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Plans finalised for Sankoh's return

    ABIDJAN

    Final plans have been made for the return to Freetown of the leaders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Foday Sankoh, and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Johnny Paul Koroma, the ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) said at the weekend.

    ECOMOG said Sankoh and Koromah's arrival was "expected to give a fresh tempo" to the implementation of the 7 July Lome peace agreement that ended the war between the Sierra Leone government and the RUF/AFRC.

    In a statement from its Freetown headquarters, ECOMOG said arrangements for the reception of the two men were ordered by Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Sankoh, who was condemned for treason before the peace accord, is to chair a commission for the management of strategic resources, national reconstruction and development, with vice presidential status.

    A meeting was held on Friday to work out details on accommodation, security communication and transportation for Sankoh, Koroma and their aides, ECOMOG said.

    The meeting, chaired by ECOMOG force commander Major General Gabriel Kpamber and Sierra Leone National Security Adviser Sheka Mansaray, was also attended by Sierra Leone's chief of defence staff, inspector general of police and other defence, police and ECOMOG officials.

    The forum also agreed that all former combatants who decided to "come out of the bush" must register with either ECOMOG or UNOMSIL, the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone.

    ECOMOG pledges to continue helping police

    Meanwhile, Kpamber said on Thursday that ECOMOG would continue to help Sierra Leone's police fight rising postwar crime. He was speaking at the introduction of the new inspector general of police designate, Keith Briddles.

    Briddles is a member of a task force that the Commonwealth has provided to help rebuild Sierra Leone's police, which was dislocated by the war, especially during the RUF's invasion of eastern Freetown in January.

    ECOMOG and the police are conducting joint patrols - codenamed "Operation Clean City" - in a bid to curb armed robbery and other serious crime in Freetown.

    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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