The West African intervention force, ECOMOG, today denied comments by a ranking UN official that at least 100 of the force’s members had been arrested for alleged summary executions of rebels and their sympathisers in Sierra Leone.
Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN that the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, was “not being factual”. Otunnu made the comments at a news briefing in New York on Wednesday.
In a separate statement issued yesterday, Olukolade said that no ECOMOG officers or men had been implicated or were under investigation for summary executions. He called the accusation a “spurious charge which we believe is being peddled to distract our attention form the ongoing operations.”
He said that if cases of executions were brought before the ECOMOG High Command then these would be investigated and the culprits tried.
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