SIERRA LEONE: Prospects For Peace Talks Hang In The Balance

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Feb 24 1999 (IPS) - Barely two weeks after President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah announced his government’s willingness to hold talks with rebels, fighting has intensified with dissidents attacking towns and villages in the north and east of Sierra Leone.

The authorities in the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown and the West African peace-keeping force ECOMOG confirmed to IPS this week that the strategic northwestern town of Kambia, was attacked by rebels about a week ago, but were pushed back Tuesday.

“Kambia is now safe as far as our troops have driven out the rebels, who suffered tremendous losses,” an ECOMOG spokesperson told IPS. He did not elaborate.

During the fighting, an eyewitness claimed that, “more than 70 residential homes were burnt down by the rebels, who looted foodstuffs and other movable items from civilians”.

The eyewitness, who refused to be named for security reasons, said “a number of civilians were killed, while thousands fled into the bush”.

Kambia lies on the main highway between Sierra Leone and Guinea, on the border.

The rebels apparently want to capture the town so that they can cut off military reinforcement and logistics from Guinea, for the Guinean ECOMOG contingent in Sierra Leone. Normal vehicular traffic on the highway had been disrupted.

According to the ministry of defence sources, heavy fighting is going on for the control of the northern regional capital of Makeni, about 170 kms from Freetown.

Rebel forces had held the town since December, but ECOMOG troops, backed by local militia Kamajors, have been battling with the rebels to regain control of the town, which is also strategic. It has a military barracks and is centrally located in the West African country.

Further eastwards, local militia fighters have, since the start of this week, waged sustained campaigns against the rebels for the control of the diamond-rich towns of Koidu and Tongo Fields.

Unconfirmed reports say the rebels use the proceeds from diamond sales to augment their war machinery. To date, the rebels control five major towns and a string of villages. This is quite unlike six months ago, when their operational bases were clustered in the thick of the jungle.

This is not good news for Freetown residents who are still recovering from last month’s rebel assault on the capital, which left about 3,000 dead, and more than 800 houses torched, and about 150,000 civilians displaced in the city.

And with the rebels said to be operating in the peninsula mountains overlooking Freetown, there are fears that they may regroup and strike again.

All these developments come at a time when peace talks are underway. Over the weekend, representatives of the United Nations and rebels met in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan to work out modalities for future peace talks.

“The meeting in Abidjan was fruitful,” said Francis Okelo, UN Secretary General’s Special representative to Sierra Leone, who is also head of the UN Observer Mission (UNOMSIL) in Sierra Leone.

Omrie Golley, who is the Revolutionary United Front’s (RUF) political and legal advisor in London, said the rebels were well prepared for preliminary talks, without preconditions. Golley, who is a Sierra Leonean dissident in Britain, led the rebel delegation to Abidjan.

But the venue for the proposed talks is still being debated, as both sides reject each others suggestion.

The rebels opt for Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, while the government accuses the two countries as covertly supporting the dissidents.

Back home, civic groups, opposition politicians and activists have been putting pressure on the beleaguered government of Kabbah to expedite the process of dialogue with the rebels.

But, the intensification of attacks by rebels on civilian settlements and the alleged hacking of limbs, rape and murder of non-combatants, have forced the government to rethink its peace strategy.

“How long can we go on making concessions when the rebels continue to attack and maim civilians,” asked President Kabbah, in a nationwide radio address earlier this week.

“The UN Security Council members should exert military pressure on the rebels, not just political, because the rebels are intransigent,” he said.

The rebels have interpreted Kabbah’s statement as “muscle flexing” and an “about-turn”. And, with the prospects for peace talks hanging in the balance, thousands of civilians are fleeing the capital.

UN estimates that some 400,000 refugees have crossed the borders into Guinea and Liberia since the conflict in Sierra Leone erupted nine years ago.