SIERRA LEONE: Government and RUF to meet
SIERRA LEONE: Government and RUF to meet
Representatives of Sierra Leone's government and the Revolutionary United
Front (RUF) plan to meet on Thursday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
This would be the first high-level meeting between the two sides since the
RUF launched an offensive in May and captured UN peacekeepers, whom it later
released.
"We are hoping and praying that this scheduled meeting will finally result
in the achievement of sustainable peace in our country so the government can
turn its efforts to eradicating poverty," news reports quoted President
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah as saying on Friday.
He did not say who would represent the government and RUF at the meeting.
Delegates from the UN Mission in Sierra Leone and the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) are also scheduled to attend.
"I believe ECOWAS must have had some indication from the RUF that they're
prepared to have genuine dialogue on the issues that are at stake, and that
is why they have convened this meeting," Information Minister Julius Spencer
told the BBC. "There is really no question of any further concessions" to
the RUF, he said.
RUF spokesman Gibril Massakoi said political issues must be settled before
there is an agreement on disarmament. "What the government in Freetown is
persisting on is basically on the military side, to disarm and just do away
with the RUF, and forgetting that they have an obligation to fulfill under
the political sector," Massakoi told Radio France Internationale.
Spencer said lessons had been learned in dealing with the RUF, which has
reneged on previous agreements. "Everybody, including the members of the
international community, has learned the lessons, and we don't believe that
anybody wants a repeat of what happened in the past," he said.
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