DATE=5/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SIERRA LEONE (L)
NUMBER=2-262199
BYLINE=JOHN PITMAN
DATELINE=JUI JUNCTION, SIERRA LEONE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Thousands of civilians are flooding into
Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, chased from their
homes by new fighting between rebels and pro-
government troops. United Nations peacekeepers are
also on the front lines, but U-N officials will not
say if they are involved in the fighting. V-O-A's
John Pitman reports from Jui Junction, a suburb of
Freetown close to the front.
TEXT: Long lines of civilians flowed through this
tiny cross-road town Wednesday morning, moving
silently past a checkpoint manned by United Nations
peacekeepers and Sierra Leone army troops.
Many of the displaced civilians carried large bundles
on their heads. Others pushed their belongings in
wheelbarrows or strapped to bicycles.
Jui Junction is about 10 kilometers southeast of
Freetown, close to the capital's second airport in
Hastings.
The civilians moving through the junction on Wednesday
said they were coming from the towns of Waterloo,
Lumpa, and Newton, about 10 kilometers further
southeast.
Samuel Fofana is a secondary school teacher who fled
Waterloo Tuesday, carrying all of his belongings on a
bicycle.
/// FOFANA ACT ///
It will be no doubt if somebody just now from
Waterloo will tell you that those people (the
rebels) are there now. Because it's very close
-- the gunshots -- because I am just from
Waterloo. We couldn't stand the situation there
so we decided to leave the place.
/// END ACT ///
Rosalind Kamara also left her home in Lumpa on
Tuesday. She said people in her neighborhood have
been in a panic since Monday night when they started
hearing the sound of fighting in the distance.
/// OPT /// Many of the displaced civilians said
they were haunted by memories of the last rebel
invasion of Freetown in January of 1999. Mrs. Kamara
says her 16-year-old daughter was executed by the
rebels during the January 1999 rebel assault. She
says this time she is too frightened to take any
chances. /// END OPT ///
Two large truckloads of United Nations peacekeepers
passed through the checkpoint Wednesday morning,
heading for the front. But journalists and civilians
wanting to travel to Waterloo were prevented from
following them.
At a news conference later Wednesday, the U-N special
representative for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji,
declined to answer questions about the U-N's
involvement in Waterloo, saying any information he
might give could compromise the operation's security.
In addition to United Nations troops, several dozen
armed Kamajor militiamen also passed through the
checkpoint on their way to Waterloo. The Kamajors
have traditionally supported President Ahmad Tejan
Kabbah's government, but were to have been disarmed
under the terms of last year's Lome peace accord.
On Wednesday, the militiamen were clearly not
disarmed, each carrying what appeared to be a new
automatic rifle and at least one clip of ammunition.
President Kabbah's government has been under growing
public pressure to re-arm the Kamajors as well as
members of the former Sierra Leonean army, which over-
threw him in 1997.
The Sierra Leonean army commander at the checkpoint,
Lieutenant Joseph Jalloh, said the army is now, in his
words, "in good swing" and is fighting alongside the
militia. Asked if Sierra Leone was now back at war
with the Revolutionary United Front, the R-U-F,
Lieutenant Jalloh said the army is simply defending
the capital.
/// JALLOH ACT ///
We are not fighting a war. We are trying to
stop them (the rebels) from entering Freetown.
These people (the rebels) are coming for two
things -- either to kill you, or (to) enter into
Freetown. We are defending the entire Freetown.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// There is some evidence, however, that
the government's new defense strategy is still a work
in progress. Shortly after one large group of
Kamajors drove off towards the front, another group
arrived at the checkpoint complaining that the
ammunition they had been given was faulty. The
militiamen said that in addition to the bad bullets,
they had also not been fed in two days.
/// OPT /// One militiaman complained: "If the
rifle doesn't kill me, the hunger will." /// END
OPT ///
Meanwhile, Wednesday afternoon, former coup leader
Johnny Paul Koromah announced that pro-government
forces had re-taken the town of Masiaka, which the
United Nations pulled out of on Tuesday.
The U-N withdrawal from Masiaka was the latest
embarrassment for the peacekeepers, who had also
withdrawn from the town of Lunsar several days
earlier. The top U-N top peacekeeping official,
Bernard Miyet, is currently in Sierra Leone to assess
problems facing the peacekeepers, who are struggling
not only to defend Freetown, but also to recover
nearly 500 of their colleagues being held hostage by
the rebels. (SIGNED)
NEB/JP/JWH/KBK
10-May-2000 13:16 PM EDT (10-May-2000 1716 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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