A few ‘West Side Boys’ disarm

Small numbers of ‘West Side Boys’, a group made up mainly of former Sierra Leonean Army (ex-SLA) soldiers, have started surrendering to UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) troops, UN spokeswoman Hirut Befecadu said on Thursday. She said that 17 of them surrendered on Wednesday at Mile 38. The West Side Boys, formerly loyal to ex-junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma, refused a government order over two weeks ago to give up or face punishment. In another development, six Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters turned in five AK 47’s and two self-loading rifles to military observers in the eastern town of Daru on Wednesday, UNAMSIL said. It added that some 80 combatants have surrendered in Daru since the UN military operation some two weeks ago that freed encircled peacekeepers in Kailahun, also in the east. The spokesman of the UN Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard, told reporters on Thursday in New York that the UN welcomed the small-scale disarmament. UNAMSIL, in which has been trying to make the capital a weapons-free zone, reported that some 100 Civil Defence Force (CDF) militiamen currently in Brookfields Hotel in Freetown would be returning to the southern towns of Bo and Pujehun and Kenema in the east after handing over their arms to UN peacekeepers. Another 50 CDF will remain in Freetown, but their weapons will be held by UNAMSIL, Befecadu said on Thursday.