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UNITED NATIONS (News Agencies)-The situation in Sierra Leone is quickly developing into a humiliation for the United Nations. Troops were allegedly reported to have surrendered with little resistance to opposition, who are now accused of having killed four Kenyan peacekeepers, wounded 12, taken hundreds of them hostage, and seized more than a dozen U.N. vehicles and hundreds of weapons and uniforms. The U.N. in Sierra Leone says it is going ahead with a joint mission with the opposition group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), to parts of the country where several hundred U.N. peacekeepers were abducted last week. The move is an attempt to secure the release of the peacekeepers and defuse a crisis that has caused panic in the capital, Freetown. The U.N. says the RUF members are holding at least 300 U.N. soldiers and civilian support staff in the north and east of Sierra Leone, and claims to have lost contact with another 200. A military source at U.N. headquarters on Sunday denied reports that opposition forces in Sierra Leone were closing on the capital, Freetown. The source, at the U.N. crisis center, described the situation in Sierra Leone as "extremely fluid" but said reports that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) had advanced beyond Hastings, about 60 kilometers [35 miles] from Freetown, were "invalid". Speaking at about 01:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) the source said he had spoken less than an hour earlier to General Vijay Jetley, the commander of the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), who was in Freetown. Jetley had said that Lungi airport, outside the capital, was safe, the source said. Adding aerial reconnaissance would resume at first light in Sierra Leone, about 0700 GMT. In Freetown earlier, UNAMSIL spokesperson Philip Winslow denied his earlier statements about an imminent RUF attack and told CNN it had been a mistake. Winslow said UNAMSIL in Freetown had obtained "inaccurate information," and added that the U.N. regretted the "rather serious error." The spokesperson who had stated earlier that RUF fighters were just 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the center of Freetown, now said the U.N. only had reports that they had been sighted 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of the capital. There was no information on whether the fighters were advancing or not, he added. Winslow said there was "no cause for alarm on any impending attack on Freetown now." |
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