Maybe it was halted due to possible good news coming out of Sierra Leone yesterday. Hopefully companies can be back in the country by December/January if RUF intentions are truely sincere to get the Country back on its feet. The rebel leaders finally arrived in Freetown Sunday to start implementing the peace plan. I have been following SL for three years now and this is the best chance at sustained peace they have. If this fails, nothing will ever save SL.
3 October: RUF leader Corporal Foday Sankoh and former AFRC Chairman Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Paul Koroma arrived in Freetown on Sunday, nearly three months after the signing of the Lom‚ Peace Accord on July 7 to end more than eight years of civil war. "We are here. We are here," said Sankoh as he
stepped off the plane at Lungi International Airport. "It's a success for the people of Sierra Leone. It's a victory," he added. Koroma followed from the plane, accompanied by his wife and holding a small girl in his arms. The two rebel
leaders were greeted by a small group of family members and well-wishers on the balcony of the airport terminal. An earlier plane brought senior rebel aides, field commanders, and their families. These included, according to a report by Focus on Sierra Leone Editor Ambrose Ganda, former civil servant and presidential secretary Alhaji Sheku A.T. Bayoh and journalist and radio presenter Hilton Fyle.
A delegation of ECOWAS and international officials companied the two rebel leaders on their flight from Monrovia to Freetown. The two rebel leaders met with government ministers, and officials of ECOMOG and the United Nations Military Observer Force in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) at the airport before being flown by helicopter to Cockerill Military Headquarters. From there they proceeded by
motorcade to the Presidential Lodge for talks with President Kabbah, following which the three held a joint press conference. "Ladies and gentlemen, today, we hail the dawn of a new era. The war has ended. The hour of peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation has come. We stand before you today to ask for your forgiveness and a spirit of reconciliation across this country," Sankoh said in a
prepared statement which was broadcast over the radio. "You, who we have wronged, you have every human right to feel bitter and unforgiving, but we plead with you for forgiveness. Those who have died, those who are grieving for the loss of their loved ones, those who have been disabled, whose property has been destroyed, those traumatized -- the children, the youth, the women, the aged -- we ask their forgiveness." However, Sankoh denied that the RUF was holding thousands of civilians, including some 3,000 children, documented missing since the rebel attack on Freetown in January. "The question is irrelevant, all lies," he said in answer to a question as to when the civilian abductees would be released. "We, the Revolutionary United Front, do not abduct people, we rescue them." Sankoh maintained he had instructed his commanders to release all
prisoners-of-war and abductees, and that those orders should already have been carried out.
Koroma, too, called for reconciliation. "Let bygones be bygones," he said. "If we don't forgive one another we cannot implement the peace accord." Koroma said a key demand of the rebel soldiers -- that they be reinstated in the Sierra Leone Army -- had been granted, although there was no confirmation of this from President Kabbah. Koroma called on his followers in control of the diamond areas to cease illicit mining. "I want them to know that the war is over, and the riches of this country must go to the people of this country and not individuals," he said.
President Kabbah declared that "this is indeed a great day for the people of Sierra Leone," adding: "By this symbolic occasion we have demonstrated to our people that the war is over." He declined Sankoh's request, however, for the immediate lifting of the state of emergency and night curfew, saying he would first have to consult with his security chiefs.
Four European non-governmental organisations announced a campaign Sunday to prevent rebels in Africa from funding their military operations with illicit diamond sales. The "Fatal Transactions" campaign will target diamonds originating in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Angola. The four participating organisations, Britain's Global Witness, Germany's Medico International, The Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa, and the pan-European development group Novib, called on the legitimate diamond trade to put effective controls in place to ensure that diamonds can no longer fund weapons purchases by rebel armies. |
