Amnesty wants UNAMSIL to protect Guineans, refugees

Amnesty International (AI) said on Thursday that troops of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and a proposed ECOWAS force should be mandated to protect thousands of refugees and Guinean civilians fleeing fighting between Guinean troops and insurgents from Sierra Leone. “It is time to bring this West African human rights disaster to an end,” AI said. It also wants the peacekeepers to be authorised to do strong human rights monitoring. Amnesty’s appeal came after an assessment mission it sent recently to southern Guinea found “overwhelming evidence of violence from ... many directions”. Refugees interviewed recounted experiences of torture and rape, and reported disappearances. Amnesty said nine refugees arrested in Forecariah in September 2000 - when the insurgency started - had disappeared. In a more recent incident, Guinean troops rounded up refugees purportedly for identity checks but held them in “appalling conditions” in a local prison, Amnesty reported. However, most of the complaints were of atrocities committed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Amnesty documented the killing, raping and abduction of Guinean men, women and children by the RUF during its incursions in mid-December 2000 in southern Guinea.