Military

DATE=11/11/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=SIERRA LEONE / REBELS (L)

NUMBER=2-269109

BYLINE=NANCY PALUS

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Sierra Leone government and the rebel Revolutionary United Front have signed a cease-fire agreement, following talks Friday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The new pact comes after several failed attempts to end a nine-year conflict between the two sides. Nancy Palus reports from V-O-A's West Africa bureau.

TEXT: The cease-fire, which took effect Saturday, requires that the Revolutionary United Front, or R-U-F, give up weapons it seized in recent months from United Nations peacekeepers in Sierra Leone.

The pact comes months after the collapse of a 1999 peace accord between the Sierra Leone government and the R-U-F. The Abuja meeting was aimed at getting both sides to abide by the 1999 accord, which called for an end to hostilities and required the rebels to turn in their weapons.

Friday's meeting marked the first talks between the two sides since the R-U-F named Issa Seesay as its new leader, after the group's founder and former chief, Foday Sankoh, was detained earlier this year.

One lingering concern is whether the R-U-F leadership will be able to control rebels on the ground. Rebels, who control diamond-producing areas throughout Sierra Leone, have terrorized civilians and detained U-N troops.

The Reuters news agency reports that as part of the new pact, both sides agreed that the United Nations would be free to deploy its personnel throughout the country, including in diamond-mining areas.

Members of the international community are cautiously optimistic about Friday's agreement. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook called the agreement positive but said the international community in his words must not let down its guard, noting the rebels' reputation for failing to honor similar agreements in the past.

Rebels seized hundreds of U-N peacekeepers and resumed fighting last May, shattering the agreement signed in July 1999 in Lome, Togo.

Despite calls by the rebel group for the release of its former leader, in Friday's talks the R-U-F delegation apparently did not make its demand for Mr. Sankoh's release a condition for the agreement. (Signed)

NEB/NP/ALW/PLM