Army chief accuses Taylor

In Freetown, the chief of defence staff of the Sierra Leone armed forces, Brigadier General Maxwell Khobe, said yesterday that Liberian President Charles Taylor was the real obstacle to peace in Sierra Leone, AFP reported. The rebels, it quoted Khobe as saying, “only take their orders from Taylor ... that means that it is Taylor who is in charge of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)”. Liberia has consistently denied involvement in the Sierra Leonean war.

AFP said Khobe told reporters during his weekly security briefing that he was in radio contact with rebels in the bush who appeared willing to sue for peace. However, he said, RUF military commander Sam Bockarie was “against peace”. Bockarie has refused appeals by the jailed RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, to end the war, insisting that Sankoh might have been coerced into making the calls. He said he must have direct talks with Sankoh “somewhere in the bush” to ensure the orders are authentic.