POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: Banditry, Hostage Taking On The Rise

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Oct 8 1999 (IPS) - The return home of rebel leaders Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Johnny Paul Koroma of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) seems to have done little to halt the spate of cease-fire violations and hostage takings by their combatants on the ground.

The latest incident occurred on Tuesday around the town of Masiaka, about 75 kilometres north of the capital Freetown, where armed rebels seized a public bus and looted all the goods and foodstuffs on board.

Officials of the state-owned Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation confirmed to IPS this week that the bus, which had 52 passengers on board, was heading for the eastern regional capital of Kenema when the gunmen attacked it on the main highway and diverted it into the bush.

An escapee, who preferred anonymity, said the rebels let go all the elderly passengers and forced the young men and women to carry all the goods – foodstuff and jewellery – into the bush. He said the dissidents have vowed to step up attacks on vehicles plying the highway, ahead of the proposed disarmament and demobilisation (DDR) of former combatants.

“They’ve branded the attack as ‘operation pay yourself’ and are determined to wreak havoc on villages and towns around their jungle bases”, the escapee added.

Sierra Leone’s independent Standard Times newspaper reported Wednesday that thousands of US Dollars in cash and property were stolen by the armed rebels during the attack.

In an editorial, the tabloid said: “Our misery is only now compounded by the fact that we have been denied explanation as to why we became enemies and targets of our own brothers in arms. Abductions and violations of the July 7 peace Accord have continued to occur even when the two rebel leaders had openly decreed peace.”

Another tabloid, The Democrat, claimed that: “17 young women on board the bus were abducted and after being taken to the rebels forest base, were raped.”

Security sources in Freetown say the hostages have still not been released, but that the commandeered bus, which was abandoned halfway in the bush by the rebels, has been recovered.

This latest hostage taking and waylaying of passenger vehicles, has dented the hopes of many Sierra Leoneans who had thought that the homecoming last week (Oct 3) of the rebel leaders would put the combatants under control.

In August, splinter rebel fighters abducted UN Military Observers, members of the West African peace-keeping force ECOMOG, workers and journalists, in exchange for food and medicines and representation in the proposed power-sharing government.

Since then, war-weary Sierra Leoneans, recovering from their country’s eight-year conflict, have been asking questions about the control rebel leaders, Sankoh and Koroma, may have over their combatants, given the spate of lawlessness and banditry taking place in areas under their control.

The AFRC leader, Koroma, was assaulted by a group of amputees at a Westside Freetown Camp, Tuesday, when he paid them a surprise visit.

Koroma’s fighters are blamed for the amputation of the legs, arms, nose, hips of hundreds of civilians, the youngest being a 2- year-old girl Memuna Mansaray whose right arm was slashed off by rebel fighters using machete.

“We cannot have you in our midst, you mass murderer, go away and leave us in peace,” cried an angry amputee, when Koroma attempted to comfort them with words.

The Chairman of the Amputee Association, Muctarr Jalloh, blocked the way of Koroma, who was only saved by the intervention of the Nigerian-led ECOMOG security , who hurriedly spirited him away.

“You are responsible for our current state of handicap, you ordered your fighters to maim, burn and loot. You don’t have conscience at all”, Jalloh ranted.

Analysts have interpreted the current highway attacks and hostage taking as having the potential to not only derail the disarmament and reintegration programme which involves some 45,000 combatants, but also the process of reconciliation in the West African country.

“The road to sustainable peace is indeed rocky but we are trying hard to make it work,” said a government official in Freetown.