Sierra Leone welcomes release of U.N. peacekeepers

Tim Sullivan

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 8:59 a.m.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Despite the weekend release of 54 U.N. hostages, the government said today it would not compromise on its handling of detained rebel leader Foday Sankoh to secure the release of 300 additional captives.

Information Minister Julius Spencer said there was "no connection" between Sankoh's fate and the release of the hostages. He said the government has not yet completed its investigation to decide whether to prosecute Sankoh, who was captured last week.

Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front rebels freed 54 U.N. peacekeepers Sunday. The peacekeepers were flown by helicopter to Monrovia, Liberia, and then taken by plane to Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown.

A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said today that the United Nations believed more hostages could be released soon.

But David Wimhurst, the spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone, said there was no definite word of impending releases.

Many in the group released Sunday looked thin and weak as they walked off the plane, and U.N. officials have expressed concerns for the health of the remaining captives.

Three injured Kenyans were taken away in an ambulance. Officials did not say how they were hurt. Wimhurst said several of the freed hostages were suffering from malaria.

The group released Sunday was composed of 10 Kenyans, 42 Zambians, one Malaysian and one Norwegian, Wimhurst said.

The rebel Front has now freed more than 200 of the roughly 500 U.N. peacekeepers it captured in early May. The reason behind Sunday's release was not immediately clear.

A U.N. peacekeeping official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the freed hostages had been "reasonably treated," though there was little food or medicine in the dense bush of eastern Sierra Leone where they had been held.

One former captive, 57-year-old Naval Cmdr. Knut Gjellestacj, a Norwegian military observer, said he was happy to be free.

"I thank everybody in Norway for all their good thoughts," said Gjellestacj, who was captured May 1 while trying to secure the release of U.N. colleagues who had been seized in the central town of Makeni.

The latest release came as pro-government forces advanced Sunday toward the rebel-held town of Lunsar, 50 miles northeast of Freetown, military officials said.

From Lunsar, pro-government forces would be well positioned to make a push against the key rebel stronghold of Makeni.

Over the past 10 days, government forces have been slowly pushing the rebels back from the Freetown area. The rebels had reached within 40 miles of Freetown, part of a resurgence in Sierra Leone's civil conflict.

Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front killed tens of thousands and intentionally mutilated many more during Sierra Leone's civil war.

While the rebels received amnesty under a peace deal last year, it is unclear whether this will be revoked after the rebels reignited the conflict earlier this month. Rebels gunned down at least 19 demonstrators outside Sankoh's Freetown home on May 8.

Some government and U.N. officials have expressed fears that the rebels could use their hostages to bargain for Sankoh's release, or to ensure that he not face trial.

The U.N. contingent now numbers 10,400, the largest U.N. peacekeeping deployment in the world, and has been authorized to grow to 13,000.