“Massive recruitment” under way, army chief says

Sierra Leone army chief-of-staff Brigadier-General Maxwell Khobe yesterday (Wednesday) announced his army was recruiting some 5,000 men to take over from the West African intervention force ECOMOG, news reports said. Khobe, who is leading a delegation to Nigeria, said a “massive recruitment” was underway ahead of a planned Nigerian withdrawal by the end of May. “If Nigeria pulls out, other countries will be there,” Khobe said. According to PANA news agency, Khobe claimed that with additional troops pledged by west African countries and the necessary logistical support, ECOMOG could end the crisis in Sierra Leone. However, a hasty withdrawal of the Nigerian contingent would make it possible for the rebels to carry out their threat of “destabilising not only Sierra Leone, but Guinea and possibly Nigeria,” he warned. Currently, Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea are supplying troops to the ECOMOG force in Sierra Leone. Ghana meanwhile has announced the appointment of a new defence minister, Lieutenant-Colonel Enoch Donkoh, to replace M.Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, who has become a presidential adviser, according to AFP. Khobe, a Nigerian and former ECOMOG commander in Sierra Leone, blamed the rebel incursion into Freetown last month on the “command structure problem”, PANA reported. “The soldiers on the check points did not do their work,” he pointed out. He said they probably did not realise the rebels had entered the city disguised as refugees. Such a lapse would never be repeated, “even if it means killing civilians used by the rebels as human shields,” he said. He reiterated charges that Liberian President Charles Taylor was supplying and training the rebels. “If you get Charles Taylor, then you have solved the problem,” he said. “Basically the war is over diamonds.” The Liberian government has denied any involvement in Sierra Leone’s war, but the senate yesterday announced an investigation into the allegations. “These accusations...have become so profound that it no longer serves the country’s interest to simply declare Liberia’s innocence or defend a national position,” AFP quoted Senator Charles Brumskine as saying.