POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: Rebels Snub Government’s Amnesty Offer

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jun 8 1998 (IPS) - An unconditional amnesty offered by the Sierra Leone government to remnants of the deposed military junta has been rebuffed by the rebels who have carried out a series of new attacks against civilians in the North.

During a provincial tour to assess the security situation in the country, Charles Margai, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Local Government said last Thursday: “On behalf of the government, I wish to announce that we are offering an unconditional amnesty to all combattants of the AFRC who lay down their arms and surrender to ECOMOG.

“I assure them that nothing would happen to them and the full letter of the Geneva Convention on war prisoners would be applied,” Minister Margai added.

Margai’s statement was made in the northern regional capital of Makeni. Retreating forces of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), which was ousted by the Nigerian-led West African Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG) in February, have committed numerous atrocities against civilians in the area.

The government’s olive branch however, was snubbed by the rebels who on Sunday, launched a series of attacks in the northern towns of Gberray and Rosanda.

The rebels burnt property and attacked civilians in the two towns. According to reports, more than a dozen civilians, including children and women, had their limbs amputated.

This is the first time that the government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah is offering the rebels an unconditional amnesty since it was reinstated on Mar. 10. Kabbah’s government was ousted lasted May by junior military officers led by Johnny Paul Koroma who formed the AFRC government.

“Our intention here is to put behind us the sad chapter of war and embark on rebuilding our devastated country,” Presidential Affairs Minister Momodou Koroma told IPS Monday.

Koroma added that President Kabbah believes in the concept of reconciliation and the participation of every Sierra Leonean, including rebels in nation building.

However, Sierra Leoneans who have been the targets of the AFRC attacks believe the government should not extend a hand of reconciliation to the rebels.

“Is this government insensitive? How could they be conveying amputees to hospitals, while at the same time telling us that they would pardon those murderers?,” asked Musa Jabbie.

Jabbie’s house was burnt by rebels of the former junta, his property looted and four members of his family were slaughtered.

“I think that with the ECOMOG force and civil defence forces now having the upper hand against the rebels, there should be no turning back. The rebels should be pursued to the finish,” Jabbie added.

High school teacher Michael Jah, a Freetown resident, agreed. “Isn’t the government offering too much? I think the war is still going on and so it must be pursued to its conclusion,” he said.

One military analyst said that until those rebels who have been captured and who are languishing in jail are given an amnesty, rebels in the bush will continue their campaign of terror.

“If the junta people currently detained are given amnesty and released, perhaps those in the bush would stop the insurgency,” said military analyst Charles Campbell.

“(Also), what guarantees are there that they would enjoy the benefits of the Geneva Convention on war prisoners?”

The security problem in the West African nation has been compounded by the stance of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which teamed up with the AFRC.

The RUF have vowed that they will only stop their campaign of atrocities dubbed “Operation No Living Thing”, if their jailed leader Corporal Foday Sankoh is released from Nigeria where he has been detained for over a year on charges of arms possession.

ECOMOG and its civil defence force allies have dislodged the junta from all but two of Sierra Leone’s 12 districts and military experts say it is only a matter of time before the rebellion is crushed.