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Bockarie denounces fighting past

    ABIDJAN
    Former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) field commander Sam Bockarie has said that he is no longer involved in the conflict in Sierra Leone, the BBC reported on Saturday. "We are not anymore fighters," he told the BBC in Monrovia. Bockarie, in Liberia since a disagreement with RUF leader Foday Sankoh in Sierra Leone last December, said that he took part in armed struggle there because he thought it was the only way a change could be brought about to alleviate the suffering of his country. However he now says his presence in Sierra Leone might serve only to aggravate the conflict. "I feel I have thousands of men who love me, who are armed men. So if anyone threatens my life I'm surely going to defend myself and defending myself may create another war. So it's necessary for me to get out of it," the BBC reported him as saying.

    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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