SIERRA LEONE-POLITICS: Rebels Abduct Peace Commissioners

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Mar 31 1997 (IPS) - A new obstacle has been placed on the rocky road to peace in Sierra Leone by the weekend abduction of several people, including two peace commissioners, in rebel- controlled territory on the border with Guinea.

The kidnapping was announced by the Commission for the Consolidation of Peace (CCP), which is overseeing the peace process launched by a November 1996 accord between the government and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels.

The CCP “considers the abduction of Messrs Fayia Musa and Ibrahim Deen Jalloh totally unacceptable and detrimental to the peace process,” the commission said in a statement read out on Sunday night on state radio and television.

“The abductors were misguided elements from within the RUF and the CCP appeals to them to release the peace envoys immediately.”

The two men were on an official mission to hold consultations with RUF members in Sierra Leone as well as neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea. They were kidnapped as soon as they showed up in rebel-controlled territory in eastern Sierra Leone.

There was no immediate reaction from the Sierra Leone government, but many people here feel the abduction is linked to a rift within the rebel group.

Three weeks ago, a breakawy faction within the RUF, including the two men abducted over the weekend, had announced the overthrow of rebel leader Foday Sankoh amid reports that he had been detained in Nigeria, where he arrived from his base in Abidjan in early March, for the possession of ammunition.

“Abductions are not a new strategy for the RUF,” commented George Taylor-Kamara, a University of Sierra Leone political analyst. “Whenever the going gets tough for them, they resort to such tactics.”

Said public servant Thomas Deen: “It is quite obvious that Sankoh’s loyalists are playing a revenge game. They may even demand the release of Foday Sankoh as a bargain for the freeing of the peace envoys.”

But in a weekend interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Sankoh denied that he was under detention or that he had been ousted as the rebels’ leader. “I am a free man in Lagos,” he said. “I can go wherever I want and I’m in full control of the RUF.”

“Ibrahim Deen Jalloh and Philip Palmer (the presumed leader of the palace coup) and Fayia Musa are traitors,” he added. “They’ve betrayed the RUF.”

Events on the ground appear to indicate that Sankoh loyalists have the upper hand and that the breakaway group, which has shown a greater inclination than Sankoh to cooperate with the peace effort, does not command much support within the rebel movement.

Attacks carried out last week in the north of the country appear to be the work of Sankoh’s men. In one of the ambushes, armed rebels killed three civilians and burned a fuel tanker. Survivors say they claimed they were intensifying their attacks in retaliation for Sankoh’s “detention” in Nigeria.

There have also been reports that the perception among RUF combattants that leaders of the breakaway group were enjoying the government’s largesse in Freetown while they were starving in the bush has caused resentment among the rebels.

In Freetown itself doubts have emerged about the representativity of the dissidents, especially since they have not yet chosen anyone to relace Sankoh as RUF leader.

In the meantime, the abduction poses a major problem for the CCP’s effort to move Sierra Leone along the road to normalcy, according to CCP member Desmond Luke. “This development is most unfortunate as the abduction of Messrs Musa and Jalloh will be detrimental to the peace process,” he told IPS on Monday.

The process had already been bogged down by the RUF’s delay in fulfilling its commitments to the November accord — including the demobilisation of its members. Many of its combattants have not reported to demobilisation camps set up in various parts of the country.

The new development, the sluggish pace of demobilisation, and clashes between RUF elements and a pro-government militia since the November accord all hamper Sierra Leone’s emergence from a civil war believed to have killed more than 10,000 people since it broke out in March 1991.