|
|
Change Your Life! |
Sierra Leone's dilemma: what to do with rebel chief? |
|
|
News |
||
|
|
May 20, 2000 FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, MAY 19 (AP) - Calling captured rebel leader Foday Sankoh "a very vicious man," Sierra Leone's attorney general said the government is nonetheless determined to resist pressure from angry citizens to take drastic action against him. |
|
|
Many Sierra Leoneans want Sankoh harshly punished for wreaking havoc on the country during more than eight years of civil war. His fighters also have plunged the country back into civil war and were holding hundreds of U.N. captives.
American envoy Jesse Jackson, meanwhile, arrived in Nigeria on a mission from President Bill Clinton to help put the peace effort back on track, which has all but collapsed amid the renewed fighting.
Angered by Jackson's comments earlier this week that perceived as sympathetic to Sankoh, the government has said the U.S. envoy is not welcome. It remained unclear whether Jackson would visit Sierra Leone.
Despite the rebel attacks, Sierra Leone's beleaguered government has been reluctant to exclude Sankoh from talks to resolve the conflict.
"No views have yet been crystalized as to what to do," said Solomon Berewa, the justice minister and attorney general Thursday. "Foday Sankoh committed a lot of crimes. He himself is a very vicious man and has a lot of vicious boys around him."
Sankoh was seized Wednesday by troops loosely allied to the elected government. The news of his capture prompted celebrations to Freetown, where numerous war victims bear the scars of rebel brutality - in the form of hands, legs, ears and lips intentionally lopped off.
Berewa said the government would resist pressure by angry citizens to "take drastic action" against Sankoh. However, the government "might not be as accommodating with him" as it was in the past.
Upon arriving in Lagos, Nigeria, Jackson said the United Nations "must restore democracy and assert the sovereignty of Sierra Leone."
"Today West African stability is being challenged," he said. "The commitment of the West is also being challenged."
Jackson flew on to Benin City, Nigeria, where he was to hold talks with Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sankoh was imprisoned in 1997 and subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for treason. He was freed last year to take part in peace talks, and received a government post and unconditional amnesty for war crimes under a peace deal signed in July.
But he is widely blamed for undermining the agreement earlier this month, when his forces seized 500 U.N. peacekeepers and resumed clashes with pro-government forces.
"The government might use a different technique this time to deal with him." Berewa said. "We misjudged him to be a rational human being."
Sankoh, who was shot in the leg Wednesday during his capture, underwent surgery overnight to have the bullet removed and was recovering Thursday, U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch called for Sankoh to be given a fair trial for crimes against humanity. "Foday Sankoh must not be subjected to mob rule," said the group's Africa director, Peter Takirambudde.
It was not immediately clear how the rebels would respond to Sankoh's detention.
During his last period of captivity, his rebels launched an offensive culminating in the invasion of Freetown in January 1999, leaving thousands dead before they were driven out of the city several weeks later.
Soldiers loosely allied with the government captured Sankoh early Wednesday next door to his Freetown home. He had disappeared from the house May 8 after fighters from his Revolutionary United Front opened fire on thousands of demonstrators, killing 19 people.
The rebels are believed to be holding some 300 of their original 500 U.N. hostages in dense forests in the east of the country. Information Minister Julius Spencer said efforts were ongoing Thursday to free the remaining U.N. personnel held at rebel bases.
The United Nations initially said 80 peacekeepers were freed Wednesday, but on Thursday revised the figure to just 13, according to U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst.
Western diplomats and U.N. officials said Thursday that Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected to recommend a significant increase in the size of the beleaguered U.N. peacekeeping force.
The officials, who spoke in New York and Freetown on condition they not be identified, said Annan would suggest the force be increased by a few thousand in a report to be issued in the next few days. Original estimates of 17,000 were revised later Thursday to as many as 16,500, one diplomat said.
The force, currently authorized to have 11,100 troops, is already the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Britain has also proposed expanding the size of the force - from its present 11,100 to 13,000 - to accommodate new units promised by India, Bangladesh and Jordan.
|
||
