POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: Rebel Leader Starts New Life In Prison

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jul 28 1998 (IPS) - Sierra Leone’s rebel leader Foday Sankoh, who was recently extradited from Nigeria, has started a new life in a prison here.

Sankoh, 65, launched his guerilla war in March 1991, from neighbouring Liberia, with the alleged backing of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).

Sankoh’s rebels, who then numbered about 5,000 successfully controlled several towns and villages in the south-east of the West African country.

By 1995, the rebels had come as close as 30 kilometres from the capital Freetown, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Several towns and villages were burnt down, hospitals, schools and farmlands ransacked and the economic foundation of the country seriously affected.

Between March 1991 and July 1997, four governments changed — two military and two civilians — all unable to crush the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

The turning point in the conflict was a peace agreement signed in Nov. 1996, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, between the civilian government of president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and an (RUF) delegation, headed by Sankoh.

Among the provisions of the accord were the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of rebel forces into “meaningful” sectors of civil society.

There was also a clause calling for sharing of power with the rebel leader and the complete cesassion of hostilities, on all fronts. But, this was hardly to be, as the rebels intensified their attacks barely two months after the signing of the accord, killing civilians, burning and looting residential homes.

Stories of complicity between rebels and government troops abounded and there were several cases of soldiers serving the government by day and rebels at night. This gave birth to “sobels”, an acronym for disloyal soldiers.

The most concrete evidence of collaboration came on May 25, 1997 when junior officers of the national army staged a coup that ousted Kabbah’s 14-month old civilian government and invited the rebels to help form a government.

The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) regime which was the coalition between the army and rebels, had as chairman Major Jonny Paul Koroma from the army and Sankoh (who was then in jail in Nigeria) as deputy chairman, from the RUF.

But Sankoh never assumed office and the AFRC was kicked out of office in Feb. 1998, by a Nigerian-led West African intervention force Ecomog.

Reactions to Sankoh’s deportation have been sharp here. “The man deserves public lynching. It’s good the bandit has been sent home to face the music,” says Musa Keita, a farmer from the northern capital of Makoni, whose house was razed, two members of his family killed and the limbs of his brother chopped off by rebels.

Sallay Turay, a housewife here, thanked Nigeria for extraditing the RUF leader. “Well done Nigeria for extraditing that murderer. We’ll show him that what his gang of terrorists did in this country cannot go unpunished,” she says.

The rebel leader is currently being detained by the Ecomog at an undisclosed place. But Sankoh, who was shown on the state television here over the weekend, appeared to distance himself from the new wave of atrocities being committed by retreating junta troops in the countryside.

“I am for peace and I do not support the destruction being perpetrated by rebels,” Sankoh said. “I never ordered those (rebel) commandos to engage in violence against civilians. If I am permitted to speak to them on the ground, I can talk sense into them.”

Already remnants of the rebel group have been dislodged from most of their strongholds and the Ecomog force seems poised for a final push against rebels, who still hold out in the bush.

“We now have the upper hand and it won’t take too long before we bring the war to a close,” Ecomog Task Force Commander Brig- Gen. Maxwell Khobe boasted recently.

With Sankoh now at hand, the government, over the weekend, gave rebel forces a two-week ultimatum to give up or be tracked down by Ecomog and Sierra Leone’s armed forces into their hiding places.

Sankoh’s extradition and official plans to put him on trial for crimes committed against humanity, is believed to have upset his long-standing ally, Taylor.

The Liberian leader, who was himself a rebel leader and strong backer of Sankoh’s RUF, had been engaged in a shuttle diplomacy, coaxing both Gen. Abdelsalam Abubakar, the new Nigerian leader and Kabbah to consider releasing Sankoh.

Two weeks ago, Kabbah addressed the nation on the Sankoh issue. He said, “Foday Sankoh will be tried and punished accordingly, for all the crimes he committed against the people of this country.”

Although the government is yet to disclose when Sankoh will be put on trial, two separate trials involving 120 Sierra Leoneans — both military and civilians — are underway here.