Regional rights office opens

A second regional human rights office opened on Tuesday in the northern town
of Makeni, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported. The first was
set up in May in the eastern town of Kenema.

The office will monitor, document and report on violations of human rights
and international humanitarian law throughout the country's northern region,
according to Richard Bennett, who is in charge of UNAMSIL's human rights
section.

Human rights officers "will be undertaking training and sensitisation
activities for the community at large, for the disarmed combatants, and
indeed, for the civil authority as they move into the area," UNAMSIL
reported him as saying. The office will also carry out sensitisation
programmes on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Court
for Sierra Leone.

The UN Security Council recently expressed deep concern over human rights
abuses committed against civilians by pro-government and rebel forces as
well as other armed groups and individuals.