Koroma calls on AFRC to disarm

The leader of Sierra Leone’s former military junta has disassociated himself from armed factions claiming allegiance to him, news organisations reported on Tuesday. “I want the Sierra Leonean public and the international community to know that with effect from this announcement... I have disassociated myself from any armed faction or military wing or group,” news organisations reported Johnny Paul Koroma as saying on state radio. He said a “minority group of hard core and wayward criminals” with no political motivation was causing trouble, Reuters reported. “They were carrying out “unpatriotic and diabolical actions, falsely hoping that protection can be provided for them and using me and the AFRC as a shield.” He added that if an armed faction known as the AFRC (Armed Forces Revolutionary Council - his former junta) still existed and claimed allegiance to him, it should be dismantled, Reuters reported. Koroma urged all soldiers to report to disarmament camps to hand in their weapons and, if able to do so, sign up for the new Sierra Leone Army. The AFRC, led by Koroma, overthrew President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s government in 1997. The junta, along with Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and elements of the Sierra Leone Army who had supported it, were evicted in early 1998 by Nigerian-led West African troops who reinstated Kabbah. Koroma is chairman of the Committee for the Consolidation of Peace, established under the Lome Peace Agreement signed by the Sierra Leone government and the RUF on 7 July 1999.