From Reuters News
Hi-Tech Weapons Fail to
Reach S.Leone Front Line
Sunday, May 14, 2000
By Kurt Schork
FREETOWN (Reuters) - A formidable
international force was ranged
against Sierra Leone's poorly armed rebels
on Monday but loyalist
troops on the front line complained they
were starved of food and
ammunition.
The capital Freetown was increasingly
secure as thousands of
United Nations peacekeepers and British
paratroops with
state-of-the-art equipment guarded
strategic positions. A six-ship
British fleet with 800 marines, Harrier
jets and attack helicopters
on board was anchored off the port city.
"If you look at the position today in
Sierra Leone it is better than
it was yesterday, better than it was last
week. The progress now
which we are seeing is good," General Sir
Charles Guthrie, Britain's
top soldier, told reporters in Freetown on
Sunday during a 24-hour
visit.
But at the front less than 50 miles (80
km) to the east, the
picture was less rosy for pro-government
fighters in a bewildering
coalition grouping the new Sierra Leone
Army (SLA), the disbanded
one and the Kamajor traditional hunters'
militia.
"We have been in this town since yesterday
and we have not
received any food, water or ammunition
from the government,"
SLA Lance Corporal Sewah Amos, 27,
protested in Masiaka, a key
crossroads town recaptured from the
Revolutionary United Front
(RUF) rebels.
"The government is not supporting us. We
captured this town
yesterday. If they supply us we could keep
fighting, if not we will
have to withdraw. We can't do anything
without ammunition."
A small SLA army Land Rover with a few
inadequate crates of
ammunition finally went up the road to the
front late on Sunday.
FOREIGN FORCES IN THE REAR
The well-equipped foreign forces shoring
up elected President
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah are staying in the
rear.
The 9,000 U.N. troops from several
countries do not have a
mandate to enforce peace. The British,
under independent
command, were sent initially to evacuate
foreigners but say they
are "liberally interpreting" their role to
include securing the airport
and key areas in Freetown and helping both
the U.N. and the SLA
with command and control tasks.
"We are not involved in combat and we have
said we will not be,"
said General Guthrie, Britain's Chief of
Defense Staff.
"We are perfectly happy to be working
alongside the U.N... and we
are certainly not commanding the Sierra
Leone Army."
A sudden rebel offensive in early May
caught the U.N.
peacekeepers off guard. Guthrie said he
expected British troops to
withdraw in mid-June once U.N.
reinforcements had arrived.
Foday Sankoh's RUF fighters took up arms
again following a
dispute with the peacekeepers over
disarmament, a key provision
in a 1999 treaty which was supposed to end
eight years of brutal
civil war.
The rebels have a trump card -- they are
still holding hostage 486
U.N. peacekeepers, most of them Zambians,
and military observers
who they captured or cut off some 12 days
ago. The retreating
rebels appear to have no interest in
freeing them but 18 hostages
were allowed to join an isolated and
encircled Indian battalion, the
U.N. said on Sunday.
SANKOH IS "CULT FIGURE"
President Kabbah appealed to the RUF on
Sunday to release the
hostages. He said the rebels should disarm
and accept that their
cause was lost.
"Let them know that there is no reason to
detain foreign nationals,
that they must release them immediately,
unharmed and
unconditionally," Kabbah said in a radio
address.
The overall commander of the U.N. force,
Indian Major-General
V.K. Jetley, said he had received some
information about the
hostages.
"We learn that many of them are well
although they are in need of
proper clothes. There is no report of any
torture," he said at the
joint news conference with General
Guthrie.
Sankoh, who was given the rank of
vice-president under the
treaty, has not been seen since a shootout
at his Freetown
residence last Monday.
There are growing calls in Sierra Leone
for Sankoh to face an
international tribunal for war crimes
committed during the 1990s.
But General Jetley seemed to disagree.
"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."
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