Fewer abuses since change in RUF command, rights group says

Urban residents of northern Sierra Leone say there have been far fewer human rights abuses in their towns since Issa Sesay took command of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, a member of a local NGO told IRIN.

Tabib Jalloh, administrative director of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR), said on Tuesday that residents of towns such as Makeni and Magburaka saw Sesay as a very different person from Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockarie, respectively the former political and military leaders of the RUF.

Sesay recently replaced Sankoh as head of the RUF. Jalloh said he had been “stringent with rebels who mistreat civilians”.

Jalloh, whose NGO has interviewed residents of RUF-occupied areas, said Sesay had appointed a female commander in the north to ensure that civilians were not molested. A special RUF patrol is operating in the region to hunt down rebels who have abused civilians, Jalloh said. He added that improvements in civilian human rights had probably stemmed from the “jungle justice” Sesay meted out to his troops.
“People have said that Sesay shot two rebels who tried to loot a civilian,” he added.

Although Jalloh said these reports were still to be investigated, the RUF’s new behaviour was a significant shift from the limb amputations, rape and murder that were the hallmark of its “trade”. However, some rights abuses still occur in the isolated northern town of Kabala, that can only be reached by helicopter, he said.