By Lansana Fofana
MAPEH, Sierra Leone, Apr 24 2003 (IPS)

"I fled across the border into Sierra Leone at the heat of battle in Cape Mount Country in the Northwest Liberia," says Major Wilfred Parson of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).

Parson is the most senior regular of the AFL to have deserted his area of operation and flee the frontline of battle.

"I do not intent to return to fighting nor (do I intent to) go back to Liberia while war is still raging between government forces and rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD)," he says.

The fleeing combatants are now at an internment camp at Mapeh, in the northern provincial district of Port Loko, some eight kilometres from the airport garrison town of Lungi.

Captain Arafan Warritay, commander of Sierra Leonean soldiers deployed around the camp, says the number of internees is growing because of the escalation of fighting in Liberia.

"At the moment, we have a total of 352 internees and they are combatants from the government army, LURD rebels and irregulars fighting on the side of the government," Warritay told IPS over the weekend.

The camp looks more like a detention facility for prisoners of war and conditions there are not the best. "Our major constraint here is that of medicare," complains Colonel Munyah Sheriff of LURD. "Sometimes when an internee falls ill, it is difficult to get vehicle to transport that person to hospital, and also our relatives are not allowed to come to the camp and stay with us."

At the camp, fighters from all the warring sides are encamped together and it seems they are now nurturing the feeling of reconciliation and an end to violence and war in their country.

LURD’s Major Fomba Kanneh says: "Innocent people are dying in Liberia and I see no sense in the war continuing. Right here at the camp, we are learning to reconcile and preach the concept of one Liberia."

This is unusual because the LURD rebels have engaged in bitter battle, since four years ago, for control of political power. The rebels now control most of the south-western border with Sierra Leone and have vowed to match on Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, to oust President Charles Taylor and his government.

At Mapeh internment camp, the combatants speak more nationally than on lines of political divisions. "We are certainly interested in what goes on in our country but for now our concern is living here peacefully while hoping to go back when the war is over," remarks Captain Ebenezer Paye of the AFL.

More combatants are expected to flee into Sierra Leone as the conflict in Liberia continues to be closing in on Monrovia and tens of thousands of civilians reported to be displaced across the country.

Neighbouring countries like Sierra Leone and Guinea have recorded hundred of thousands of Liberian refugees and are both overburdened because of scarce resources.

Sierra Leoneans are worried that the internment of the Liberian combatants may be a security threat to a country that is only now emerging from its most brutal decade-long civil conflict.

But Colonel M.S. Koroma, a Sierra Leonean soldier, thinks otherwise. "I want to assure Sierra Leoneans not to worry because everything is under control and the army will not allow the Liberians to mess the security situation," he says.

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