UN Deploys Peacekeepers in S. Leone's Diamond RegionThe UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) Tuesday said it had deployed troops to the rebel-held diamond mining area since last week, according to reports reaching Tuesday."We have two companies of Bangladeshi peacekeepers, approximately 250 men, on permanent patrol, stationed at Koidu in Kono district. They patrol east toward the Guinea border and south towards Daru," UNAMSIL spokeswoman Margaret Novicki was quoted as saying in Freetown. In Kono district, the heart of the diamond zone, the pro- government militias known as the Kamajohs had violated the cease- fire agreement by attacking positions of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) between May 19 to 20, according to the UNAMSIL' s earlier information. The UNAMSIL said it had sent a delegation with rebels and government representatives to talk to members of the Kamajohs, adding that the Sierra Leonean government also assigned officials to investigate the recent ceasefire violations in a bid to ensure the progress of the disarmament process. Earlier last week, the RUF and the Kamajohs agreed to start " disarmament, demobilization and reintegration without delay" after key peace talks in Freetown. The step is one of the biggest taken since the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States began making efforts to end the decade-long bloody civil war in the country. Under the disarmament agreement, both the RUF and the Kamajoh agreed to surrender weapons to the UNAMSIL from May 18 in two areas -- Kambia, about 80 kilometers north of Freetown, and Port Loko, some 60 kilometres northeast of the Sierra Leone capital. According to the UNAMSIL, up to Tuesday 1,729 combatants, made up of 814 RUF fighters and 915 Kamajors, had surrendered their weapons at appointed collection points. As the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world, The UNAMSIL, which the Security Council has agreed to increase to 17,500 troops from a current strength of 12,000, are trying to strengthen its deployment aimed at achieving lasting peace in the West African country. A cease-fire in last November, which allowed U.N. troops to deploy in rebel-held areas, largely ended decade-long fighting between the government army and the rebels, who launched their rebellion in 1991 that has killed more than 20,000 people and made thousands refugees in the little west African nation. |
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