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Annan Meets U.N. Forces And Former Child Soldiers In Sierra Leone
by Jean-Pierre Campagne
LAKKA, Sierra Leone (AFP) - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan spent Sunday visiting a refugee camp, U.N. peacekeepers and former child soldiers in Sierra Leone, as he aimed to relaunch the peace process here.
Mohamed, 14, awaited Annan's visit - a two-day trip through the country - along with 80 other boys, all of them former combatants in the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
For three years as a soldier, he witnessed atrocities in his short life that others will probably never see.
In Saint Michael of Lakka, a rehabilitation center run by the Roman Catholic Family Homes Movement and the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, is trying to give these former fighters a chance at a new life.
Annan first stopped off in Port Loko, 60 kilometers (38 miles) north of the capital Freetown - defended by 800 Nigerian members of the U.N. force in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) - which local authorities say the RUF has attacked 16 times since 1991.
He then moved on to a nearby government-run disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation center, but found only a few dozen deserters there, who now wanted to rejoin the armed forces.
Afterwards, he visited a nearby refugee camp which currently houses 25,000 people - among them Abdul, a professor, who was anxiously awaiting the reconstruction of the Rogbere Junction school so he could return to work.
Late on Sunday, Annan met with Saint Michael employees and with some of the former child soldiers.
"Above all, we have boys here, aged six months to 18 years," Spanish priest Cheme Caballero said. "But we also have girls who were captured [by the RUF] to become sex slaves."
The boys "committed atrocities," he said. "They don't talk …a lot, not even with our psychologist because they feel guilty, they're embarrassed."
Fourteen-year-old Mohamed carried a cross around his neck and a sign that read: "I'm a child. Don't pity me, but help me to get out."
Mohamed spoke with difficulty. He arrived at Saint Michael - located in an old hotel shaded by mango trees near a lagoon - two months ago from Kono, in eastern Sierra Leone.
He said he "was pressed into service" by the RUF in 1998. "They told us: come on, we're leaving to fight, no discussions!"
"I had two sisters and three brothers, I have no idea where they are," he said. His father mined diamonds, which the RUF used to finance its guerrilla war.
He said he left the RUF on his own one day to go meet the U.N. peacekeepers.
What does he want to do now? "Study, and later, become a bank director."
Annan, meanwhile, reaffirmed the commitment of the U.N. "to bring peace and security" to a country that suffered many evils, among them illiteracy.
In Port Loko, traditional chiefs took Annan into their brotherhood, giving him the name Bai Bureh Kabilai II.
Bai Bureh Kabilai I was a celebrated chief who fought against the British during the 19th century and was deported to Ghana, where Annan was born.
The chiefs demanded that Annan help them to "destroy the vampires that are the rebels" in a war that has dragged on for nearly 10 years.
In Saint Michael, the children live in groups in small bungalows, with adoptive "mothers" who watch out for them, Caballero said. One of the women also used to fight for the RUF.
"In all, about 2,000 former combatants passed through our rehabilitation center. More than a hundred of them have lost their family," he added.
Amina, her toenails colored red by the dust outside, was with the RUF for four years. "They kidnapped me, I don't want to see them again," she says.
As Annan's helicopter took off from Lakka late on Sunday - he was on his way to Benin next - it threw up huge clouds of dust.
One child shielded his eyes with a book on which was written: "How to learn to read and write."
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