Rebel RUF pledges to ensure humanitarian access

A joint communique between the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the UN Special Representative for Sierra Leone, Francis Okelo, received by IRIN today, stressed the need to provide unhindered humanitarian assistance, where needed, to all parts of the country. The statement, issued after last weekend’s talks between the two sides in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, expressed the RUF’s pledge to “take necessary practical steps” aimed at facilitating the work of humanitarian organisations. The RUF would designate senior humanitarian liaison officers as points of contact to ensure free access to the needy in all areas, inclduing those under RUF control. Humanitarian organisations should “observe the principle of neutrality in the conduct of their operations,” the statement added. It also said that the issue of a venue and format for talks between the RUF and its jailed leader, Foday Sankoh, “should not delay the start of substantive dialogue”. The RUF has put forward Ougadougou as its preferred venue, (followed by Abidjan and Lome, Togo), but the Sierra Leone government has rejected the Burkinabe capital, accusing the Burkina Faso president of backing the rebels. In the statement, the RUF said it had never questioned the legitimacy of President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s government, neither was it fighting against the innocent civilian population “but against [the West African intervention force] ECOMOG and CDF [Civil Defence Force]”. The rebels have been widely accused of killing and mutilating thousands of people.