 |
Talks on Restoring Lasting Peace Kick off in Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leonean government, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and the United Nations officials Friday began a new round of talks to strengthen the ongoing ceasefire aimed at restoring lasting peace in the war-torn country.
The government delegation led by Justice Minister and Attorney General Solomon Berewa has arrived in Kenema, capital of the Eastern Province, whose diamonds have fueled decade-long civil war in the West African country, according to reports reaching here from the country's capital Freetown.
The tripartite talks are under an improving atmosphere after the government Thursday freed 41 RUF members from prison including Paolo Bangura, a former Minister of Energy and Power.
According to Berewa, the talks will concentrate on political aspects of the peace process.
Berewa was quoted as saying that RUF spokesman Gibril Massaquoi will probably lead the RUF delegation, though he hoped those RUF leaders attending also include interim rebel leader Issa Sesay, who was appointed to the post following the arrest of RUF leader Foday Sankoh.
More than 100 RUF rebels, including Sankoh, were detained after the rebels reopened their military operation against the government in May last year, when they took about 500 United Nations peacekeepers as hostage in violation of the Lome Peace Accord signed in 1999 between the RUF and the government.
The detention of Sankoh and other senior rebels has been an obstacle to the peace process.
In order to press the government to release senior RUF members detained in Freetown, including Sankoh, RUF rebels earlier this month had stopped some 700 government officers in Lunsar, about 60 kilometers east of Makeni, saying that they would not allow the deployment until the government set their leader free.
Local analysts said the government is likely to press RUF rebels to allow the Sierra Leonean army to deploy to eastern Kono district via Lunsar during the talks.
Although there are some skirmishes over diamond mining between the RUF and the pro-government Civil Defense Force (CDF), the situation in the tiny African country is getting stable with the continued deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the former rebel-controlled areas and implementation of the May ceasefire.
As the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world with more than 12,000 peacekeepers, the UNAMSIL is trying to strengthen its deployment aimed at reaching lasting peace in the country.
To date, more than 4,000 fighters from CDF and RUF had disarmed in Kono District. The latest disarmament move brings the number of combatants reported to have disarmed to more than 14,000 since May.
During the 10-year-long civil war, the RUF, which controlled almost all the diamond-rich areas in the eastern and northern parts of Sierra Leone, has been using diamonds financing its war against the successive governments.
In This Section
|