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Copyright 1999 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 15-Dec-99 ***
Title: POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: Power Struggle Threatens Peace Accord
By Lansana Fofana
FREETOWN, DEC 15 (IPS) - A bitter power struggle within Sierra
Leone's main rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
has threatened to derail the fragile peace accord signed in Lome,
Togo, in July and plunge the West African country into chaos.
The RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who is now a member of the broad-
based government in Freetown and his battlefield commander Sam
Bockarie, alias Mosquito have been trading verbal blows, signaling
a new dimension to the country's eight-year-long civil conflict.
Bockarie's latest complaints are that he is being marginalised
by the RUF political leadership, which he accuses of plotting to
murder him.
The source of disagreement between the two rebel leaders is the
issue of deployment of UN troops in rebel-controlled territories
which Sankoh supports, but fiercely opposed by Bockarie.
"I will not allow any Nigerian in the UN force to deploy in my
territory. In fact, I want all Nigerians out of the country,"
Bockarie says, adding that: "As for the rest of the UN troops, we
are ready to engage them if they attempt to use force in the
disarmament exercise".
Sankoh, on the other hand, has said: "The RUF is already co-
operating with the Nigerians and other forces within the UN and
(the West African peacekeeping force) ECOMOG and my combatants are
prepared to disarm to them all in the name of peace."
Sankoh dismissed Bockarie's ranting as "nonsense" and an
impossible "adventurism." But the rift has grown beyond the
internal dynamics of the RUF.
Bockarie has demonstrated his frustration by abducting two
expatriate medical personnel of the non-governmental organisation
Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF), a Belgium and a French, in his
highly militarised eastern border district of Kailahun, close to
Liberia.
The two aid workers, who were abducted last week, have still
not been released and Bockarie says he wants the protection of the
international community, from the wrath of Sankoh.
The pro-RUF tabloid, 'The Pool', revealed Monday that a top
level meeting of RUF commanders has resolved to dismiss Bockarie
as field commander, whilst other publications suggest a grand plan
by the mainstream RUF to murder the controversial RUF commander.
In these circumstances, the deployment of newly arrived UN
troops from Kenya and India has been delayed and there are growing
fears that Bockarie might spring a surprise and launch fresh
attacks, to disrupt the disarmament, demobilisation and
reintegration (DDR) exercise.
As agreed in the Lome peace accord, the 6,000-strong UN troops
have started arriving in the country, with about 800 from Kenya
and 140 from India. Another 1,300 from India are expected in
coming days.
The rest of the UN troops would be drawn from ECOMOG, which is
dominated by Nigeria, and which helped protect the elected
government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
Military analysts in Freetown have noted the importance of
diamonds and agricultural produce like coffee and cocoa in the
eastern provinces and the involvement of foreign mercenaries as
being behind the unruly attitude of Commander Bockarie, who is
said to be surrounded by such outside interests.
"The RUF war is not just about control of state power," says a
former lecturer of political science at the University of Sierra
Leone. "It is a complex battle for diamonds, gold and agricultural
produce which the rebels have been illegally mining and
cultivating, and then smuggling abroad."
In all of this, the war-weary Sierra Leoneans have borne the
brunt, and are becoming increasingly apprehensive about the cloudy
political atmosphere.
Bockarie, who is said to be amassing troops, has boasted that
he has the capacity to disrupt the whole peace process by renewing
hostilities.
These ranting have forced many potential investors to hold back
their investment plans. There are growing fears that tensions
within the RUF may explode and plunge the country back into
anarchy.
A western diplomat in Freetown told IPS: "I think that the
moral guarantors of the peace accord must mount a diplomatic war
to avert a situation that would reverse the gains so far made."
Perhaps, it is this fluidity that has halted the return of tens
of thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees in neighbouring countries
and also hastened the exit of many who fear a resurgence of
violence in the strife-torn West African nation.(END/IPS/lf/mn/99)
Origin: Harare/POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE/
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[c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
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