SIERRA LEONE-POLITICS: Sankoh Deposed in Leadership Squabble

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Mar 17 1997 (IPS) - The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which has waged a six year war against the Sierra Leonean government, is caught in the grips of a leadership wrangle which threatens to split the rebels into factions.

A rebel faction announced at the weekend that Corporal Foday Sankoh was no longer leader of the RUF.

“With a view to promoting the spirit of healing and reconciliation and a rapid return to normalcy in Sierra Leone, the RUF High Command declares with immediate effect, the leadership role of Corporal Sankoh terminated,” said a weekend pres release from the RUF’s base in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

Sankoh and the RUF leadership have lived in Abidjan for the past one year.

The dissident faction headed by a little known captain, Philip Palmer, who is believed to be the RUF’s war strategist, said Corporal Sankoh had been ousted, because he had persistently refused to hold talks with United Nations officials and members of the Peace Commission who had travelled to Abidjan to consult him.

Sankoh’s refusal to nominate members for the Joint (government and RUF) Monitoring and Demobilisation Committees was also given as one of the reasons for his ouster. The committees and commission were established to implement and monitor the November 1996 Peace Accord signed by the government and RUF in Abidjan.

Palmer is reported to be a graduate of the University of Sierra Leone and his deputy, Ibrahim Deen-Jalloh, is a former lecturer of the Bunumbu Teacher’s Training College in eastern Sierra Leone.

But the RUF spokesman Gibril Massaquoi told IPS by phone from his base in Abidjan that “the so-called ouster of the leader, Corporal Sankoh, is a fabrication”.

“As far as we are concerned, Corporal Sankoh, is still the legitimate leader of the RUF and we continue to hold the position that he must be allowed by the Freetown government to relocate to Sierra Leone,” Massaquoi said.

The government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah has refused to allow Sankoh to return to Kailahun District in the eastern part of the country where the rebels launched their first attack in March 1991.

Kabbah’s government fears that Sankoh may set up a parallel government in the strategic district. It has called on the rebel leader to obey Peace Accord and to transform his movement into a political party.

President Kabbah’s government however has already welcomed the new RUF leadership. The president said on state radio and television Sunday that: “The government of Sierra Leone expresses its willingness to give the new RUF leadership every support and cooperation necessary to bring about true and sustainable peace to our beloved country.

“The reason given by the new leadership of the RUF for removing Corporal Sankoh from his position clearly shows that the new leadership of the RUF is interested in Sierra Leone having lasting peace, and is prepared to work with the government for the reconstruction and resettlement of our war-torn country and war- weary people,” the President added.

In the midst of the leadership wrangle within the RUF, according to reports from the northern and southeastern districts, there have been renewed clashes between the RUF rebels and the Kamajors, the local militia of hunters who have been fighting on the government’s side. There are also reports of highway attacks on passenger vehicles.

“How can we rejoice at the removal of Corporal Sankoh as RUF leader?”, asked Joseph Kamanda, a military analyst in the capital. “Is Palmer any better? Wasn’t he a part of the same gang of bandits and murderers?”

Some Sierra Leonean political analysts however believe that Sankoh’s removal may finally signal an end to the hostilities. Despite the signing of the Peace Accord last November, there have still been sporadic attacks.

“It was clear to everyone that Sankoh was the most stubborn…I believe if the new leadership is enlightened, as we are made to believe, then peace may be in sight,” said Jusu Bockarie with the University of Sierra Leone.

High school teacher Musu Turay echoed this view: “Once Sankoh is gone, peace might just well be in sight.”

But some analysts said that it may be too soon to predict a complete end to the war since the two most feared RUF rebel commanders, Zenu on the southeastern front and ‘Mosquito’ on the northern front, who are both Sankoh loyalists, may refuse to follow Palmer and his faction.