Indian troops to be deployed in east

The UN is planning to deploy a battalion of Indian troops to the Eastern Province where the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) military commander, Sam Bockarie, has his base, a UN source told IRIN on Friday. Bockarie told the BBC on Monday that he did not want his troops disarmed by ECOMOG or by former ECOMOG soldiers due to be absorbed into the UN peacekeeping force. Till now there has been no disarming by RUF rebels in the diamond mining region of eastern Sierra Leone, a UNAMSIL source said on Friday. The troops, due to arrive in the next couple of weeks, will be part of the newly formed UN 6,000-strong UN peacekeeping force mandated by the UN Security Council to support the Lome Peace Accord signed in July. The Indian soldiers will join those from Ghana, Guinea, Kenya and Nigeria.