spencer told the
BBC. But Britain this week ruled out supplying soldiers for a
U.N.-proposed rapid response force, and British paratroopers who
reached Freetown on Monday have so far limited their role to the
evacuation of British and other foreign nationals and securing
Lungi International Airport. "The Sierra Leone public expect much
more than what the British seem to be giving," Spencer said. "It
is disturbing for us because it seems like there is indeed some
major discrimination in the way world peace is being kept when it
comes to African countries. The British government has been very
helpful to Sierra Leone, but we are in a crisis situation now
and we believe that the British can play a very leading role
and...redeem the image of the United Nations."
The United Nations Security Council consulted on Sierra Leone
behind closed doors on Wednesday. Council members were briefed on
the latest developments in the country by Assistant Secretary-General
for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi. The secretary-general's
report on Sierra Leone, which had been expected earlier this
week, has been overtaken by events and is being rewritten and is
expected to go to the Council shortly.
West African leaders meeting for an ECOWAS mini-summit on the crisis in Sierra
Leone
on Tuesday pressed for UNAMSIL's mandate to be changed from a
peacekeeping force to a peace-enforcing force. On Wednesday, ECOWAS
Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate said the U.N. peacekeeping force
was made up of "very professional and talented soldiers," but
that they were hampered by their peacekeeping mandate. "If they
had the rule of engagement and the peace-enforcement mandate,
probably what happened couldn’t happen," Kouyate told the BBC. He
said ECOWAS had proposed the U.N. Security Council change
UNAMSIL's mandate and increase its size by incorporating ECOWAS
troops. "But if the Security Council does not change the mandate,
well ECOWAS countries are ready to go by their own provided we
get financial support and logistic support from outside," he
said. Meanwhile, Nigerian Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
said that any ECOWAS force sent to Sierra Leone would have to be
commanded by a Nigerian. "There must be a shared responsibility. If
you want us to commit troops, then the United Nations also must be
prepared to make funds available to keep the troops there," he
said. Abubakar described the UNAMSIL force as "ineffective," and
said that the situation had worsened since it took over
responsibility for security from ECOMOG. "The command ought to
have gone to Nigeria, because Nigeria, having been in Sierra
Leone for quite some time, and quite familiar with the terrain,
would have made a better job of it," he said.
A senior advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has come to the defence of
 the
battered UNAMSIL force, and placed the blame for Sierra Leone's crisis
on the RUF. "We assumed a level of willingness on the part of
those who signed the peace accords. We had not yet completed
deployment when crisis arose," said Shashi Tharoor, Annan's
Executive Assistant. He acknowledged that UNAMSIL's mandate which
limits the circumstances under which it can use force posed a
risk, but said a request for a force with a stronger mandate
would likely have been rejected by the Security Council. "If we
had gone to the Council and said we don't expect full cooperation
and need a robust well-equipped force, the Council would
probably not have approved it. We would then not meet the expectations
of the Sierra Leone people for peace," he said. Tharoor said the
U.N. was committed to Sierra Leone. "We're not going to pull
out," he said.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticised powerful U.N. member
states
Wednesday for not providing better-training soldiers to back the
UNAMSIL force in Sierra Leone. "I had hoped that some of those with
the capacity would go to the assistance of those who are in there
doing the bidding of the Security Council and the U.N.," Annan
said. "The best peacekeeper is a well-trained soldier and we
would have liked to see some of the governments with capacity,
with good armies and well-trained soldiers to participate. But
they are not running forward to contribute to this force so we
have to take the forces we get." The five permanent members of
the U.N. Security Council have all turned down Annan's request to
contribute troops to a rapid reaction force in Sierra Leone.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said France could not send
troops to Sierra Leone because its resources "are not unlimited"
and that it was reserving its troops for duty in southern Lebanon.
Britain and the United States have offered to supply additional
logistical support to the U.N. force, but have declined to
contribute troops.
The human rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday that
the deterioration of the security situation in Sierra Leone
"poses a real and immediate threat to the fundamental human rights of
thousands of civilians" in the country. In a statement issued by
its London secretariat, Amnesty said that the security of
civilians in Sierra Leone must be the major concern of the
international community. "The U.N. has an obligation to ensure
that civilians are protected from the atrocities that they have
experienced throughout years of conflict," the group said,
adding: "We condemn any action which prevents U.N. peace-keeping
troops from fulfilling their mandate to protect civilians." The
statement criticised the Lomé Peace Accord for failing to address
gross human rights abuses, including war crimes and crimes
against humanity, which were committed throughout the conflict.
"The peace agreement signed in Lomé was not underpinned by either
justice or accountability," Amnesty International said. "The
continuing political and human rights crises in Sierra Leone will not be
resolved while the perpetrators of human rights abuses enjoy
impunity." Noting reports that hundreds of Sierra Leonean civilians
attempting to flee into Guinea had been prevented from crossing
the border by RUF troops, Amnesty called on "countries in the
region, especially Guinea" to ensure that refugees are not
prevented from entering their countries. "Civilians must not be
prevented from leaving areas of the country where their lives and
safety are at risk," the Amnesty statement said. The group also
called on the U.N. Security Council, Liberia, Guinea and other
countries in the region to "take all possible measures to prevent
military assistance from reaching rebel forces."
Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office "strongly recommended"
Wednesday that British nationals in Freetown and "other entitled
personnel" — citizens of European Union and Commonwealth nations for
which Britain has consular responsibility in Sierra Leone — to
assemble at the Mammy Yoko Hotel for evacuation from the
country. "The security situation was relatively stable yesterday, but
may deteriorate quickly," the statement said. "Those who are
unable to travel should remain indoors and keep their heads down." In
Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday the evacuations
could take as long as a week. "The evacuation is continuing, it
is likely to take several more days, possibly a week to ensure
that our people in the outlying areas are brought to safety,"
Blair told Parliament.
Approximately 40 civilians casualties were admitted to Connaught
Hospital Tuesday after RUF supporters fired into a crowd of
demonstrators in front of the home of RUF leader Foday Sankoh. According
to Medècins sans Frontiéres (MSF - Doctors Without
Borders), two were dead on their arrival at the hospital, 34
suffered from bullet wounds and four had been injured by crushing. Of
those wounded by bullets, 10 were injured in the back when they
tried to flee. MSF said its surgical team operated on 11 people
who were seriously injured. In addition, the group said, the
hospital mortuary held the bodies of seven civilians. MSF has
suspended its operations in Kenema and Moyamba due to the
security situation, but maintains a surgical team in Freetown to
assist casualties, MSF said in a statement.
 United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson has
condemned recent RUF attacks and deplored the fact that the acts
had brought the humanitarian in Sierra Leone to a halt and was
now creating a new emergency for the most vulnerable people — the
elderly, women and children. In a statement issued on Wednesday,
Robinson said the RUF's acts are not covered by any amnesty, and
said the perpetrators of human rights abuses must be apprehended
and brought to justice.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) expressed alarm
Wednesday that the current crisis in Sierra Leone could result in
the renewed recruitment of child soldiers, and urged all parties to
abide by a ban on the practice. "We're very concerned right now
about the threat to children," said Joanna van Gerpen, the head
of UNICEF's Sierra Leone office. "The very high level of
instability could lead us back into the vicious cycle where
children are used as tools of war." Van Gerpen noted that while
the leaders of the Sierra Leone Army had disavowed the practice
of recruiting child soldiers, RUF leader Foday Sankoh had not
made such a commitment. She said that in Makeni last week, the
RUF had re-enlisted 40 child soldiers and was attempting to
recruit more. It is estimated that some 5,000 children served as
child soldiers during the country's nine years of civil conflict. Since
July, UNICEF said, 1,700 former child soldiers had been
demobilised and nearly half returned to their families or placed
in foster homes.
9 May: West African
leaders meeting for an emergency ECOWAS mini-summit in Abuja,
Nigeria vowed Tuesday to use any means at their disposal,
"including the military option," to prevent a forceful takeover
of power in Sierra Leone. The leaders designated Liberian
President Charles Taylor "to involve himself personally" to
ensure the release of some 500 United Nations hostages held by
the RUF, and to work to bring about a resumption in the
application of the Lomé Peace Accord. The communiqué also warned the RUF
leadership that it ran the risk of revocation of a blanket
amnesty granted by the peace agreement "as well as being tried
for war crimes if they continue to flout the accord." The summit
directed ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate to convene a
meeting of ECOWAS Ministers of Defence and Chiefs of Staff on May
17 to consider, in the event of new involvement by the ECOMOG
force in Sierra Leone "the practical modalities of such
involvement." Attending the summit were the leaders of
Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo and
ministerial representatives from Ghana and Burkina Faso — the
nations which, with the exception of Sierra Leone, comprise the
Joint Implementation Committee on the Lomé Peace Accord. The
United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative to
Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, also attended.
RUF leader Foday Sankoh's whereabouts were still unclear Tuesday, after the Sierra
Leone
government and UNAMSIL both acknowledged they had lost track of
the rebel leader on Monday. Reuters quoted a "senior military
source" early Tuesday as saying Sankoh had been taken to
Cockerill Military Barracks, but later said the report could not be
confirmed. "For security reasons, Chairman Sankoh has been taken to
military headquarters where he is now, in the protection of the
military," Reuters quoted the source as saying. But Deputy Defence
Minister Sam Hinga Norman denied that Sankoh was at Cockerill and
suggested the U.N. must know where he was. Reuters quoted
Lieutenant Ronald Musa of the Sierra Leone Army as saying Sankoh
had been taken away by U.N. peacekeeping troops in an armoured
personal carrier. But UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst said that
the U.N. did "not know under what circumstances he left his
residence." A diplomatic source who spoke to President Kabbah
Tuesday morning told the Sierra Leone Web that Kabbah claimed to be
unaware of Sankoh's whereabouts. Wimhurst told the BBC Tuesday that
Sankoh's disappearance was making it more difficult for the U.N.
to negotiate for the return of some 500 of its personnel detained
by the RUF. "The main channel, the main conduit for negotiating
their release would have been through Mr. Sankoh," Wimhurst said.
"Now Mr. Sankoh has now gone missing. We do not know under which
circumstances and we do not know his whereabouts. It was
erroneously reported in the media that UNAMSIL effected his move
from that house. That’s not true, we had nothing to do with it.
We do want to contact him and we don't know where he is." Sankoh
disappeared sometime Monday, after his followers opened fire on a
crowd of demonstrators outside his Spur Road residence. His house was
ransacked, but there are conflicting reports as to who was
responsible. The BBC said soldiers loyal to AFRC leader Johnny
Paul Koroma entered the residence, while the Agence France-Presse
said Sankoh's home was looted by the crowd of demonstrators.
A contingent of UNAMSIL troops was forced to withdraw from
strategic crossroads town of Masiaka after coming under fire from
unidentified gunmen, UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst said late
Tuesday. He said a contingent of 220 Nigerian and Guinean
peacekeepers were forced to withdraw to Bo, Mile 91 and Hastings
after exhausting their ammunition in an exchange of fire
overnight Sunday, but he said the clash was no "pitched battle." A
U.N. reconnaissance flight over Masiaka on Tuesday found the
town empty, with no sign of RUF rebels. Earlier Tuesday, BBC
correspondent Prince Brima said that the town had fallen to the RUF
in the early hours of Tuesday morning. "RUF forces attacked Masiaka
at 11:00 last night and the town fell to the rebels in the early
hours of this morning," Brima reported for the BBC's Focus on
Africa programme. "UNAMSIL forces had to withdraw after a
four-hour battle because they were running out of ammunition. One
UNAMSIL vehicle was seized and two UNAMSIL personnel were taken
away by the rebels." He said 400 Nigerian UNAMSIL troops had been
unable to retreat to Freetown because the RUF had blocked the
road, so they withdrew to Bo instead. "They are now camped
alongside a Guinean UNAMSIL contingent near Bo Airfield," Brima
said. "Captain Abdulai, of the defeated Nigerian battalion, told
me that his forces did everything possible to contact UNAMSIL
headquarters to supply them with fresh ammunition, but that they
lost all communication with them." A Sierra Leonean Army officer
told reporters at a checkpoint outside Freetown Tuesday that
government troops were still battling with the rebels for control of
Masiaka. "The fighting is still going on and that is why you
see an exodus of people now moving toward Freetown," he said. The
fighting has caused thousands of civilians to flee towards the
capital.
Deputy Defence Minister Sam Hinga Norman said Tuesday that his Kamajor militia
 and
former Sierra Leone Army troops loyal to AFRC leader Johnny Paul
Koroma had taken over responsibility for security. "Our security in
Sierra Leone was in the hands of the United Nations but surprisingly
we have come to the conclusion that the United Nations has not
been able to protect us any longer," said Norman, who is also
coordinator of the pro-government Civil Defence Force, of which
the Kamajor militia is the largest component. He said elements of
these two forces had been sent to Masiaka to halt the RUF
advance. "What we are doing is to push back the RUF combatants to
their respective area," he said.  Doctors
at Connaught Hospital said Tuesday that 19 persons had been
killed overnight and 54 more were wounded, according to the
Associated Press. It was not clear how many had been killed when
RUF fighters opened fire on demonstrators in front of Foday
Sankoh's residence Monday and how many had been killed in
separate incidents. At least some of the dead are believed to be
rebels.
The RUF has reportedly sealed off parts of Sierra Leone's
northern and eastern borders, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) spokesman Kris Janowski said in Geneva on Tuesday.
Janowski said some 265 Sierra Leoneans — including deserting army
soldiers — had crossed from Kambia District into Guinea's Forecariah
Prefecture since Thursday, but that others had been turned back.
"(The new arrivals) reported that...there were many more people
trying to get out, but reportedly the rebel forces blocked the
border and were preventing people from leaving," he said. "Most
of the people who arrived from the western end of Sierra Leone
were males. Some of them arrived in uniforms, lightly armed, and
were disarmed or surrendered their weapons and ammunition to the
Guinean authorities. "They were basically soldiers of the
government forces fleeing that area which means that the rebels
must have established control in that area." The new arrivals at
Pamelap, in Forecariah Prefecture, were transferred to the Kalako
refugee site, the UNHCR said.
The U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet,
arrived
in Freetown late Monday via Guinea and has inspected UNAMSIL
positions in the provinces. "He is visiting U.N. contingents on
the ground to evaluate and assess the situation and to
demonstrate that we are determined to put the peace accord back
on track," said UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst. "He is in the
south and the east, in the field...to evaluate and analyse the
situation so as to make progress." In New York, U.N. spokesman
Fred Eckhard said Miyet had visited Guinean and Ghanaian
peacekeeping troops "to demonstrate the will that we have to keep
the peace process on track."
Freetown was reported calm Tuesday morning, with no sounds of gunfire
were heard in the city overnight. Meanwhile, it appears likely
that the number of persons killed Monday when RUF supporters
fired into a crowd of demonstrators in front of RUF leader Foday
Sankoh's Spur Road residence was much higher than first reported.
"This morning I visited Connaught Hospital where there are still
eleven uncollected bodies, including a young girl with a
jerry-curled hair and a 32-year old first year student in BSC
Agriculture, Sullaiman Bah, from Njala University College," a
source in Freetown told the Sierra Leone Web. He said Bah had
died from wounds "in the belly and neck" caused by fragments from
a rocket-propelled grenade. The source said he witnessed Sankoh's
official vehicle, a land cruiser, "being roughly driven around by
SLAs, apparently commandeered since yesterday." The Washington Post's
Doug Farah reported seven people killed and 15 wounded. "At the
ramshackle morgue, the seven bodies, all men with several gunshot
wounds, were laid out on the concrete patio in the blazing sun,
waiting for relatives to claim them," Farah wrote. The Agence
France-Presse (AFP) put the death toll at 16 with 40
people injured. "Sources at the city's Connaught Hospital had
earlier said seven demonstrators and four soldiers were killed
and 40 people were injured," the AFP said. "An AFP journalist
counted five bodies around Sankoh's house, which was looted by
the crowd. Local residents said the bodies were those of RUF rebels
killed after the clashes."
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo (pictured right) would view favourably a
 United
Nations request to send troops back to Sierra Leone to stabilise
the situation, provided the U.N. pays the bills, presidential aides
were quoted as saying on Tuesday. "We're likely to ask the United
Nations to give us the wherewithal. Let the United Nations give
us what it takes and we will take care of the situation," a
"senior aide" in Abuja told Reuters. U.N. officials have said the
Nigerians would operate outside the U.N. force and would
probably be similar to a rapid reaction force. The Nigerian
contingent would not count towards the 11,100 maximum number of
peacekeepers authorised by the U.N. Security Council, and would
not be subject to UNAMSIL's mandate which restricts U.N. peacekeepers to
using force only to defend themselves or civilians in imminent
danger. Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff, Rear-Admiral Ibrahim
Ogohi, said he expected an emergency ECOWAS mini-summit to
discuss the U.N. request to send two army battalions to a rapid
deployment force in Sierra Leone to contain the situation. "The
request has to be discussed at the very top," Ogohi told Reuters.
"Furthermore, any decision to deploy Nigerian troops will have
to be approved by the Nigerian Senate. We are now in a
democracy."
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot said Tuesday that
the current crisis in Sierra Leone underscored the inability of
poorly-equipped United Nations troops to keep the peace in conflict
zones. "The current tragedy in Sierra Leone reminds us that the
U.N., all by itself, is inadequate: It's over-burdened,
over-extended, under-supported and under-equipped," he said.
Referring to the emergency ECOWAS mini-summit due to convene in
Nigeria on Tuesday, Talbot said West African leaders faced an
urgent challenge: "to salvage the (Lomé Peace Accord) by getting
(RUF leader) Foday Sankoh to release the U.N. personnel and
disarm his forces," Talbott said. More than 300 U.N. personnel
are known held by RUF forces in northern and eastern Sierra Leone, while
another 226 Zambian peacekeepers disappeared in the Makeni area
on Saturday.
A large number of members of parliament have taken refuge at
Cockerill Military Headquarters, a diplomatic source in Freetown told
the Sierra Leone Web on Tuesday.
Britain has airlifted about 320 persons to Senegal, a British
Ministry of Defence spokeswoman saidn in London on Tuesday. Those
evacuated were said to be either British nationals or citizens
of European Union and Commonwealth countries for which Britain
has consular responsibility in Sierra Leone. British paratroopers
secured the area around the Mammy Yoko Hotel in Freetown late
Monday where the Britons had been told to gather. "It's all gone very
smoothly so far," the spokesman said. The foreign office said 550
British citizens had registered with the British High Commission.
250 persons from EU countries and 50 from the Commonwealth would
also be included in the evacuation.
France said Tuesday it is prepared to assist with the evacuation
of foreigners from Sierra Leone. "An air-mobile detachment has
been put on alert in Dakar for possible operations of extraction and
evacuation of foreigners," said French Foreign Ministry assistant
spokesman Francois Rivasseau. France currently has about 1,200
troops in Senegal. Rivasseau said a French military base in
Senegal was capable of receiving as many as 500 people.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Tuesday that British
paratroopers had secured Lungi International Airport to provide a
bridgehead for United Nations
 reinforcements,
but said they were "not going to become combat troops as part of
the U.N. force." But Cook said that the mere presence of British
troops could make "a real contribution" to the U.N.'s efforts.
"The mere presence of British forces at the airport may help to
deter the rebels from advancing on Freetown, but we have no
intention of them becoming combat troops in the U.N. force," he
said. Cook told the BBC he would confer with U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on how Britain could provide
additional logistic support to UNAMSIL. "If by remaining there
and securing the airport for a period of time we can help the
U.N. to build up, then that is a situation we will weigh," he
said. "I would not expect that, though, to take long. I would hope
that when the U.N. reaches full force, there would not be a need for
the presence of others." Britain's position on the extent to
which its troops might take military action has been ambiguous.
Five British warships, including an aircraft carrier, a frigate
and an amphibious helicopter carrier, are currently on their way
to Sierra Leone. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, when asked late
Monday whether he could guarantee British troops would not be
involved in military action in Sierra Leone responded, "I'm not
saying that, no."
The U.S. Navy has stationed commandos aboard a patrol boat off the coast of
 West
Africa as a "precautionary measure" due to the worsening
situation in Sierra Leone. Kenneth Bacon, a spokesman for Defence
Secretary William Cohen, said the patrol boat USS Thunderbolt was not
directly off the coast of Sierra Leone but was "in the area and
will remain there." The Thunderbolt is one of 13 170-foot long
Cyclone-class patrol boats assigned to Naval Special Warfare,
primarily for coastal patrol and interdiction surveillance. The
Thunderbolt was commissioned in 1995 and has a top speed of 35
knots. The boat normally carries a dozen Navy SEAL commandos,
Bacon said. "(The Thunderbolt is) prepared to provide any support
or help that she's called upon to provide," he said. "Right now
she's just there as a precautionary measure."
UNAMSIL has evacuated nine wounded U.N. peacekeepers by
helicopter from Makeni, a spokesman for the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday. The ICRC said, however,
that it did not have the necessary security guarantees because
the group was not in contact with the RUF who were holding the
U.N. personnel hostage. The U.N. received authorisation from the
RUF to evacuate the nine soldiers, an ICRC spokesman said in
Geneva. In Freetown, UNAMSIL spokesman David Winslow spoke of the
plight of the abducted U.N. peacekeepers. "The situation is such
that now personnel that have been detained have lost their weapons
and have had their clothes removed," Winslow told the BBC.
Meanwhile, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the number of U.N.
personnel held by the the RUF is still believed to be around 500. He
said five people, two Kenyans and three Nigerians, were missing,
with one Kenyan and one Nigerian presumed dead. Twelve more
peacekeepers had been wounded. Eckhard said the U.N.'s Human
Rights Unit was attempting to gather reports of atrocities
against civilians. So far there had been no case of civilians
arriving in Freetown who had suffered mutilations or amputations,
he said.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that
bringing the UNAMSIL force up to its full authorised strength of
11,100 troops would help to calm the situation in Sierra Leone. "(It
is important) to consolidate the force, bring the force up to
strength as quickly as possible and continue our efforts to tame
Sierra Leone," Annan said in New York. Annan's spokesman, Fred
Eckhard, said the deployment of the remaining battalions would be
expedited by the United States' offer to airlift a battalion of
Bangladeshi peacekeepers to Sierra Leone. "We can confirm that
the United States has offered to provide logistical support to
the Bangladesh battalion, which has said that its troops are
being readied for deployment," Eckhard said. "We are still
looking for strategic lift for the other two battalions. The
Russians have indicated a possible interest in helping us out." The
Jordanian and Indian battalions are also prepared to deploy sooner
than originally planned, he said. The spokesman said it would
take about a week to fly a single battalion into Lungi
International Airport because each battalion, together with its
equipment, would require nine flights. Eckhard said Annan had
consulted with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security
Council — the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China —
over his request for a rapid reaction force for Sierra Leone, but
they had all turned him down. Regarding a proposal for Nigeria to send
additional troops to Sierra Leone outside the framework of
UNAMSIL, Eckhard said it was questionable whether these could be
deployed more quickly than peacekeepers already in the pipeline.
President Kabbah on Monday night deplored the killings of
"innocent and unarmed civilians by RUF rebels stationed at (RUF
leader) Corporal Sankoh’s residence," and
called
for the rule of law. "I appeal particularly to those engaged in
acts of vandalism, looting or commandeering of vehicles, to
desist from these acts," Kabbah said. "The law enforcement agents
have been instructed to deal swiftly with any violators of our
laws. In this regard, I therefore order all men and women
officially bearing arms to report immediately to their official
designated locations, and to strictly obey the instructions of their
commanders." In his address to the nation, Kabbah acknowledged his
government did not know where Sankoh had gone following Monday's
disturbances in front of his home. "As I speak to you, the exact
whereabouts of Cpl. Foday Sankoh have not yet been determined," he
said. "A thorough investigation is however, now being undertaken
to determine where he is." The president said his government was
working UNAMSIL "to ensure that the security situation continues
to improve...and will do all that is necessary to ensure your
safety and security."
U.S. Senator Jude Gregg, the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on
Commerce,
Justice, State and the Judiciary, said Tuesday he would continue
to block U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping efforts in
Sierra Leone unless what he called a "truly appalling settlement"
— the Lomé Peace Accord — is abandoned. Under the current
funding formula, the U.S. is responsible for one third of U.N.
peacekeeping costs. In a Washington Post editorial, Gregg accused
diplomats of applying pressure to give the RUF at the
negotiating table what it could not win on the battlefield. "It
was surrender at its most abject," he said. "U.S. envoys point to
the support of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and 'the people' for Lomé,
but what choice did they have? The West abandoned them to their
fate. Supporters have argued that Lomé is the last chance for
peace, that amnesty is the price of that peace, that it is naive
to think that an accounting for savagery is possible." Gregg
called on the United States to lead a multinational effort to
bring peace to Sierra Leone, to include efforts to undermine the
rule of Liberian President Charles Taylor who has been accused of
providing support for the RUF, to reconstitute the Sierra Leone
Army with funding to train, equip and pay it, to convene an
international war crimes tribunal "to investigate and punish
atrocities committed by the RUF," and to ensure that anyone
implicated in war crimes be excluded from the election process. "As
long as the Lomé Accord is the basis for peace in Sierra Leone, I
will maintain my hold on U.S. peacekeeping funds and continue to
pursue options other than complete capitulation to those who
would shoot, rape and hack their way into power," Gregg wrote.
China expressed concern Tuesday at the current situation in
Sierra Leone, and condemned violence against United Nations personnel.
"China is seriously concerned about the recent incidents of
violence in Sierra Leone and condemns the Revolutionary United
Front for attacking the United Nations Mission troops as well as
for continuing to hold hostage large numbers of U.N. staff and
personnel of other international organizations," Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a press conference. She called
on the RUF to release all hostages immediately and to abide by
the terms of the Lomé Peace Accord.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will make an official visit
to Canada later this week, a Canadian government official said on
Tuesday. "I think you can take it as read that Sierra Leone and
Zimbabwe will be on the agenda" when Obasanjo meets with Canadian
Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Friday, the official said.
Japan expressed concern Tuesday about the RUF killing and
abduction of United Nations peacekeepers, and demanded that the rebels
cease their attacks and release all U.N. personnel. "We are deeply
concerned about the acts of the rebel Revolutionary United Front
as violating the (Lomé Peace Accord) and backing off from the
nation's peace process that had been progressing under the
initiative of the United Nations and neighboring nations,"
Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ryuichiro Yamazaki told
reporters. "We urge the rebel force to halt the hostile acts
against the U.N. peacekeeping operations, immediately release the
U.N. personnel, and abide by the peace agreement." Yamazaki
expressed "strong hope for resuming the peace process through
cooperation of all parties concerned" in Sierra Leone. There are
currently no Japanese nationals in Sierra Leone, the foreign ministry
said.
The German foreign ministry is urging German nationals to leave
Sierra Leone. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Sparwasser said
Germans in the country, believed to number between five and ten, should
turn to the British military for evacuation. Germany closed its
embassy in Sierra Leone in March for financial reasons.
8 May: RUF leader Foday
Sankoh's Spur Road residence has been overrun and
"comprehensively looted" by Sierra Leone Army soldiers loyal to
AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma, BBC correspondent Barnaby Philips
reported late Monday. UNAMSIL spokesman David Wimhurst
acknowledged that the U.N. had lost track of the rebel leader
following the shooting earlier in the day of anti-Sankoh
demonstrators by RUF supporters in front of his house. "He and his
men are not there, but there’s a lot of speculation as to where he is,
but no hard facts," Philips said. "We'd like to know where he
is," Wimhurst said. In an address to the nation late Monday,
President Kabbah said "the exact whereabouts of Corporal Foday
Sankoh have not yet been determined." Meanwhile, BBC West Africa
Correspondent Mark Doyle said it had become clear the rebels
"have a military presence" in Freetown. "There’s been shooting in
the hills throughout the night, and local people say there are
rebels in the hills," Doyle said. "The United Nations forces have
gathered to try and calm things down, but it’s still very
tense."
At least 5 persons were killed and another 30 wounded — several
of them critically — Monday when RUF fighters fired automatic
weapons and at least one rocket-propelled grenade into a crowd of
demonstrators outside the residence of RUF
 leader
Foday Sankoh. Reuters estimated the crowd to number about 5,000
people, while BBC correspondents Lansana Fofana and Barnaby
Philips spoke of "tens of thousands" of demonstrators. An
eyewitness "in the heart of" the demonstration told the Sierra
Leone Web that Nigerian UNAMSIL troops in three armoured tanks
fired into the air to disperse the crowd, who were hurling stones
and bricks at Sankoh's home. "In return the RUF opened fire on
the crowd," he said. "Two small boys were caught on the camera
fighting each other. One wanted the launcher to fix the grenade
he had, but the other was resisting until he was overpowered and
then he launched. Sporadic firing opened and we all had to dash
on the ground." The shooting reportedly lasted for two or three
minutes, but there were some reports later of sporadic firing. The
demonstrators, which according to Reuters included members of the AFRC
and the Kamajor militia, were taking part in a rally organised
by civil society groups and parliamentarians to call for peace
and condemn the RUF's detention of U.N. peacekeepers. The crowd
surged toward Sankoh's residence, where they overwhelmed the
dozens of UNAMSIL troops standing guard. Peacekeepers with tanks
finally restored order. Sankoh accused the demonstrators of
provocations. "They are provoking (the) situation, provoking us,
and it’s unacceptable," Sankoh told the BBC. "This is not the
practice of democracy, where you can attack the premises of a man
you call a peace maker." But Mohamed Kallon, one of the
parliamentarians who organised the demonstration, put the blame on the
RUF. "We had no protection. It was a peaceful demonstration. It
was provoked by the rebels," he said. The crowd attending the
main stretched "from the famous Cotton Tree to Congo Cross," the
eyewitness said.
Sierra Leonean government soldiers have been firing their weapons
in Freetown "just to make sure that they are very much in
control of the security situation," BBC correspondent Lansana Fofana
said Monday following the demonstrations in the capital. "Even from
where I’m speaking to you at the military hospital I can hear
loud gunfire, heavy weapons, all around the city," he said. "It’s
a really very tense situation." Fofana was among those injured
in the resulting stampede after RUF fighters fired into a crowd
of demonstrators outside RUF leader Foday Sankoh's residence. "I
joined the crowd to escape the firing and then we all gathered in
a very deep gutter hoping that nothing will happen from there,"
he said of his ordeal. "And then the stampede started, people
started trampling on one another. I was unlucky because I was
under hundreds of people. They were trampling upon my legs. I
could not even stand up. I could not help myself anyhow." Fofana
was given first aid by Red Cross workers and taken by ambulance
to Wilberforce Military Hospital. But the BBC correspondent was
critical of UNAMSIL soldiers at the demonstration. "Whilst I was
writhing in pain the young boy who was with me went to the UNAMSIL
people and said ‘the BBC reporter is right there, he’s dying.’
And they said they are not going to touch any civilians, they are
not interested. They left me there with other people dying in
the sun and then the rebels were firing sporadically all around.
They were of no help at all right there."
A joint U.N./RUF mission will leave Freetown on Monday to areas where U.N.
personnel
are believed held, to try and negotiate their release, according
to Oluyemi Adeniji (pictured right), the U.N.
Secretary-General's Special Representative in Sierra Leone. "If they
are there, we will ask for the prisoners to be released," Adeniji
said. Meanwhile, Libyan Minister for African Unity Ali al-Turayki,
who brokered Saturday's talks between UNAMSIL and the RUF which
led to an agreement on the mission, told reporters on Monday he
was confident of a breakthrough. "The news we are expecting is
the release of the U.N. peacekeepers and we hope that it will
come in the next hours," he said. al-Turayki said UNAMSIL Deputy
Commander Brigadier-General Mohammed Garba would travel east by
helicopter to try to locate the U.N. hostages and secure their
release. "He (Sankoh) gave the green light," al-Tureiki said,
adding that Sankoh had promised to send an RUF team on the
mission. "I do not know if they go together or separately," he
said.
The United Nations Security Council was briefed again Monday on
the crisis in Sierra Leone. The Spokesman for the U.N.
Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard, said the Council had not discussed
withdrawing U.N. peacekeeping troops from Sierra Leone, but instead
focused on how to reinforce the UNAMSIL force. But said if the
security situation in Sierra Leone deteriorated further, he said,
"Withdrawal is an option, clearly." Eckhard said the U.N. was
moving 266 civilian staff out of Freetown, leaving 55 in place.
He said many previous evacuees had gone to Guinea, but the hotels
there appeared full. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
called on the RUF and its leader, Foday Sankoh, to "cease
immediately any hostile action." Eckhard said Annan was
"extremely concerned" about the rapidly deteriorating security
situation in Sierra Leone, and called on all parties to do their
utmost to defuse the tension. He said Annan had appealed to
regional leaders to redouble their efforts to bring the situation
under control and restore normalcy. Eckhard said the
secretary-general had also called on neighbouring governments to
prevent the reported movement of RUF rebels from their
territories to Sierra Leone. "In the circumstances, the
secretary-general continues to stress that, in addition to U.N.
efforts, a rapid reaction force may be needed in Sierra Leone as soon as
possible to assist in restoring conditions conducive to the
resumption of the peace process," Eckhard said.
RUF rebels shot down a U.N. helicopter at Makeni on Sunday,
UNAMSIL's military spokesman was quoted as saying. The rebels shot
at two helicopters, forcing one to make a crash landing. The other
helicopter landed to pick up those aboard and took off again. The
two choppers were carrying food for U.N. peacekeeping troops
surrounded by rebels in Makeni and Magburaka. UNAMSIL was able to
deliver food to Magburaka, where it also picked up three wounded
Kenyan peacekeepers, the spokesman said. No one was injured in
the incident. Meanwhile the U.N. has asked the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to evacuate nine U.N. troops
who were wounded at Makeni, ICRC spokesman Juan Martinez said in
Geneva on Monday. The ICRC, which evacuated over half of its expatriate
personnel from Sierra Leone over the weekend, will seek security
guarantees from the RUF, but does not currently have contact with
the rebel group. The ICRC currently has ten expatriate staff
members in Sierra Leone — six in Freetown and four in Kenema.
Thirteen more were moved to Conakry. "It's a temporary reduction
of our activities while we see how events develop," Martinez
said.
The United States said Monday it will airlift a battalion of
Bangladeshi peacekeepers to Sierra Leone in the coming days in an
effort to help bring the UNAMSIL force up to its authorised strength of
11,100 troops. U.S. officials said last week they were
considering providing similar transportation for Jordanian and
Indian troops. The official said the U.S. had also sent a "fact
finding" team to Nigeria to assess what role the the U.S.
military might provide if Nigeria or other countries decide to
send additional troops to Sierra Leone. Diplomats said that
Nigeria, which pulled its remaining ECOMOG troops out of Sierra
Leone last week, was considering sending two additional
battalions to Sierra Leone. The battalions would operate separately from
the U.N. peacekeeping force. "The idea from the Nigerian side is
to get people in there fast and the United States may be
considering the mechanics of doing so,'' one diplomat said.
President Clinton said the U.S. would do whatever it could to
help UNAMSIL carry out its mandate. "It's very important. I spent
a lot of time on it the last four or five days and we're working
on it," he said.
Former AFRC soldiers loyal to Johnny Paul Koroma have arrested up
to 25 RUF officials in Freetown, alleging them of planning a
coup set for Monday. Among those arrested was RUFP Trade and Industry
Minister Mike Lamin "(The AFRC soldiers) have been raiding houses
where RUF people are staying," BBC correspondent Lansana Fofana
said on Monday. "I understand that they arrested a number of RUF
personnel at Lumley last night, and they are currently being
detained." An official statement read over state radio said the
government had "ordered the immediate release of Lamin and a few
others," while others were still being held pending an
investigation. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that an
RUFP deputy minister was also among those arrested and
subsequently freed. The statement warned the public "to desist
from taking the law into their own hands" — an apparent reference,
the AFP said, to an incident where AFRC soldiers vandalised the hotel
room occupied by RUFP Deputy Minister for Labour Idrissa Kamara.
"The arrest of RUFP top brass will not help the situation but
will escalate more problems to the peace process," RUFP spokesman
Eldred Collins told Reuters. Fofana quoted Collins as saying
late Sunday the RUF had protested the arrests to the government.
Collins said the RUF was demanding Lamin's release and the return
of a vehicle belonging to RUF commander Dennis "Superman" Mingo,
which he said was commandeered by a group of AFRC soldiers. In a
BBC Network Africa interview on Monday, Koroma confirmed that
his men had made "a few arrests," but claimed they were made with
the support of President Kabbah. "These people had planned a
coup for today. And there are some of my men that can testify
(to) that, because they asked them to take part," he said. "So
instead of us sitting down, we decided to foil that by making
those arrests...We did that with the consent of the president.
And I cannot sit by and see this place to be torn apart." Koroma
said no further arrests were being made. "We just got the key
players," he said, adding that those detained were "soldiers who
defected to the RUF." Koroma said Kabbah had only been told
afterwards of the arrests. "We informed him about it, and to get his
blessing," he said. "He told us to contact Defence Headquarters
so that they can take appropriate action." The AFRC leader said Lamin
was being held by the military police. "If (President Kabbah)
thinks the situation is not what we explained to him, is not
correct, then he can go ahead and release him," Koroma said.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told Parliament Monday that responsibility for
the
current violence in Sierra Leone "lies squarely with the RUF
rebels and their leader Foday Sankoh." Cook said the progress
toward peace which Sierra Leone had achieved since the signing
last July of the Lomé Peace Accord had been put at risk "by the
RUF reneging on the commitments that they made." Cook said the
British government was moving military assets to Sierra Leone to
be in a position to evacuate British nationals and nations of EU
countries without diplomatic representation in Sierra Leone for
which Britain has consular responsibility. "The forward elements of
the current Spearhead Battalion, the First Parachute Regiment,
arrived in Dakar, Senegal over the weekend, He said. "They are
currently moving from Dakar to Freetown. In addition, HMS Ocean
and support vessels with Four Two Commando and a number of
helicopters are moving towards the region and will be at Sierra
Leone early next week." Cook said the British forces would ensure
security at Lungi International Airport. "This is not only of
immediate utility for the evacuation, but is also valuable in allowing
the U.N. forces to continue to build up," he said. Cook welcomed
an offer by the United States to consider a strategic airlift of
Bangladeshi and Jordanian units to bring UNAMSIL up to its
authorised strength of 11,100. He said Britain had offered to
provide further logistical support, such as vehicles, for the
U.N. force. "One of the triggers for the current conflict appears
to have been the attempt by the U.N. forces to enter the
diamond-producing region which is held by the RUF and provides them with
weapons and friends," the foreign secretary told
parliamentarians. "This development underlines the importance of
the international debate....for more transparent regulation of
the trade in uncut diamonds. We should not allow diamonds to be
sold for the price of weapons or at the cost of lives." Cook
vowed Britain would not abandon its commitment to Sierra Leone.
"We will continue to take the lead at the U.N. and elsewhere to
restore the peace process," he said. "We must not allow a few
thousand rebels to prevent the end to violence and the peace in
which to get on with their lives, for which the three million people of
Sierra Leone desperately hunger."
British paratroopers have begun evacuating British and other
European nationals from Sierra Leone. The estimated 500 British
nationals in Freetown have been
 advised
to gather at the Mamy Yoko Hotel. Earlier, an advance force of 250
British paratroopers arrived in Sierra Leone from Senegal Monday
aboard a Hercules transport plane. Lieutenant-Commander Tony
Cramp said the soldiers, part of Britain's 1st Battalion of the
Parachute Regiment, would be stationed at Lungi International Airport,
and that their mission was to evacuate British nationals from
Freetown if the situation there deteriorated further. "At the  moment,
we're not evacuating," he said. 200 additional paratroopers were
also expected to fly to Sierra Leone directly from Britain
Monday aboard a Tristar aircraft. "The forces are going straight
to Sierra Leone. The aircraft can carry around 200 to 220 people
and is fully loaded," a Ministry of Defence source was quoted as
saying. All 700 troops were expected to be in place by Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Britain said Monday it has diverted an aircraft
carrier to Sierra Leone, the HMS Illustrious (pictured left). The
Illustrious will join up with the frigate HMS Chatham, the
amphibious helicopter carrier HMS Ocean and three support ships
already underway from the Mediterranean in a massive show of force.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard
Miyet,
is expected to arrive in Freetown on Tuesday. U.N. spokesman
Fred Eckhard said in New York that Miyet's visit was designed to
"boost the morale of troops in the wake of the devastating events
of the last few days and to help the political process under way
to try to resolve the matter of the hostages peacefully." The
U.N. Security Council briefed on Sierra Leone during an emergency
closed-door session on Sunday, but issued no statement.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Staff Council issued a statement Monday
expressing "sadness and shock" over four U.S. peacekeepers
missing and presumed dead in Sierra Leone. "These vicious and
senseless killings underscore the difficult conditions under which all
United Nations personnel serve. Again, as too often has happened,
United Nations personnel have paid the ultimate price in the
service of the noble ideas of the United Nations," the statement
said. "These deplorable actions reinforce the need for effective
protection for all United Nations personnel worldwide. We call on
the international community to bring the killers to justice."
RUF Colonel Laurence Wormandia, who accompanied Deputy UNAMSIL
Commander Brigadier-General Mohammed Garba to meet with RUF
commanders in Lunsar on Sunday, said the RUF troops had begun advancing
on the capital when they heard a rumour that their leader, Foday
Sankoh, had been placed under house arrest. "They wanted to come
as far as" Freetown, Wormandia said. He added that Sankoh had
radioed his commanders and ordered them to stop the advance.
Garba said the rebels "melted away" into the bush after the rebel
leader ordered the offensive halted. Sankoh's house in is
guarded by UNAMSIL troops, but he has not been placed under house
arrest. "I want to assure the general public that there is no
cause for alarm," said Garba, who called Sunday's trip a
"confidence-building mission." A Sierra Leonean helicopter
gunship attacked advancing RUF troops Saturday at Rogberi
Junction. RUF commanders say they lost 30 men in the attack. According
to the Associated Press, "Rogberi had been all but destroyed by
fire when reporters visited the site on Sunday."
Nigeria will host an emergency ECOWAS mini-summit in Abuja on
Tuesday to discuss ways and means to implement the Lomé Peace Accord
following recent violations of the agreement by the RUF, according
to a press release issued by the ECOWAS Secretariat in Abuja on
Monday. The meeting was called by President Alpha Oumar Konare of
Mali, the current chairman of ECOWAS. The heads of state of
Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Togo,
Sierra Leone and Nigeria — all of them with the exception of
Sierra Leone members of the Joint Implementation Committee on the
Lomé Peace Accord — are expected to attend the summit.
Information Minister Dr. Julius Spencer said Monday that if
United Nations peacekeeping troops were unable to handle security
in Sierra Leone that the
government
would use its own troops to take over the situation. "I don’t
think it has come to that yet," he told the BBC. "UNAMSIL is
still on the ground. They have to tell us if they are incapable
handling the situation, then the government will have to take
over." Spencer complained that he was finding it difficult to get
information from the U.N. "I have not even been able to get any word
from UNAMSIL as of now," he said. "I went to UNAMSIL
headquarters and they were holding a meeting. I had not even been given a
briefing by UNAMSIL for them to tell me what happened, because
they had troops deployed in the area." The information minister
stressed that "all-scale war" would not solve Sierra Leone's
problems. He noted that President Kabbah was meeting with Mano
River Union heads of state in Conakry, and that the Joint
Implementation Committee for the Lomé Peace Accord was expected
to meet in Freetown later in the week. "A diplomatic way has to
be found to resolve the situation, and that is what we are
working on," Spencer said. "We believe (a diplomatic solution) is
possible. From the indications were are getting it’s beginning
to look doubtful, but we don’t think we have reached the stage
where we completely abandon the diplomatic option."
Pro-government Kamajor militiamen have taken hundreds of hostages
in southern Sierra Leone, BBC Bo Correspondent Prince Brima said
on Monday. "The Kamajors raided the premises of the RUF here in
Bo," Brima told the BBC Network Africa programme. "Hundreds of
the rebels were apprehended and are currently being detained on the
premises of the Kamajors. The RUF commander fled during the melee and
has now taken refuge at the police station here in Bo." He said
the Kamajors had also detained RUF members in Pujehun and
Moyamba. The Kamajors were quoted as saying the actions were
taken as retribution for what they claim was an RUF attempt to
capture the town of Yele over the weekend, and to hold the rebels
in protective custody "as feelings are running high in town
against them." Brima quoted Kamajor National Public Relations
Officer Charles Moiwo as saying the RUF fighters would only be
released when United Nations peacekeepers held by RUF are freed.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said
Monday that 750 Sierra Leoneans had arrived at the town of Forecariah
in Guinea. The new arrivals told the UNHCR that many more people
want to flee Sierra Leone, but are being stopped by RUF rebels on
the Sierra Leonean side of the border. The agency said people
are also reportedly on the move in the Masiaka area.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday it had been forced to suspend
food
distributions in Sierra Leone in view of the worsening security
situation in the country. In a statement released in Abidjan, the WFP
said it has halted food distribution and deliveries to some
43,000 internally displaced persons, orphans and hospital
patients in Freetown. The agency has also postponed food
distributions to farmers in Bombali, Tonkolili and Kailahun
Districts. The food was destined to feed 110,000 people during
the approaching "hungry season." "We had to curtail some of our
most vital operations in those areas due to the high insecurity risk
our staff are facing there," said Paul Ares, WFP Regional Manager
for West Africa Coastal Countries. "As a precaution, we have also
redeployed most of our staff to Conakry, in neighbouring
Guinea."
Sierra Leone's national cricket team defeated Ghana in Gambia
over the weekend to become the sport's West African champions.
According to Reuters, the Sierra Leone team bowled out Ghana for just 63
and scored the 64 required to win in just 14 overs. The West
African Cricket Quadrangular normally involves teams from four
former British colonies. Nigeria had to pull out this year
because of financial problems.
7 May: A joint
RUF/UNAMSIL mission to visit "areas where there have been
security problems" will proceed Sunday despite reports of a new
RUF offensive, UNAMSIL Public Information Officer Philip Winslow
said on Sunday. More than 300 and as many as 500 U.N.
peacekeeping troops are believed held by RUF rebel forces in northern
and eastern Sierra Leone. Winslow said the primary purpose of the
mission would be to secure the release of the hostages. The
agreement to set up the mission was brokered Saturday by Libyan
Minister for African Unity Ali Al-Turayki in talks which included
RUF leader Foday Sankoh and the U.N. Secretary-General's Special
Representative to Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji. "The Libyan
envoy, a joint (RUF/U.N.) mission and various other diplomats...are
going up country to the north, to Masiaka and the other places,"
Winslow said early Sunday. An RUF spokesman confirmed Sunday that
Sankoh himself would accompany the mission.
RUF fighters have reportedly advanced to the area between Masiaka
and Rogberi Junction, UNAMSIL Public Information Officer Philip
Winslow told reporters early Sunday. "It is still believed that there
are RUF rebels between Rogberi and Masiaka. We had spotted a column
of them with an unspecified number of vehicles, so we know they
are there," he said. "But there is no immediate threat to
Freetown." He described the situation on Sunday morning as
"pretty static." Reuters quoted an unnamed UNAMSIL source who
said UNAMSIL had used a helicopter gunship to halt the rebel advance.
"We pounded them, we pounded them well," he said. There has been
no independent confirmation of the report. Information Minister Dr.
Julius Spencer confirmed there had been a battle between the RUF
and UNAMSIL, but had no further details. A senior government
spokesman told the BBC that although the rebels had tried to
advance, they were stopped a long way from the capital.
RUF commander General Issa Sesay said Sunday his troops had
halted their advance toward Freetown and had withdrawn to Makeni.
Sesay met with UNAMSIL's Deputy Commander, General Mohammed Garba, in
Lunsar. "Last night, the chairman (RUF leader Foday Sankoh)
ordered me I should make sure I withdraw all my troops from
Rogberi and Lunsar, and I did so," he said. Sesay insisted he was
not holding any U.N. personnel. He said the U.N. peacekeepers
had fled into the bush, and he was asking his men to search for
them. BBC West Africa correspondent Mark Doyle, who was one of
the journalists to witness the meeting between Sesay and Garba,
said that as the U.N. helicopter arrived it appeared that Lunsar
had been deserted. "But then when the helicopter landed, and when
it was clear that it was a non-combatant U.N. helicopter carrying
civilians, thousands of people came out of their houses to greet us,"
Doyle said. "And the explanation for that sequence of events
appears to be that a Sierra Leone government helicopter has been
in action against the rebels in the past couple of days. The
Sierra Leone government attack helicopter seems to have been one
of the key elements in stopping the RUF advance from their
stronghold in the north towards Freetown." In Freetown, Sankoh
again insisted the RUF had no plans to invade Freetown. "I will
never attempt to derail the Lomé Peace Accord," Sankoh said. He
accused "certain people in government" of wanting to create panic
among the populace.
President Kabbah told the nation Sunday that his government had an "effective
contingency
plan" in place which would be activated "in the unlikely
event" UNAMSIL failed to provide adequate security in the face of
"aggressive action" by the RUF. But Kabbah insisted the U.N.
peacekeeping force was still capable of defending the people of Sierra
Leone. "We have all been extremely disappointed at the way some
UNAMSIL troops have capitulated to RUF forces, but we have not yet
reached the stage where we believe the U.N. is incapable of
fulfilling its mandate," he said. "I have been assured by the
Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General that UNAMSIL
is prepared to fully discharge its mandate, including the
defence and protection of Freetown." The president warned those
"intent on raining death and destruction on the citizens of this
country" to desist immediately. "Failure to do so will result in
dire consequences for the perpetrators," he said. "Be assured
that I am determined to ensure that the nightmares in our history
are not repeated."
The United Nations Security Council was called into emergency
session Sunday to discuss the crisis in Sierra Leone, and to be
briefed on the collapse of peace talks between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Britain announced Sunday night it has despatched its a parachute battalion, as
well
as the frigate HMS Chatham, the amphibious helicopter carrier
HMS Ocean, and three support ships, to West Africa to protect
British nationals in Sierra Leone. Britain's Ministry of Defense
stressed that the deployments were "precautionary measures to
ensure that we are best placed to respond quickly to safeguard
the security of British nationals, if that becomes necessary."
They will initially be based in Senegal, where they will be on
standby to assist with the evacuation of British nationals from
Sierra Leone in case of a further deterioration in the security
situation in that country. The so-called "Spearhead Battalion" —
Britain's rapid reaction force — consists of about 700-800 men,
including support staff. There are normally believed to be about 500
British citizens in Sierra Leone, although some may already have
left the country.
Britain and the United States have advised their nationals to leave Sierra Leone
 because
of the deteriorating security situation in the country, the BBC
reported on Saturday. Both countries have ordered the evacuation
of non-essential staff from their embassies in Freetown. "We have
decided that we will reduce our diplomatic staff in Sierra Leone
and we are advising British nationals with no essential reasons for
remaining to leave," said British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. The
U.S. statement warned that Lungi International Airport could
close without warning. The BBC said there are currently about 170
U.S. citizens in Sierra Leone, many working with international
aid groups, and 10 embassy staff.
In a statement made over state radio on Sunday, former AFRC junta
leader Lieutenant-Colonel (Rtd.) Johnny Paul Koroma called
Sierra Leone Army soldiers to
 prepare
to defend Freetown against a possible RUF attack. An Agency
France-Presse (AFP correspondent estimated that over 300 unarmed
soldiers had responded by late morning to Koroma's call for them
to assemble in front of his office at the Miyatta Building. A
witness in Freetown told the Sierra Leone Web that about 5,000
people had gathered by late morning and that more were arriving.
In an interview with the BBC, Koroma said he had addressed a
crowed of over 30,000 people. "We are taking a stand ready to defend
the people. We don’t want to resort to violence, because that cannot
solve the problem," Koroma said. "We just have to find ways and
means to defend the people and ourselves. And we will use the
SLA’s (Sierra Leone Army), the civil society, the CDF
(Civil Defence Force), the SSD (Special Security Division) —
everybody." Koroma said he was not handing out guns at the
moment, but was sending a strong message to the RUF in the hope
of avoiding further bloodshed. "We are saying that we cannot sit
by and see this country be torn apart. I think we’ve had enough
of this violence," he said. "But what I’m saying is that we are
still calling on the RUF to join us in the peace process."
Koroma, who resigned his military commission in January, declined
to say whether he would take part in any fighting. "I don’t want
to go into that, because I don’t want fighting to erupt," he
said. "And I’m sure with this message today, they would think twice
and then they would try to comply."
Freetown was reported calm Sunday morning, amid stepped-up
security. According to the Associated Press, vehicles filled with
soldiers moved through the streets while helicopters flew
overhead every few minutes. According to the U.N., there are
currently about 2,100 UNAMSIL troops in the capital — about 1,600
Nigerians and 500 Jordanians.
6 May: An RUF force
estimated at between 500 and 1,000 armed with "infantry-type
weapons" has captured Lunsar and is reported to be advancing
toward Masiaka, UNAMSIL Public Information Officer Philip Winslow
said on Saturday night. The rebels are said to be using vehicles
captured from United Nations peacekeepers. The precise
whereabouts of the rebel force was unclear Saturday night, but
UNAMSIL has withdrawn an earlier statement which said the rebels,
using human shields, had reached the town of Hastings, on the outskirts
of the capital. "We have tried to stop the rebels using all the
resources at our disposal," Winslow told the Associated Press.
The news of the apparent rebel offensive came shortly after state
radio announced a Libyan-brokered agreement, under which U.N.
peacekeepers and and rebels would jointly visit areas of northern
and eastern Sierra Leone where U.N. personnel are believed to be
held hostage. RUF leader Foday Sankoh attended the talks, as did
the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General to
Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji.
The United Nations has lost contact with another 200 of its
peacekeeping troops in Sierra Leone, possibly bringing to "close
to 500" the number of U.N. personnel held by RUF rebels. "We have
lost contact with 226 other Zambians near Makeni," U.N.
spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters in New York. "It looks as
if the whole Zambian battalion may have been taken." But other
officials say the situation in Makeni remains unclear. "We are
not
 ready
to say 500 troops are hostages," one official said. 208 Zambians
captured by rebels near Makeni on Thursday, where they had been
sent to reinforce U.N. positions, had been moved to Koidu, in
Kono District, U.N. officials were quoted as saying. Earlier
Saturday, the United Nations had revised downward its estimates
of the number of U.N. peacekeepers and military observers held
hostage by RUF rebels in Sierra Leone, from around 318 to about
278. U.N. officials have acknowledged some confusion in the numbers
of U.N. personnel detained, but say no more hostages have been freed
since a four-man helicopter crew and two passengers were released
on Friday morning. "As far as we know there is no change in the
situation since yesterday," said U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst.
The RUF continued to deny Saturday that it was detaining U.N.
personnel, and insisted the rebel group was not mounting an
offensive. The U.N. "should stop saying that the RUF is holding
hostages," said RUFP spokesman Eldred Collins. "There were
skirmishes and maybe these U.N. forces did not understand the
terrain. The safety of everyone is guaranteed. It is not the
intention of the RUFP to attack any area."
A British team of 15 military experts left for Freetown Saturday
to provide technical assistance to the UNAMSIL force. A spokesman
for Britain's Ministry of Defence would not say whether additional
advisors might be sent, or whether the British soldiers were carrying
weapons and equipment. He said Britain was monitoring the
deteriorating security situation in the country. At United
Nations headquarters in New York, senior officials of the U.N.'s
departments of peacekeeping operations and political affairs met
Saturday in crisis talks to determine how to reinforce the United
Nations peacekeeping force. Britain, France and the United
States have reportedly ruled out providing troops for a U.N.
rapid reaction force, an idea floated by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan on Thursday. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said his
country was prepared to increase its technical and logistical
support for UNAMSIL, while the United States has reportedly
agreed to airlift a Bangladeshi battalion earmarked for UNAMSIL
to Sierra Leone. There are currently about 8,700 U.N.
peacekeepers in the country out of a total of 11,100 authorised
by the U.N. Security Council in February. The remaining three battalions
were scheduled to be deployed in June. U.N. officials are
exploring ways to speed up their deployment.
Hundreds of women demonstrated for peace Saturday outside RUF
leader Foday Sankoh's residence in Freetown. "We are tired. We
are not only tired, we are fed up," Christiana Macfoy of the Women's
Forum told the BBC. "We have reached the end of the road as far as
taking all these atrocities that are being committed. And it is
the women who are bearing the brunt of it." The women were
prevented from entering Sankoh's compound and the rebel leader
did not come out to address them, so one of the women read a
prepared statement by the protesters over a megaphone. The
statement condemned the abduction and murder of U.N. personnel
and called for the release of all abductees, including women and
children. The women also demanded Sankoh's full and unconditional
compliance with the Lomé Peace Accord he signed with the Sierra
Leone government last July. Among the demonstrators was Development
Minister Kadi Sesay. "I think what has happened has shocked
everybody, just at the time when we were hoping that this country is
beginning to consolidate the peace and get over all the suffering
that we have gone through in the past nine years," Sesay said.
"Unfortunately we see that violence has erupted again. The women
are concerned, they’re very disappointed, they are very angry."
According to Reuters, as many as 2,000 women took part in
Saturday's march. Further demonstrations, sponsored by
parliamentarians and civil society groups, are planned for Monday
UNAMSIL military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jaswinder Siagh
Sandhu denied a report Saturday that RUF rebels had overrun the town
of Lunsar. "UNAMSIL troops are still holding Lunsar," Sandhu
told reporters in Freetown. A Catholic priest, identified as Father
Bruno, claimed RUF fighters had moved into the town on Friday.
"The rebels entered Lunsar shortly before noon (1200 GMT) wearing
United Nations uniforms and driving their vehicles," he said.
Father Bruno acknowledged that he had left the town Friday
morning, but said he contacted a student in Lunsar late in the
day. But Sandhu said only one rebel entered the town on Friday,
causing widespread panic. He said the situation was "relatively
calm" throughout most of Sierra Leone. "There is an improvement
in the security situation in the country. Only Makeni and
Magburaka remain tense," Sandhu said. Some non-governmental
organisations, however, have begun withdrawing their staff from Sierra
Leone. Some expatriate staff members of the U.N. World Food
Programme (WFP) left for Conakry by helicopter on Saturday. The
WFP Representative in Sierra Leone, Patrick Buckley, insisted it
was "not an evacuation as such." "We are taking out people who
want to get out until the situation gets clearer," he said. On
Friday the U.N. evacuated 90 non-essential non-U.N. aid workers
and their families from Sierra Leone.
Information Minister Dr. Julius Spencer said Saturday the Sierra Leone government
had
been involved in diplomatic moves to bring the crisis to an end.
"The president has been involved in talks with numerous regional
leaders and is trying to get that Sankoh himself would see reason,"
he said, adding "We don’t yet seem to see anything positive."
Following Sankoh's meeting on Wednesday with Nigerian National Security
Advisor General Aliyu Mohammed, the RUF had promised "things are
going to move along smoothly now," Spencer told the BBC. "But we
haven’t seen any sign of that. He keeps saying things publicly
but the actions of his men don’t seem to bear out what he’s
saying. So we have not yet seen any positive developments." The
minister said the government was "not satisfied and we are
disturbed" by the performance of the U.N. peacekeeping troops. "I
think this has been said already that one expects the U.N.
troops, peacekeepers to be able to defend themselves. The mandate
of the force that is in Sierra Leone gives them the authority to
use force to defend themselves, to defend civilians in imminent
threat of danger, and to protect government installations, etc.
So we’re rather disturbed that such large numbers of U.N. troops
would be taken hostage, in some instances it appears without putting up a
fight."
The Sierra Leone government issued a statement Saturday
condemning RUF attacks on "peacefully deployed United Nations
troops" and called on the RUF to cease hostilities and order the
immediate and unconditional release of all U.N. personnel and hostages
throughout the country. In a statement read over SLBS radio, the
government said it was confident in UNAMSIL's ability to maintain
the peace, and appealed to the public to remain calm. "There is
no need for panic," the statement said.
Pro-government Kamajor militiamen have started mobilising
following RUF attacks against UNAMSIL, CDF National Public Relations
Officer Charles Moiwo said on Saturday. According to BBC Bo
correspondent Prince Brima, Moiwo claimed the militia had a total
of 15,000 troops in southern Sierra Leone and 18,000 in the
east. "Only 5,000 men there were disarmed, and in Bo only 475,"
Brima quoted Moiwo as saying.
Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office updated its travel
advisory Saturday to recommend against all travel to Sierra Leone.
"There are continuing rebel attacks on U.N. forces around the
country. A number of UN and other international personnel have been
detained by rebels," the advisory said. "The security situation
in Sierra Leone continues to deteriorate. In Freetown the situation is
volatile and a curfew (2300 - 0600) remains in place and is
strictly enforced."
Diplomatic moves by regional leaders to pressure RUF leader Foday
Sankoh into ending the crisis in Sierra Leone have so far been
unsuccessful. Delegations from Nigeria and Mali have met with Sankoh
at his residence, and a delegation from Libya was expected to arrive
on Saturday. Contacts by the United States and Britain, as well
as by Liberian President Charles Taylor, who named a special
envoy to work for dialogue, have also failed to bring an end to
bring about the release of U.N. personnel detained by the rebel
group. Mali, which currently chairs the regional economic
grouping, ECOWAS, is trying to convene a summit in Conakry Sunday
of the Mano River Union, to bring together the presidents of
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Mali is considering calling a larger
meeting of West African states later in the week.
Ukraine's foreign ministry expressed deep concern Saturday over
the recent outbreak of violence in Sierra Leone. "Ukraine
strongly condemns attacks on U.N. peacekeepers by rebels from the
Revolutionary United Front and demands an immediate release of all
hostages," the ministry said in a statement. "The ministry
considers such actions as a gross violation of the Lomé Peace Agreement
on the settlement of the situation in Sierra Leone, and believes
that the leadership of the Revolutionary United Front should bear
full responsibility for the unacceptable acts of violence
against U.N. peacekeepers."
5 May: The RUF is now
believed to be holding at least 318 U.N. peacekeepers amid
unconfirmed reports that rebel fighters are "on the move," U.N.
spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York on Friday. He was unable
to say whether any towns had fallen to the RUF, but a diplomatic
source in Freetown told the Sierra Leone Web that the RUF was
"apparently in Lunsar." "Approximately 208 members of the Zambian
contingent which were on their way to Makeni and with whom the
U.N. mission had lost radio contact yesterday, were disarmed and
detained by the RUF," Eckhard told reporters. A contingent of 24
Indian peacekeepers was also surrounded and overpowered at the
town of Kuiva, near Kailahun. This was in addition to the 92 U.N.
personnel reported held as of Thursday night, now down to 86
with the release Friday morning of a Russian helicopter crew and
their two passengers, Eckhard said. A 100-man Nigerian contingent
was detained in Kambia, "but later released, minus their
weapons." The spokesman said four Kenyan soldiers were missing
and presumed dead and twelve people were reported wounded. BBC West
Africa Correspondent Mark Doyle said it was "believed there may
well be a lot of Sierra Leoneans" held captive in addition to
U.N. personnel, but said there was currently no confirmed
information on Sierra Leonean hostages. Eckhard said the rebels
had seized 13 of the Zambians' 16 armoured personnel carriers which they
were appeared to be using for "military movements." Although it
was not clear where they were heading. He said there was "no
evidence that there was fighting in the taking of the Zambian
armoured personnel carriers," but that "we know from helicopter
surveillance" they were in the hands of the RUF. Eckhard said
negotiations to free the U.N. peacekeepers were ongoing. "The
efforts right now are political in nature, to get anyone who has
any influence with Foday Sankoh to convince him to comply with
the peace agreement," Eckhard said. "The emphasis is not at this
point to go to war against the RUF. "It's to try to find a
political solution to a problem that is threatening the peace
process at its core...If that fails, I don't want to speculate what
happens next." Doyle described the mood in Freetown as as tense.
"It’s strongly believed here that this crisis has been engineered
to time with the formal takeover by the United Nations of this
operation (from the ECOMOG force), Doyle said. "It’s surely no
coincidence that the U.N. takes over and a couple of days after
that there’s this major and massive power struggle going on
between Sankoh and the U.N.
RUF rebels freed a four-member Russian helicopter and two U.N.
personnel held in Kailahun since Tuesday, a UNAMSIL spokesman
said on Friday. The six arrived at Hastings Airfield near
Freetown shortly 10:00 a.m. local time. The Russian foreign ministry
identified the helicopter crew members as Vyacheslav Markelov,
Alexander Romanov, Vladimir Platonov and Nikolai Vyuzhenkov, who
were working under contract with the U.N. Two Russian military
observers, including Lt. Capt. Andrei Ufimtsev, are still being
detained. The RUF has continued to deny, however, that it was
holding U.N. peacekeepers and military observers. "We do not take
hostages," RUFP spokesman Eldred Collins told reporters. As of
late Thursday, the U.N. said RUF rebels were known to be holding
92 of their peacekeepers in northern and eastern Sierra Leone,
but said the actual number could be even higher. The RUF has
surrounded an 23-man Indian contingent in the eastern town of
Kuiva, while there are unconfirmed and conflicting reports that
another peacekeeping contingent has been encircled or detained in
Kambia. A U.N. spokeswoman in New York said Thursday afternoon that
UNAMSIL had lost contact with some of its units, numbering about 100
troops. Sankoh's Special Assistant, Gibril Massaquoi, suggested
Friday that the missing U.N. troops might merely have lost their
way. "We want to believe the peacekeepers alleged to have been
held by RUF fighters may have got lost in the bush during the
fighting in Makeni and Magburaka," Massaquoi said. He added that
Sankoh had ordered his field commander, Colonel Issa Sesay, "to
organise a search party for the missing U.N. peacekeepers."
Meanwhile, RUF leader Foday Sankoh claimed U.N. peacekeepers had
"taken refuge" at RUF barracks in Makeni and that they were free
to leave. "In Makeni there was a panic. Some peacekeepers and
military observers left the (DDR) camp and took refuge in the
barracks that my men have been occupying ever since they entered
Makeni," the Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Sankoh as saying.
"They are free to go anywhere." In a separate interview, the
rebel leader warned the U.N. not to reinforce its positions in
RUF-held areas. We don't want violence here again. It's
provocation. You provoke the man, you make a big mistake," Sankoh
told the BBC.
Liberian President Charles Taylor has called on all parties for an immediate
cessation
of hostilities in Sierra Leone, while warning RUF leader Foday
Sankoh not to engage in a fire-fight with the United Nations
peacekeeping force. "(Sankoh) assured me that everything will be
done to return the situation to status quo," Taylor told the BBC
on Friday. " I think it would be foolish for anyone to believe
that he can challenge the United Nations and come out right."
While Sankoh had complained of problems in implementing the Lomé
Peace Accord, Taylor said this was not an excuse for an exchange
of fire and injury to U.N. personnel. "I think the first thing
that must be done, and I’ve insisted, and I have told him, and I
want to believe he understands, is that United Nations personnel
must be protected, even by him, and that these problems can be
raised in the proper forum," Taylor said. "But to have a
fire-fight with the United Nations is a grave mistake, a very dangerous
mistake, and must be stopped." The Liberian leader called on the
RUF to provide a "full accounting" of U.N. personnel. "They
cannot be shot at. There should be no injury, and everything should be
done for cordiality instead of a fire-fight," he said. According
to Radio Liberia, Taylor sent former Foreign Minister Mrs.
Museleng-Cooper to Freetown to open a dialogue aimed at finding
an "amicable solution" to the Sierra Leone crisis. At a news
conference on Friday, Taylor told reporters he would support any
sanctions imposed on Sankoh by the U.N. or ECOWAS aimed at
getting him to release U.N. peacekeepers. "Yes, Liberia will be
prepared to support any sanctions that would be taken by ECOWAS
states, intended to restore peace in Sierra Leone," he said.
"Yes, I am a personal friend of Foday Sankoh. That does not mean
my country is a personal friend to Sankoh." The United Nations
Security Council imposed an arms embargo and other sanctions on Sierra
Leone's rebels following the 1997 coup, which Taylor's government
has frequently been accused of violating. "RUF must understand
that seizing U.N. personnel as hostages is not a good thing to
do...Working with the U.N. is a better thing to do," he said.
The international community is increasing pressure on RUF leader
Foday Sankoh to release U.N. personnel held by his rebel group.
Mali's foreign minister arrived in Freetown Thursday and has returned to
Bamako, while a Liberian delegation was expected in Sierra Leone
on Friday. Meanwhile a diplomatic source told the Sierra Leone
Web there were unconfirmed reports that the RUF had reached
Lunsar. He said it was possible the Joint Implementation
Committee, set up to oversee the peace process, might be convened
soon.
A planned demonstration by civil society groups and
parliamentarians to protest the RUF's attacks on United Nations
personnel has been postponed until Monday, a parliamentary source
told the Sierra Leone Web. The march was originally to have
taken place in Freetown on Friday.
Britain is preparing to send a team of military experts to Sierra
Leone to increase the effectiveness of the United Nations
peacekeeping force, a British foreign office spokesman said on Friday.
"We want to help the U.N. and we will be in a better position to
consider what we can supply when the team has reported back to
us," the spokesman said. "At the request of the U.N., Britain is
despatching an advisory team to Freetown to help the U.N. assess
the technical support needed to enhance UNAMSIL's effectiveness."
The team, from the Ministry of Defence's Permanent Joint
Headquarters, is expected to arrive in Freetown on Saturday.
"This follows the assurance Foreign Secretary Robin Cook gave to
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday that Britain would do
all that it reasonably could to support the UN forces in their
mission."
Russia intends to dispatch military helicopters to Sierra Leone,
the Russian defence ministry said on Friday. "The military
pilots' role will be to carry out flights on behalf of the U.N.
peacekeeping forces operating in Sierra Leone," a ministry statement
said, adding that the pilots would be armed for their own safety.
"The timetable for the dispatch of the helicopter squadron will
depend on a Federation Council decision," the defence ministry said.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday denounced RUF attacks
 against
U.N. peacekeepers. "The behavior of the RUF and its leader Foday
Sankoh is unacceptable," Albright said. "The actions of Sankoh
and the RUF need to be reversed immediately. The Lomé Accords
represented a package of compromises that provided the RUF an
opportunity to play a legitimate political role in Sierra Leone.
If the accords are broken, the provisions of that agreement are
jeopardized...We join the international community in demanding
that the RUF and Sankoh personally discharge their
responsibilities to the agreement they signed at Lomé — including
disarmament and demobilisation — and that they immediately release all
those they are holding."
Britain's new high commissioner to Sierra Leone, Alan Jones (full
name David Alan Jones) presented his credentials to President
Kabbah on Friday. Jones is a career diplomat, who last served as deputy
commissioner in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He replaces Peter
Penfold, who left Freetown last week. "Sierra Leone’s path
towards peace and democracy has not been easy, and you and your
people have been obliged to take some very difficult and brave
decisions," Jones said. "The time for elections is approaching.
It we can all work together to hold a free, fair and transparent
election that results in a democratic Government chosen by the
people then all the sacrifices will have been worthwhile. We
shall work together to see that this happens." Also presenting
his credentials Friday was Iran's new accredited ambassador to
Sierra Leone, Roshan Samir Jawad. Jawad replaces Ambassador Majid
Bismark in the diplomatic post. Iran has no embassy in Freetown,
and Jawad will operate from his country's embassy in Guinea.
President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya has expressed concern and
sorrow over the deaths of four Kenyan peacekeepers in clashes with RUF
rebels in northern Sierra Leone this week. Moi said he was
awaiting a full report "regarding the exact circumstances
surrounding the deaths and abduction of other Kenyan troops." His
comments follow emotional demands by opposition parliamentarians
to withdraw the Kenyan peacekeeping battalion from the UNAMSIL
force. In his statement, Moi said it was unfortunate that the
Kenyans, who were in Sierra Leone as peacekeepers and not as
combatants, had to die without a justifiable reason. He appealed to
the United Nations to ensure the safety of the peacekeeping force.
Meanwhile, the Tanzanian Daily News has reported that a Tanzanian
major is among the unarmed U.N. military observers abducted by
the rebels.
4 May: U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday he had asked
regional leaders to pressure leader Foday Sankoh into releasing some 92
U.N. personnel
now
believed held by his RUF rebel faction in northern and eastern
Sierra Leone. The secretary-general met with reporters following a
meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the crisis in Sierra Leone —
the third such meeting in three days. "I have spoken to quite a
few leaders who have direct contact and some influence on him and
who have sent envoys," including the leaders of Algeria, Burkina
Faso, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria and Togo, he said. Annan
said Sankoh promised Liberian President Charles Taylor that some
of the detainees, including "at least" a four-man Russian
helicopter crew, would be freed starting Friday. "We'll wait and
see if this happens," he said. He said the U.N. was working to
strengthen its force in Sierra Leone "as quickly as possible."
Currently some 8,700 U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in the
country out of 11,100 authorised by the Security Council. The
remaining three battalions were due to arrive in mid-June.
Discussions are now underway to speed up their deployment, Annan
said, possibly by enlisting the aid of Western countries such as
Britain, France or the United States to transport the troops and
equipment to Sierra Leone. He said that while he would like to
deploy a rapid reaction force to deal with the crisis, this would
only be possible if those with such a capacity were willing to
provide it. Annan added that discussions were underway with some
member states on the matter. Sankoh signed an agreement late
Wednesday to release all U.N. hostages, while at the same time
denying his followers were holding them. "Nobody believes him,"
Annan said. "(The African leaders) have told him to take action.
They have told him to release (the hostages). They have tried to impress
on him the seriousness of the situation and the fact that he is
placing himself in a very difficult situation. He is already
isolated and it is going to get worse. All the leaders are giving
him the same message. If they thought he were not holding
hostages, they would not be acting that way with him."
In a presidential statement read out following Thursday's meeting of the U.N.
 Security
Council, Ambassador Wang Yingfan of China said members supported
international and regional efforts to resolve the crisis in
Sierra Leone, including those of ECOWAS. The Council demanded
that the RUF end its hostile actions immediately and immediately
release all detainees unharmed, cooperate to establish the
whereabouts of U.N. personnel still unaccounted for, and comply
fully with the Lomé Peace Accord. Council members expressed
outrage at the killing of U.N. peacekeepers and deep concern for
those wounded or still not located. The Security Council said
that Foday Sankoh, as leader of the RUF, was responsible for the attacks
on U.N. personnel, that he had "deliberately failed" to
cooperate with UNAMSIL to end the incidents, and that he must be held
accountable together with the perpetrators. Meanwhile, UNAMSIL
Public Information Officer Philip Winslow pointed out that the
amnesty included in last year's peace agreement did not cover
acts committed since the signing of the accord. "Those
responsible will definitely be prosecuted," he said.
The bodies of four Kenyan peacekeepers have been recovered and
are being sent home, UNAMSIL spokesman Osman Lahai told the Voice of
America late on Thursday. Three other Kenyans wounded in fighting
with the RUF remain at the U.N.'s hospital in Freetown, Lahai
said.
The United Nations has revised downward its estimate of the
number of U.N. peacekeepers killed in Sierra Leone this week to
"four missing and presumed dead," a spokeswoman in New York said
Thursday afternoon. The four were reported to have belonged to UNAMSIL's
Kenyan battalion. U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said at least 69
civilian and military UNAMSIL personnel were now believed to be
held by RUF — 39 in the Makeni area and 30 in Kailahun. Eight
other U.N. personnel are reported to have been wounded. In
addition, Okabe said, a 23-man Indian battalion was reported
surrounded by RUF troops at Kuiva, near Kailahun. She said
UNAMSIL had lost contact with some of its units, comprising up to 100
personnel, but noted that the force was sending reinforcements to
Makeni and Magburaka. Okabe said there are currently about 8,700
U.N. troops in Sierra Leone with three additional battalions due
by mid-June.
The Missionary Services News Agency (MISNA) has reported that
rebels disarmed and abducted a contingent of U.N. peacekeepers in the
town of Kambia, near Sierra Leone's border with Guinea, at about
9:00 Thursday morning. The rebels, apparently members of the RUF,
had confined the U.N. troops to the centre of town and sacked
the local police barracks, MISNA said. U.N. officials confirmed
that Zambian troops had come under attack at Kambia late
Wednesday, but had no details. Reuters cited unconfirmed reports
that 200 of the peacekeepers were encircled, but were said to
still have their weapons. U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe confirmed
said there had been gunfire in Kambia Wednesday night, but that
it had died down before midnight. According to MISNA, a team of doctors
from the French-based medical charity Medècins sans Frontiéres
(MSF - Doctors Without Borders) was forced to flee to Guinea on
Wednesday following shooting in the town.
There was sporadic firing in Kambia and Makeni overnight, UNAMSIL
officials told reporters in Freetown on Thursday. They said about
five U.N. peacekeepers wounded in fighting at Makeni had been
evacuated to Freetown, where they were undergoing treatment at a
military hospital. The disarmament camps at Makeni and Magburaka,
at the centre of the dispute between the RUF and the U.N., have
reportedly been completely destroyed and vandalised. BBC
correspondent Lansana Fofana reported that the RUF had allowed
peacekeepers from UNAMSIL's Indian contingent to provide food for
their U.N. colleagues held by the rebels in Kailahun. He said U.N.
officials were not planning to confront the RUF in order to secure
the hostages' release. "They were saying that all they will do is
to continue negotiating with the High Command of the
Revolutionary United Front," Fofana said. "They were saying
they’ve had regional leaders talking to Foday Sankoh. They’ve had
government officials talking to Foday Sankoh, and that they are
hoping things will turn out positive. But in any case they are
expressing grave concern about developments there, because their
disarmament camps have been targeted and there is no indication
the rebels will not take more hostages."
RUF leader Foday Sankoh has again blamed the United Nations for this week's
fighting
between his followers and UNAMSIL in northern Sierra Leone — a
charge the U.N. has rejected. "There was a fight Makeni and Magburaka
because of the forcible disarmament," Sankoh said. "They forced
their way into the barracks to disarm the men, but then started
firing. And I think our men with no alternative but to defend
themselves." A U.N. spokesman in Freetown insisted Wednesday that
the attacks on U.N. personnel were "completely unprovoked," and
he dismissed Sankoh's claim his men had been forcibly disarmed as
"completely untrue." Sankoh said the RUF had lost six men in the
fighting with an unknown number wounded. The RUF leader also
denied rumours that he had been placed under house arrest in
Freetown, and warned of serious consequences if he were to be
detained. "(Wednesday afternoon) we drove around Freetown from my
residence to Kissy, going around to Clinetown, Fourah Bay Road,
Sani Abacha Street, to PZ and we (came) back home," he said. "You
know they can do anything but it (would) be a big mistake to
detain Foday Sankoh. Forget about the combatants. The civilian
populace will rise. So I advise and appeal even to President
Kabbah not to try it." In a separate interview with BBC Radio 4's
World at One programme, Sankoh denied that his men were holding U.N.
personnel hostage. "That is fabrication. This is something I really
have no knowledge of," he said. "He accused U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan as taking part in an "international
conspiracy" with President Kabbah to keep him out of power. "(The
U.N.) said the only way they could get peace in Sierra Leone is
to use force and they did it by firing at my men and disarming my men
forcefully. When commanders arrived to investigate, they opened
fire at my men," Sankoh said, adding: "I know I have lost about
seven men, but that is all I know. This is something that has
been planned to destroy the reputation of the RUF."
UNAMSIL Public Information Philip Winslow rejected Thursday Foday
Sankoh's denial that his RUF rebel force was holding United
Nations personnel hostage. "Mr. Sankoh has denied on several
occasions in the last 24 hours that he is holding any hostages,"
Winslow told the BBC. "His RUF, the RUF of which he is the chairman,
is the group that seized our personnel, the peacekeepers." He added
that on Tuesday and Tuesday night the RUF had "launched an attack
on the disarmament camp where our people were at Makeni, in
northern Sierra Leone." Winslow said negotiations for the
hostages' release were ongoing at a number of different levels.
"There is quite a lot of international pressure being brought to
bear on Mr. Sankoh from various other governments trying to
convince him to see the light and have these people released," he
said.
Shooting heard in western Freetown Wednesday night was
"accidental firing by Sierra Leonean Army personnel," BBC
correspondent Lansana Fofana said on Thursday. "(UNAMSIL officials)
were saying the Nigerian contingent in UNAMSIL quickly took care of
the situation, and within five minutes they had contained it,"
Fofana said. "But then there was very heightened tension around
the city. People were running around and then security was
mounted. Vehicles were stopped and rigorously searched, and it
actually put people on the edge." As of Thursday morning Freetown
was reported to be calm.
RUF rebels have released a Malaysian U.N. military observer,
Malaysian Defence Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday. Razak
said Major Ganase Jaganathan was freed Wednesday night. Two other
Malaysians, Lieutenant-Colonel Hamzah Bachik and naval
Lieutenant-Commander Aminuddin Rashid, were still being held as of
midday on Thursday. Malaysia has ten military observers attached
to the UNAMSIL force in Sierra Leone. In Moscow, Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov said Thursday he had been given assurances by Sierra
Leonean leaders that the hostages would be freed soon. A Russian
foreign ministry spokesman said Ivanov was handling the issue
personally after it was learned that four of the hostages were
Russian members of a helicopter crew working under contract to
the United Nations. In London, British Defence Secretary Geoff
Hoon told the House of Commons that one of the U.N. personnel detained
by the RUF in Sierra Leone was a British officer. "We understand
that he is safe and well," Hoon said. "No other British citizens
have been detained. Negotiations are taking place on the
political and diplomatic fronts to secure the safe release of all
those who have been detained." A British foreign office
spokesman said the British officer, a U.N. military observer, was
being held with some 27 other U.N. personnel in Kailahun. "It
seems the hostages are being kept in reasonable conditions," the
spokesman said. "We are letting the UN take the lead in talking
to the RUF but we are in constant touch with them. We are calling
on the RUF's leaders to exercise control over their forces."
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has
 condemned
this week's RUF killings and abduction of U.N. personnel in
Sierra Leone, and has warned of consequences. Holbrooke is currently on a
five-day mission to Africa. "I think you are going to see the
international community prepare a very strong and swift response
against those responsible (for the Sierra Leone attacks), and we
all know who they are," Holbrooke said shortly after arriving in
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has denounced the "reported
 killings
and kidnappings" of UNAMSIL personnel in Sierra Leone as
"heinous crimes for which the leadership of the Revolutionary United
Front must take full responsibility." Calling the RUF actions a
breach of the Lomé Peace Accord, McKinnon warned that the RUF
"should be left in no doubt as to the determination of the
international community to stand by the people of Sierra Leone in the
defence of their democracy and their legitimately elected
government."
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook issued a statement Thursday "strongly
condemning"
RUF attacks on United Nations forces, and pledging British
support for Sierra Leone's peace process. "The leader of the RUF,
Foday Sankoh, must order an immediate end to current violence and
respect for the provisions of the Lomé Peace Agreement," Cook said.
"He bears a personal responsibility for his followers' actions. The
leadership of the RUF is directly accountable for the safety of
those U.N. and other personnel who are currently detained. He
must ensure their immediate release." Cook said he had informed
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Britain was prepared to
increase its support for UNAMSIL. "In particular, we are willing
to provide technical and logistical support to increase the
mission's efficiency," he said, adding that he and Annan had
agreed on the importance of a rapid deployment of peacekeeping
troops not yet deployed in Sierra Leone. "The rebels appear to
have chosen the transition between ECOMOG and UNAMSIL to
challenge the peace process," Cook said. "They must be stopped.
Britain has done more than any other country outside the region to
support the peace process. A lot of progress had been made with
over half the rebel forces demobilised, and most of the country
brought under the control of the U.N. forces. We are determined
to see the job done in the interests of the people of Sierra
Leone."
National Security Advisor Sheka Mansaray said Thursday that the
Sierra Leone government had appealed to the leaders of
neighbouring countries and the heads of international organisations to
convince RUF leader Foday Sankoh to release U.N. hostages held by
his rebel group. Mansaray told the BBC the government was not in a
position to use military force to bring about the hostages'
release. "Under the Lomé Peace Agreement we have an obligation
not to use force here any more," he said. "In fact the government
has been the subject of massive disarmament by the U.N. We’ve
disarmed many of our forces, including the regular army." Sankoh
"has always believed in shooting his way into power," Mansaray
said. He’s consistently tested the patience of the government,
patience of the international community. He’s seen nothing come
out of those actions. And I think he’s encouraged to continue to
do that." Mansaray called for the United Nations to take action
against the RUF. "Right now there is a mood of hopelessness
because the people feel betrayed," he said. "There’s been a
number of assurances from all quarters that the people of this
country will be protected. We were even encouraged to accept that
the ECOMOG peacekeeping force could go without the security
situation deteriorating. It’s interesting that the last day the troops
spent here was the day Mr. Sankoh started the attacks on the U.N.
peacekeepers, because he’s always said that what you do to U.N.
peacekeepers is start shooting at them and then there'll be a cry
for them to be withdrawn. So he’s lived up to that kind of
reasoning."
OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim condemned the RUF killing and
 abducting
of U.N. peacekeepers in a statement issued on Thursday. "I wish
to condemn in no uncertain terms these wanton acts," Salim said,
adding that the RUF actions were in violation the RUF's obligations
under of the Lomé Peace Accord. He urged the RUF to allow U.N.
peacekeepers, humanitarian workers to enter areas under its
control, and to pursue the path of dialogue in the peace process.
Salim said the OAU would send a representative to Sierra Leone
to get on on-the-spot assessment of the situation in the country.
Members of Sierra Leone's Parliament will join civil society
groups in Freetown Friday for a protest march against the RUF
"for their action against the
 peacekeeping
force in the country," a parliamentary source told the Sierra
Leone Web on Thursday. By voice vote Thursday, Parliament adopted
by voice vote Thursday a motion expressing concern over
what it called "a resumption of hostilities" by the RUF calling
it a breach of the cease-fire agreement and the peace accord
signed in Lomé, Togo last year. The private members motion, proposed by
Hon. A.O. Bangura and seconded by Hon. Dr. Raymond S. Kamara,
called on the Sierra Leone government to place RUF leader Foday
Sankoh under house arrest and to restrict the movement of RUFP
ministers and appointees until the hostilities have ended, and to
disarm all combatants within 45 days. The motion called on
Parliament to enact legislation suspending "some of the
privileges accorded to Mr. Foday Sankoh and other elements of the
RUF by virtue of the Lomé Peace Agreement" until the RUF showed
"genuine commitment to the peace process." It suggested Sankoh be
invited before Parliament to explain the circumstances leading to the
RUF attacks on UNAMSIL, and that the RUF leadership be held
responsible for further acts of violence "and accountable to the
International War Crimes Tribunal." The motion called on UNAMSIL
to "forcefully disarm" combatants unwilling to disarm and join
the DDR programme within 45 days, to institute cordon-and-search
exercises in Freetown and in provincial headquarters "with
unusual concentration of ex-combatants, and to restrict curfew
hours and limit permits for street demonstrations until security
was assured throughout the country. The parliamentarians called
on the moral guarantors of the Lomé Peace Accord to "use their
influence and good offices" to prevail on Sankoh to respect the
peace agreement in view of a "series of co-ordinated attacks
against UNAMSIL troops" which, they said, showed Sankoh and his
supporters "are not interested in peace but are committed to derailing
he peace process and seizing power by force."
RUF leader Foday Sankoh is "definitely behind" attacks this week on U.N. personnel
in
Sierra Leone, the country's Permanent Representative to the United
Nations told PBS Newshour on Thursday. "The United Nations knows
this, that he is behind all this new outbreak," said Ambassador
Ibrahim Kamara. "His people are the ones. What he does is he goes
out and tells the international community, or when he's faced
with the cameras, the media, he tells his fighters to disarm, and
when the observers leave, he tells them something completely
different. He's not a man of peace. The people know it, the U.N.
knows this, the international community knows that this man is
not a man of peace." Kamara said Sankoh's motive for the attacks
"is rule Sierra Leone by whatever means," adding "But that will
be against the wish of the people." The ambassador said the
Sierra Leone government had given in to pressure from the
international community to sign the Lomé Peace Accord, which gave the
RUF a role in the government. "The ball now is in the court of
the international community...and we are only waiting to see,
because not a small man like Foday Sankoh cannot hold the world
to ransom," he said.
The Libyan government said Thursday U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan had requested President Muammar al-Qadhafi to intervene to help
free U.N. personnel held hostage by the RUF in Sierra Leone. "As a
result, the Great Jamahiriyah had carried out contacts with the
parties concerned in the [crisis in] Sierra Leone, where the
government said that the RUF had abducted 50 UN troops. However,
the RUF Chairman Foday Sankoh noted that he was not aware of the
abductions," the Libyan news agency said. "Therefore, the
secretary of the General People's Committee for African Unity
will leave immediately for Sierra Leone to deal with the issue."
Human Rights Watch condemned this week's killings and
hostage-taking of U.N. personnel in Sierra Leone, but noted that
civilians had been enduring similar abuses from rebels for
several years. "Human Rights Watch opposed the amnesty (provision
of the Lomé Peace Accord) because we feared that impunity for
such atrocities would only breed more atrocities," the group said
in a statement on Thursday. "Events of this week have only
confirmed our fears. Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of
Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, said RUF leader Foday
Sankoh should be held responsible for the actions of troops under his
effective command. He called Colonel Augustine Gbao, an RUF
commander in the Makeni region where the U.N. killings took
place, one of Sankoh's leading deputies.
3 May: RUF leader Foday
Sankoh has signed an agreement "to release any hostages if held"
by his rebel movement, the Associated Press reported late
Wednesday. In a series of incidents since Monday, RUF fighters
have detained about 50 U.N. personnel in northern and eastern
Sierra Leone. Seven more peacekeepers have been killed and
another three wounded. The agreement followed negotiations
between Sankoh and Nigerian National Security Adviser, General Aliyu
Mohammed. Under the agreement, which was read over state radio and
television, Sankoh said he would continue with dialogue over the
peace process, allow freedom of movement by U.N. peacekeepers,
humanitarian workers and civilians in RUF-controlled areas, and
to work for disarmament under the terms of the Lomé Peace Accord
he signed last July. Dozens of U.N. troops surrounded Sankoh's
house in Freetown while the negotiations were continuing.
Officials denied they were planning to arrest the rebel leader,
but said they wanted to ensure he was available for the talks.
At least seven United Nations troops have been killed and about
50 captured in three days of RUF attacks on U.N. peacekeepers, a
U.N. spokeswoman said in New
 York
on Wednesday. "Following the fighting that took place yesterday
and earlier today between U.N. troops and the Revolutionary
United Front in the northern areas of Makeni and Magburaka, we can
confirm that seven U.N. soldiers have been killed," Marie Okabe
told reporters. "We can confirm that about 50 U.N. personnel are
being detained by the RUF, at least 21 in the Makeni and
Magburaka area and 28 in the eastern area of Kailahun." The
detainees in Makeni and Magburaka were said to include three
unarmed U.N. military observers. Those held in Kailahun included
eight military observers, four members of a U.N. helicopter crew
and two civilian members of UNAMSIL, she said. In a BBC interview,
UNAMSIL Public Information Officer Philip Winslow said the
fighting had stopped, but that "a number of other UNAMSIL
personnel are not traceable at the moment because the situation on
the ground is quite fluid." Winslow called Tuesday's attacks on U.N.
positions "completely unprovoked." He described as
"completely untrue" a claim by RUF leader Foday Sankoh that the
rebel attacks had been instigated by "Kenyan peacekeepers who
first used force to disarm and arrest some of my RUF combatants when
they are not ready to do so." "Disarmament is a voluntary
process and UNAMSIL certainly did not forcibly disarm them," said
Winslow. "But that is the excuse that they were using, or that they
claimed, for their having launched this attack on the military
observers and the peacekeepers." Sankoh asserted that six of his
own troops had been killed in the fighting. He added that he was
preparing to travel to Makeni later on Wednesday to address his
men. Sankoh acknowledged that he had refused to take calls from
UNAMSIL force commander Major-General Vijay Jetley, and accused
the peacekeepers of bias against his fighters. "Let me appeal to
the U.N. peacekeepers not to provoke the RUF and let them work
within the prescribed mandate of their position in Sierra Leone,"
Sankoh said. "I advise General Jetley (and) the U.N. special
envoy to gather with their peacekeepers to try and understand the
politics on the ground before they start taking sides." Jetley
told reporters the RUF had promised to release the hostages early
Wednesday, but by late morning U.N. officials were quoted as
saying none of the U.N. personnel had been freed. Meanwhile,
Winslow said negotiations were going on "at high levels and on
various levels" to secure the peacekeepers' release. UNAMSIL has sent
reinforcements to U.N. positions which came under rebel attack.
About 100 U.N. troops have surrounded Sankoh's house in Freetown,
and security has been stepped up in the Sierra Leonean capital.
RUF rebels who detained U.N. personnel in Makeni on Monday have
also looted offices and homes in the city, the Missionary Services
News Agency (MISNA) reported on Wednesday. According to MISNA, the
rebels looted the offices of the French-based charities
Medècins sans Frontiéres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) and
Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), as well as several
other offices and private homes. An MSF source confirmed MISNA's
account of the looting. "Because of the ongoing situation, I
can't provide more details at the moment other than to say we are
pursuing the safest option for the MSF team," he told the Sierra
Leone Web.
Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare (left), the current chairman of ECOWAS, said
 Wednesday
the organisation would send a delegation to Freetown, where it
would urge RUF leader Foday Sankoh to "put an end to the various acts
of violence perpetrated by his men." ECOWAS Executive-Secretary
Lansana Kouyate (right) condemned the RUF attacks on U.N.
peacekeepers and called for the immediate and unconditional
release of about 50 U.N. personnel being held by the rebels. "The
perpetrators of the barbaric act are a serious threat to the
peace process underway between the different Sierra Leonean parties and
to the assignment of the U.N. mission," Kouyate said. "(Their
action) is a violation of the Lomé Peace Agreement signed on July 7,
1999 between the Sierra Leonean government and the RUF under the
aegis of ECOWAS." Nigeria also announced Wednesday it would send
a delegation to Sierra Leone to try and secure the release of
the U.N. peacekeepers. "Upon receipt of this particular
information from the secretary-general of the United Nations, our
president has sent a powerful delegation to Sierra Leone to
ensure the peaceful, safe and prompt release of the hostages,"
said Nigerian Information Minister Jerry Gana.
The United States has condemned "in the strongest possible terms"
what it called "direct contravention to the Lomé Peace Accords"
by Foday Sankoh's RUF rebel movement. "The killing of personnel
deployed in the U.N. Mission to Sierra Leone, taking of hostages,
and efforts to obstruct the disarmament, demobilization and
rehabilitation process over the past several days are
unacceptable and must cease immediately," said State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "All hostages must be released
unconditionally and all violations of the cease-fire must stop."
Boucher said the U.S. was consulting with other countries on the
possibility of deploying a rapid reaction force to deal with the
crisis. "What we're doing is considering ways to improve and
support the U.N. presence there and the U.N. forces there,
including consideration of some sort of reaction force
capability," he said.
In a statement issued Wednesday following a second day of U.N. Security Council
 deliberations
on Sierra Leone, Council President Ambassador Wang Yingfan of
China said Council members had expressed "grave concern" about
the latest developments in the country. "The Council members all
strongly condemned RUF criminal actions, especially in its attacks on
the peacekeeping personnel in Sierra Leone," the ambassador said.
"The Council demanded that the RUF must stop immediately such
criminal actions; that (RUF leader Foday) Sankoh should strictly
observe the Lomé Peace Agreement." He said the Security Council
was in full support of a statement issued Wednesday by U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "In particular, in that statement
the Secretary-General stressed that leaders in Sierra Leone with
authority must be held accountable for their actions," he said.
"That is a clear signal to Mr. Sankoh."
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Paris Wednesday that the
situation
in Sierra Leone was not encouraging for U.N. future peacekeeping
missions to Africa. "Obviously, we need to reassess after this
incident...what changes in attitude, what changes in our relationship
with (Sankoh) and others have to be made," he said. "We went into
this realizing there will be risks...but I hope we will be able
to...continue our work." Annan said that several African heads of
state were sending envoys to Sierra Leone "to put pressure on
(Sankoh) to pull his men back so that peacekeepers can do their
work."
Sierra Leone's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador
 Ibrahim
Kamara, has placed the blame for rebel attacks on U.N. personnel
on RUF leader Foday Sankoh. "He is not a man of peace. That’s
why he is desperate," Kamara said Wednesday following a meeting
of the U.N. Security Council. "You see what has happened in
Makeni. His men were disarming. They went to the UNAMSIL people
to lay down their guns. Then some of his people went and said 'no
you cannot go and disarm.' And he supported them." The
ambassador said Sankoh had signed the Lomé Peace Accord "with his
eyes wide open," and called on the rebel leader to abide by the
document he signed last year on behalf of his organisation.
Kamara said he had no doubt Sankoh was in control of his
followers. "He says something outside, and then he goes round and say
something completely different," he said. "If he is determined,
if he wants his people to disarm they would have disarmed long ago.
But what he says to the international community or to those
people who listen to him, is not what he tells his people. This
is what we think is happening now."
The Russian foreign ministry identified the four-man crew of a
U.N. helicopter seized by rebels in Kailahun yesterday as Russian
nationals, after issuing a denial earlier in the day, and has
demanded their immediate release. "According to information that
has been received, among the hostages are four Russian citizens
who are working under a contract with the United Nations," the
statement said. "They are the crew of an Mi-8 helicopter of the
Nefteyugansk division of [Russian company] Tyumenaviatrans." The
company subsequently issued a statement denying that the captured
pilots were working for them. Earlier, Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Alexander Yakovenko denied reports the pilots were Russians and
claimed they were Bulgarians. The Russian foreign ministry
reversed itself after the Bulgarian government said it had no
information that any of its pilots had been seized. A helicopter
belonging to the Bulgarian air carrier Helia Air works under
contract with the U.N. mission in Sierra Leone. The company's
director Georgi Spasov, said no Bulgarians had been abducted. "We
contacted them today and they were all there," he said.
The names of ten journalists who died while covering the news in Sierra Leone last
 year
were among 40 added Wednesday to the U.S.-based Freedom Forum's
Journalists Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. They were Alpha Amadu Bah
(Independent Observer), Jenner Cole (SKY-FM), Abdulai Jumah Jalloh
(African Champion), Mabay Kamara (Freelance), Mohamed Kamara
(SKY-FM), Paul Mansaray (Standard Times), Conrad Roy (Expo
Times), Munir Turay (Freelance), James Oguoguo (Concord Times)
and Myles Tierney (Associated Press Television News). "The wall
is filled with the names of journalists who cared and cared
deeply about their craft and their responsibilities. They felt
journalism is something worth risking their lives for," said Tom
Johnson, chairman and CEO of CNN. "But for most of the people in
the news business, there is in their dedication to their work a
deep strain of idealism that leads them to take risks for truth
and understanding that sometimes, tragically, leads to their
personal injury or death."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has
named RUF leader Foday Sankoh to its annual list of the "Ten
Worst Enemies of the Press," issued
 Wednesday
to mark World Press Freedom Day. "Sankoh's rebel RUF force,
along with allies from the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC), targeted all journalists as 'enemies' during the civil
strife that ravaged Sierra Leone for eight years," the CPJ
statement said. "During a bloody three-week occupation of the
capital, Freetown, in January 1999, rebel forces executed at least eight
journalists, some together with their families, before being
ousted by the Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force." CPJ
Africa researcher Yves Sorokobi told the Sierra Leone Web that
while the organisation acknowledged Sankoh was in a Nigerian
prison during what he called the "RUF anti-media murderous orgy,"
the rebel leader was selected for the list in his capacity as
leader of the group. Others making the CPJ's Ten Worst list were
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Iran), Slobodan Milosevic (Yugoslavia),
Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan), José Eduardo dos Santos
(Angola), Alberto K. Fujimori (Peru), Mahathir Mohamad
(Malaysia), Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali (Tunisia), Jiang Zemin (China) and
Fidel Castro (Cuba). In an accompanying letter to the Commonwealth,
the CPJ also accused the Sierra Leone government of having
"repeatedly infringed on journalists' rights to reports the
news." The group took the government to task for a bill tabled in
August 1999 aimed at regulating the print media. The bill would
have created a three-member media council, appointed by the
president, with powers to suspend or revoke media licenses and to
impose heavy fines for "press crimes."
The United States House of Representatives approved by voice vote Wednesday a
2 May: United Nations
officials have reacted angrily to a series of RUF attacks this
week on United Nations peacekeepers, and the abduction of at
least 17 UNAMSIL  bill
that would provide $20 million to help Sierra Leone recover from more
than eight years of civil conflict. The bill provides $13 million
for a World Bank rebuilding fund, $5 million to help the country
rebuild its judiciary, $1.5 million to establish a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, and $500,000 for the State Department
to collect information on human rights abuses. The measure would
also require the president to monitor the flow of illegal arms
into Sierra Leone from countries in the region, and to take
action — including the suspension of foreign aid — against any
country that participates in arms trafficking. House
International Relations Committee Chairman Ben Gilman expressed doubts
that Sierra Leone's fragile peace would hold, saying he feared
"the Revolutionary United Front, which has waged a war of
terror...has not changed in its ultimate objective, that is the
complete dominance of Sierra Leone." Africa Subcommittee Chairman
Edward Royce agreed that the peace was precarious, but said
"it's in America's interest to see that terror does not win the
day in Sierra Leone, for if it does more than Sierra Leone would
be imperiled." The bill must still be considered by the Senate.  personnel
in northern and eastern Sierra Leone. On Monday, about 100 RUF
troops led by a self-styled colonel surrounded a disarmament camp
at Makeni and demanded the U.N. turn over ten RUF fighters who
voluntarily disarmed last week, UNAMSIL Public Information
Officer Philip Winslow told the BBC on Tuesday. When an unarmed
U.N. military observer refused to turn over the men, who in fact
had already left the area, "the RUF became quite menacing and
they threatened to burn down the camp," Winslow said. The RUF
officer, identified as Colonel Gbao, forced the U.N. observer into a car
and took him away. Two other military observers and four
soldiers from UNAMSIL's Kenyan battalion were detained as well,
Winslow added. UNAMSIL force commander Major-General Vijay
Jetley (pictured right) told reporters in Freetown that the abducted
military observers included a Gambian, a Malaysian and a Norwegian.
On Tuesday, Winslow said, RUF rebels surrounded a U.N. helicopter
at Kailahun and took away five civilian personnel, including the
two-man flight crew. Another seven U.N. peacekeepers were
captured in the area after the rebels erected a roadblock,
according to U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping,
Hedi Annabe. A source in Freetown told the Sierra Leone Web late
Tuesday that the helicopter had been on a special mission
to pay UNAMSIL staff in Bo, Kenema, Kono, Daru and Kailahun. Among those
detained, the source said, was UNAMSIL Finance Officer Abebe
Dubenru, an Ethiopian national. He cited an unconfirmed report
that UNAMSIL's team leader in Kailahun is among those being held
by the RUF. In the latest incident, RUF fighters and Kenyan
troops exchanged fire in Magburaka Tuesday when the rebels
attempted to seize the peacekeepers' weapons, a U.N. spokesman
said in New York. Two U.N. soldiers were reported wounded in the
incident. Jetley said UNAMSIL had protested to RUF leader Foday
Sankoh, who denied the incidents had occurred. "It seems as if
Foday Sankoh is trying to derail the peace process," Jetley said.
"We are not in Sierra Leone to fight, but I am appealing to the
combatants not to continuously push us into a corner...If
negotiations fail, military action will be taken to get the men
released."
The United Nations Security Council, which met in special session Tuesday
 afternoon
following reports of RUF attacks on U.N. personnel in Sierra
Leone, has condemned "in strongest terms the hostile and
destructive" actions against U.N. peacekeepers. In a presidential
statement read out following the meeting, Security Council
President for May, Ambassador Wang Yingfan of China, expressed
members' "grave concerns" over the incidents. Meanwhile, a U.N.
spokesman said Tuesday U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was
"deeply disturbed" about the RUF's attacks on U.N. civilian and
military personnel. "The secretary-general condemns these
outrageous and criminal acts against U.N. peacekeepers and calls upon
the leadership of the RUF, in particular Mr. Foday Sankoh, to
cease these acts immediately," the spokesman said.
The Sierra Leone government has denounced what it called
"indiscriminate violence perpetrated by some misguided
ex-combatants" this week against United Nations peacekeeping troops in
Sierra Leone. In a statement submitted to the U.N. Security
Council on Thursday, the government noted that UNAMSIL had been
given a mandate to use force to protect the people of Sierra
Leone from physical violence. While the force had exercised
"considerable restraint," the statement asserted, UNAMSIL had the
means and the capability to discharge its responsibilities." The
government statement warned that future violations of the Lomé Peace
Accord would be dealt with "immediately and appropriately," and
that those responsible would be prosecuted to the full extent of the
law.
The ECOMOG force completed its final withdrawal from Sierra Leone
on Tuesday, ending nearly three years of involvement in the
country's civil conflict. "We are leaving Sierra Leone with optimism
that the world has heard the cry of the people of your country,"
ECOMOG force commander Major-General Gabriel Kpamber told President
Kabbah in a farewell ceremony on Monday. "Anyone who attempts to
derail the peace process will not succeed." ECOMOG intervened in
Sierra Leone in 1997, shortly after the coup which brought the
AFRC military junta to power. In October 1997 the United Nations
Security Council imposed sanctions on the junta, and delegated to
ECOMOG the task of enforcing an arms and fuel embargo against
Sierra Leone. In February 1998, ECOMOG moved to oust the junta
from power and restored President Kabbah's civilian government,
which had been operating from exile in Guinea. The under-equipped
ECOMOG force was unable to achieve a military victory in the
provinces, however, and in late 1998 it was forced to retreat in the
face of a rebel counter-offensive. In January 1999 the rebels
used human shields to break through ECOMOG's defences, and
launched an attack on the capital which devastated much of
eastern and central Freetown. ECOMOG reinforcements finally
succeeded in driving the rebels from the city. More recently,
ECOMOG has provided security in Freetown and has worked with the UNAMSIL
force to disarm Sierra Leone's warring factions.
Freetown's historic City Hotel was gutted by fire early Tuesday, according to police
 sources.
Reuters quoted police as saying a Sierra Leonean and a Lebanese
national were killed, and four others seriously injured. The fire
was apparently caused by a "naked lamp," Reuters said. City
Hotel, which dates back to the 1920s, had become dilapidated in recent
years and was badly in need of repair. The hotel, Sierra Leone's
oldest, was a favorite hangout for British expatriates during the
colonial era. Graham Greene wrote one of his best-known works,
the 1948 novel the Heart of the Matter, while staying at the
hotel.
A Nigerian UNAMSIL sergeant shot by AFRC rebels while on patrol
near Rogbere Junction on Sunday was sent home Monday for
treatment, Reuters reported. A U.N. spokeswoman in New York said the
soldier remained in critical but stable condition.
1 May: National Committee
for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR)
Executive Secretary Dr. Francis Kai-Kai said Monday that RUF insistence
they
be given a wide range of government posts before they would agree to
hand in their weapons were not new, but he warned that the demands
"will stall the (disarmament) process if they really want to push
it too much." Kai-Kai noted that provisions were made in the
Lomé Peace Agreement for some positions to be given to the RUF,
and said the government was trying to address these. "I know that
the issue is being discussed between (RUF leader) Chairman
Sankoh and His Excellency the president," he told the BBC. "These
are issues they are discussing. It’s really at their level."
Kai-Kai also played down concerns over a security vacuum
following the final withdrawal of the ECOMOG force. "The
withdrawal plan of ECOMOG was already foreseen," he said. "Yes,
there are some concerns being raised but as far as we know
UNAMSIL is also bringing in more troops and they are deploying them.
And UNAMSIL has made an undertaking to take over the security of the
state and also the protection of government and civilians."
Rebel AFRC soldiers ambushed a ten-member Nigerian UNAMSIL patrol
near Port Loko early Sunday, disarming the peacekeepers after
shooting their sergeant, UNAMSIL Public Information Officer Philip
Winslow said on Monday. Winslow told the BBC the incident took
place near the AFRC's Okra Hills base, where there had been a
great deal of banditry and attacks on civilians by AFRC rebels.
"Four of the peacekeepers held a position on the main road and
six others then went about 700 meters into bush, and the purpose
was to block this track back to the main road so that the bandits
could not then reach back to the main road," Winslow said. "Once
they had got in there they found lying in wait about 100
heavily-armed AFRC rebels, and so our six soldiers found themselves
surrounded. The rebels then approached Nigerian sergeant who was
leading the UNAMSIL patrol, and demanded that he surrender his
weapon. The sergeant refused to surrender his weapon and the
rebels subsequently shot him twice, once in the chest and once in
one leg. When one of the other peacekeepers went to summon help,
the other four [soldiers] found themselves completely surrounded
by a numerically superior force and they were overpowered and
their weapons confiscated." Winslow said all of the UNAMSIL
troops had been released. The wounded sergeant was admitted to
hospital in Freetown, where he is in stable condition with a punctured
lung and a severe wound in one leg. "This is the first time that a
UNAMSIL soldier has been directly attacked, so it’s a very
serious situation indeed," Winslow said. He warned that UNAMSIL
had no intention of abandoning its patrols in the area. "We’re
here to try to keep these roads open and that’s what we intend to
do," he said. A U.N. spokesman in New York said UNAMSIL had
protested the incident to President Kabbah and to AFRC leader
Johnny Paul Koroma, who is now chairman of the government's
Commission for the Consolidation of Peace.
AFRC commander Lieutenant-Colonel George "Junior Lion" Johnson,
who was wounded Friday in a shootout with ECOMOG troops in
Freetown, is "still alive and responding to treatment" at a
military hospital in Wilberforce, a source in Freetown told the
Sierra Leone Web on Monday. Johnson's driver was killed in the incident.
The clash occurred after the AFRC soldiers refused to turn over
two vehicles, allegedly seized from departing ECOMOG troops, to
six Nigerian soldiers sent to retrieve them. AFRC soldiers
reportedly went on a rampage, smashing windshields and
threatening retribution, until UNAMSIL troops deployed to calm
the situation. Meanwhile, RUF leader Foday Sankoh blamed ECOMOG
for Friday's clash. "This is a violation of the cease-fire,
killing people in Freetown," Sankoh told reporters.
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