Sankoh won't be heard yet
2001-10-03 21:47
Freetown - Sierra Leone's Justice Minister Solomon Berewa has said the government had no immediate plans to try detained rebel supremo Foday Sankoh and equated him with Osama bin Laden, the world's most
wanted man.
Berewa, who doubles up as the government negotiator in its talks with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, also told AFP in an interview here that Sankoh's incarceration was perfectly legal.
"Everybody knows what he has done. He is our own Osama bin
Laden," Berewa said, referring to the Saudi-born dissident, wanted
for the world's worst terrorist strikes on September 11 in the
United States.
"Look at the amputees, the women raped, the dead... He is not
the only one in jail. There are over 100 RUF members detained,"
Berewa said.
The RUF rebel campaign, launched in 1991, has been marked by
blood and terror. Tens of thousands have been killed, maimed,
injured and raped by the parties to the conflict.
However, more than 18 000 combatants have disarmed following a disarmament pact inked this year. They include both rebels and
members of a state-backed civil militia.
Berewa said many rebels had been freed following a 1999 peace
pact signed in the Togolese capital Lome, including Sankoh.
"But Sankoh went back to crime and killed many people,
especially in May 2000 there were massacres ... he kidnapped 500 UN troops and so on. He is lawfully in custody under the state of
emergency. We have no immediate plans to put him on trial."
Sankoh was sentenced to death in 1998, convicted of treason, but granted amnesty and released in 1999 as part of a first deal with
the RUF, before the rebels went on the offensive again.
The RUF is demanding his release.
Berewa also said that his war-ravaged west African country was
ready to go to the ballot. Polls are due to be held in May next
year.
"Where you have had a conflict, the first thing that goes is
confidence. That is why we are going into reconciliation, to live
together again," he said.
He rejected suggestions that the prevailing situation in Sierra
Leone was not conducive for holding free and fair elections.
"Regarding the critics of the opposition, even if the government
does something good, they will never say it. It is democracy. But
we want people to come together. I'm very optimistic," he said.
Berewa had high words of praise for former colonial power
Britain, which deployed troops in Sierra Leone alongside UN forces
but not under UN command, to support elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May last year when the rebels were about to seize the capital Freetown.
"(The) British have done very well. They have come as real
friends to help us," he said, dismissing suggestions that it was
trying to "colonise" Sierra Leone economically.
"On the contrary, we want British businessmen to come, and that
many of them invest here. If their hidden agenda is to come here
and develop the country of course we will welcome them. We can
never pay them back for what they did for us." - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA