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S. Leonean Govt. Troops Deployed in Rebel-Controlled Region
The Sierra Leonean government Thursday announced that the government troops have been deployed in the rebel-held territory under the cooperation of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), according to reports reaching here from the country's capital Freetown.
The government troops passed unhindered at Makeni, where the RUF northern headquarters is based, on Wednesday to deploy at the town of Kabala for the first time since 1997, Sierra Leone Army spokesman John Milton was quoted as saying.
The government forces were given a cheerful welcome as they entered Makeni and Kabala, Milton said, adding: "These were areas not accessible to Sierra Leone's Army as they have been occupied by the RUF. If today we can go into these areas as troops without a single gunshot, we must commend the interim leadership of the RUF."
Earlier this month, the RUF rebels hampered the deployment of some 700 government soldiers in Lunsar, about 60 kilometers east of Makeni, saying that the RUF would prevent deployment of government forces until the government released their leaders detained in Freetown, including Foday Sankoh.
Although there are some skirmishes at present over diamond mining between the RUF and the pro-government Civil Defense Force, the situation in the Sierra Leone is getting stable with the continued deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the former rebel-controlled areas and implementation of the May ceasefire agreement.
During the ten-year civil war, the RUF, which controlled almost all the diamond-rich areas in the eastern and northern parts of Sierra Leone, used the diamonds to finance its war against the successive governments.
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