UNAMSIL chief meets RUF leader

The force commander of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) met with Revolutionary United Front (RUF) interim leader General Issa Sesay on Thursday in the northern town of Makeni, UNAMSIL spokewoman Margaret Novicki told IRIN. Lieutenant-General Daniel Opande and Sesay discussed planned UN deployments to the RUF-held towns of Makeni and Magburaka next week in keeping with a ceasefire agreement signed in November 2000 in Abuja, Nigeria, Novicki said on Friday. In addition to calling a halt to all hostilities, the accord stipulated that UNAMSIL would be allowed to deploy freely thoughout the country so as to supervise and monitor the ceasefire or investigate reports of violations. Opande urged the rebel leader to release the remaining UN weapons and to facilitate the restoration of state authority in rebel-held areas, Novicki said. Opande also asked for the immediate release of 200 child combatants in the town of Lunsar, some 79 km northeast of Freetown. UN troops deployed in Lunsar on 15 March, marking their first move into a rebel area since the RUF seized 500 UN peacekeepers in May 2000.