SIERRA LEONE-POLITICS: Massacre Puts Country Back On The Alert

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Dec 11 1996 (IPS) - The murder of more than 150 civilians in the north of Sierra Leone, barely a week after the official signing of a cease-fire agreement, has the country’s war-weary population once again on the alert.

Days after the peace accord was signed, the villages of Kubehuna and Magbenka in Tonkolili, Northern Province, were attacked by armed men. The villagers who had been forced to flee their villages because of the conflict, had just started to return home.

According to eye-witnesses, the attackers entered the villages and began firing at civilians or attacking them with machetes. Some villagers — mostly women and children — died after being forced to enter a house which was then set alight.

So far, the attackers have not been identified and survivors have been unable to say whether they were government soldiers or rebel forces.

Isata Kallon, who only recently resumed her business of transporting goods for trade from the northern town of Matotoka in the Tonkolili District, has put her activities on hold following the news of the massacre.

“I can’t travel anymore. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing left to rejoice about,” Kallon said. “The last incident shows that peace is only on paper. The war could resume any time.”

According to Mike Tucker, a military analyst here, the incident in the north comes as no surprise.

“I am not surprised at all. The proper modalities for peace haven’t been put in place and until foreign military observers step in to disarm and encamp former combatants, peace will remain illusory,” Tucker said.

The United Nations, the Organisation of African Unity and the Economic Community of West Africa have all consented to provide logistical support to disarm rebels and facilitate their rehabilitation, diplomatic sources said.

The government of Sierra Leone and the armed opposition Revolutionary United Front (RUF) signed a peace agreement in the Ivoirian capital of Abidjan to end the country’s civil war on Nov 30.

The agreement called for the immediate cessation of hostilities, the demobilisation and disarmament of the RUF and its integration into the national army. A neutral monitoring group, with participation from the international community, is to be set up to monitor breaches of the cease-fire.

Although the government of President Tejan Kabbah has yet to release an official statement on the killings, a senior government official who declined to be named, has pointed a finger at the RUF rebels.

“Our troops are operating on instructions not to fire a shot and so far as the government is concerned, these were acts perpetrated by the RUF,” the official said.

But the RUF leader, Corporal Foday Sankoh, has denied that his forces were involved in the act.

A political analyst here told IPS that the massacre so soon after the peace agreement was signed could put a dent in President Kabbah’s growing popularity.

“I believe the peace deal is the President’s single most achievement since he assumed office nine months ago,” said Tom Sandi of the University of Sierra Leone. “There have been reports of corruption and political patronage and the peace deal seemed to have overshadowed all of that.”

The civil war, which erupted in the country almost six years ago, has displaced thousands of people within the country and sent others fleeing into neighbouring countries.

In a statement issued from London on Tuesday, the human rights group Amnesty International, noted that the lastest incident in Tonkolili District emphasised “the urgent need for monitoring of the cease-fire to be accompanied by a human rights verification commission to monitor adherence to the human rights standards referred to in the peace agreement…”