Military

DATE=7/30/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-305989

TITLE=SIERRA LEONE/SANKOH DEATH (L-O)

BYLINE=SARAH SIMPSON

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

CONTENT:

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Former Sierra Leone rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, is dead. He died from complications resulting from a stroke while awaiting trial for war crimes. Sarah Simpson reports from the V-O-A west Africa bureau in Abidjan.

TEXT: Mr. Sankoh was the former leader of the Revolutionary United Front, a brutal rebel group known for its barbaric war tactics, which included the hacking off of the hands and feet of civilians, mass rape and forcible conscription of child soldiers.

The deputy prosecutor for the Special Court that is conducting hearings on war crimes in Sierra Leone, Desmond de Silva, said Mr. Sankoh died late Tuesday at Choithrams Hospital in Freetown where he was undergoing medical treatment. Mr. de Silva said Foday Sankoh "has been granted the peaceful end that he denied to so many others".

Over the last year, there were repeated calls for charges against Mr. Sankoh to be dropped on health grounds. Last time Mr. Sankoh was seen in public he was crumpled in a wheelchair -- unable to walk, talk or even feed himself.

After his stroke, an appeal was made for Mr. Sankoh to receive medical treatment. However, not a single country would accept him, even for short-term treatment.

Foday Sankoh was once a powerful and greatly feared man. He founded the rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front, in 1991, which led a barbaric campaign to oust Sierra Leone's elected government. Many of his R-U-F fighters were children trained in brutalities.

Trained in the guerilla camps of Libya, Mr. Sankoh was a compatriot of Liberian president, Charles Taylor. President Taylor's support for the R-U-F led to his indictment at the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal earlier this year.

Under the 1999 Lome peace accord, Mr. Sankoh was brought into government and given control over Sierra Leone's diamond resources. But the R-U-F continued its insurrection and Mr. Sankoh refused to release control of the diamond mining regions.

He was captured after the rebels killed four U-N peacekeepers and took dozens more hostages in May 2000. He was subsequently brought before the specially established court to stand trial for war crimes.

Though peacekeeping forces remain in impoverished Sierra Leone, the country is currently at peace. (SIGNED)

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