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RUF blocks return of 4,000 refugees

Guinean forces and Kamajor militias fought RUF rebels who tried to prevent some 4,000 refugees from returning to Sierra Leone last week, a Sierra Leonean military source told IRIN on Wednesday. The refugees, who had been living in the Parrot's Beak area in southern Guinea, were being escorted by Sierra Leonean Kamajor militiamen, the source said. "The Guineans were assisting the refugees to return," the source added. The source said the Guineans retaliated by using ground forces to attack the main rebel-held town of Kono, a diamond mining centre. "I want to believe they didn't want to bomb indiscriminately and wanted to make sure the area was not reoccupied [by the RUF]," the source said. RUF spokesman Gibril Massaquoi told Sierra Leone Web on Tuesday that Guineans, Kamajors and the Sierra Leonean Army (SLA) participated in the attack. However, an SLA officer told IRIN the SLA was "absolutely not" involved. Flurry of meetings with the RUF The past few days have seen a series of meetings in various parts of Sierra Leone between Revolutionary United Front (RUF), UNAMSIL and other UN officials, UNAMSIL reported on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Omrie Golley, chairman of the RUF's Political and Peace Council, briefed the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji, on meetings he had with RUF leaders in the north and east of the country. Adeniji emphasised the need for the RUF to cooperate in the implementation of a ceasefire it signed in November 2000 with the government, facilitating the extension of government authority and allowing free movement for UNAMSIL and humanitarian agencies, UNAMSIL reported. Access for UNAMSIL to RUF areas was also among issues discussed by UNAMSIL and RUF delegations in Lunsar on 30 March. The two sides agreed that such access should be unhindered. They also discussed checkpoints and the restoration of government authority in RUF-held areas. On 31 March, an RUF delegation led by Golley met briefly in the northern town of Lunsar with the commanding officer of a Nigerian UNAMSIL battalion before continuing to Port Loko, where it had an impromptu meeting with Alan Doss, deputy special representative of the UN Secretary-General. Meanwhile, RUF commanders visited a Ghanaian battalion in Daru on 30 March. Their visit coincided with that of an RUF cultural troupe from Kailahun which entertained the peacekeepers in appreciation for a tour they did of Kailahun earlier in the month.

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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