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RUF denies terrorist links

    ABIDJAN

    Sierra Leonean former rebels have denied allegations in 'The Washington Post' on Friday that they sold millions of dollars' worth of illicit diamonds to the al Qaeda terrorist network, news organisations reported.

    "I want to say that ... we have at no time either operated as a terrorist group or with a terrorist group," Eldred Collins, head of the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP) Public Relations Unit, said on Voice of America (VOA) in response to the US newspaper article. However Collins acknowledged that diamond transactions could have taken place unknowingly with al Qaeda members, VOA reported.

    Al Quaeda, the network blamed by a US-led coalition for the 11 September terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, is headed by the FBI's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.

    The article alleges that "diamond dealers working directly with men named by the FBI as key operatives in bin Laden's al Qaeda network bought gems from the rebels at below-market prices and sold them for large profits in Europe". It makes "perfect sense" for a terrorist network to deal in diamonds as they can be easily hidden, hold their value and are very hard to trace, the paper quoted a US official as saying.

    The chairman of Sierra Leone's Political and Peace Council, Omrie Golley, said a panel would be set up to investigate the allegations, news organisations reported.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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