Sankoh to be put on trial, Kabbah says

Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah announced on Friday that Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh would be tried “pretty soon”, adding that the government did not want to “deny justice or delay it”.

Information Minister Julius Spencer confirmed the announcement, reported by the BBC. He told IRIN that the government had not yet received a response from the RUF following the president’s remarks.

In early May the RUF detained up to 500 UN peacekeepers (as of Thursday nearly half had been released) and started advancing towards the capital, Freetown. The rebels were repelled by a coalition of pro-government forces but sporadic fighting has taken place ever since.

British forces were deployed in Freetown to evacuate British an other nationals and secure Lungi International Airport following the threatened rebel attack on the capital and the withdrawal of the West African peacekeeping force ECOMOG. Kabbah said on Friday that they “came in at the right time”, filling a security vaccum and inspiring confidence in Sierra Leoneans.

The troops are scheduled to leave by mid-June, but Kabbah said he would ask British Prime Minister Tony Blair if they could stay on.

Sankoh has been held in an undisclosed location since being detained by government forces on 17 May after fleeing a massive peace march to his home nine days earlier. The Sierra Leone authorities have been under pressure, nationally and internationally, to put him on trial for violating the Lome Peace Agreeement he signed in July 1999 with Kabbah.

Asked, as he entered UN headquarters on Monday, whether Sankoh should play any role in the government or be charged as a war criminal UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan replied: “I believe by his behaviour, he has excluded himself from the process. And I don’t see how one can consider him part of any peace process in Sierra Leone.