SIERRA LEONE: British task force arrives
ABIDJAN, 13 November (IRIN) - A taskforce of 500 Royal Marines has arrived
in Freetown to reinforce other British soldiers already training the Sierra
Leonean military.
Navy ships led by the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean are anchored off the
Sierra Leonean capital, serving as a deterrent for fighters of the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) or other factions which might consider
going back to war. The RUF and Sierra Leonean government on Saturday reached
a ceasefire agreement.
The 500 marines will back up the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).
Jordan and India have announced their withdrawal from the force, which the
UN hopes to expand from 13,000 to 20,000 troops. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan has said that UNAMSIL's mandate will have to be strengthened.
British soldiers intervened in Sierra Leone in May when the RUF captured
UNAMSIL troops. British paratroopers in September raided a camp of the West
Side Boys rebel group and freed six British military hostages and a Sierra
Leonean soldier who had been abducted in August. The raid virtually led to
the disintegration of the West Side Boys.
Mistrust of the RUF runs deep.
''The record of the RUF in these ceasefire negotiations in the past has not
been that good, and I think it won't do them any harm or indeed other
parties to the conflict to realise that should it go wrong Britain isn't
going away,'' Brigadier David Richards, the commander of British forces in
Sierra Leone, told the British Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday.
He said he thought British troops could help UNAMSIL by possibly
substituting Sierra Leonean troops for UN troops in certain areas ''to test
the RUF's sincerity'' on the ceasefire.
''I think that once that process has started it should accelerate, and it
might well encourage other nations to come back into the UNAMSIL structure
and then begin to take the process right across to the diamond areas'' that
the RUF occupies, Richards said.
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