Over 1,500 combatants from the Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone began disarming today in Lunsar, about
90 kilometres east of the capital, according to the United Nations peacekeeping
mission in the country (UNAMSIL), which is overseeing the process.
UNAMSIL military observers and officers
visited Lunsar yesterday to finalize arrangements for the start of the
disarmament process there. The RUF's Col. Molesky Kallon confirmed that
the rebel group would start turning in their weapons today at noon. Disarmament
in Masiaka, southwest of Lunsar, is expected to begin on 13 June.
In other news, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today that the agency had been able for the first time to evacuate a group of 130 Liberian and Guinean refugees from RUF-held Kailahun, in the eastern part of the country.
The refugees were evacuated last week from Kailahun to a government-controlled area where they could receive urgently needed assistance. They included 106 Liberian refugees and their families, as well as 24 Guineans, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told the press in Geneva.
Describing the condition of the refugees as "vulnerable and sick," the spokesman said the most critical cases had been provided with medical treatment at Kenema hospital, while the remaining refugees were taken to one of the agency's temporary settlement camps near Bo. The 24 Guinean nationals had been in Sierra Leone since their homes had been attacked in Gueckedou, Guinea, in January this year. UNHCR, which had already helped a group of Guineans to get back home last month, will again assist them in repatriating to Guinea and tracing their families.
The evacuation took place at the end of a two-day mission by UNHCR officials to Kailahun, Buedu and Koindu, three RUF-held districts in the east of Sierra Leone. It was carried out with the collaboration of the UN mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and the RUF, which has now shown its willingness to allow people to leave their area of control.
"UNHCR welcomes this development," Mr. Janowski said. "The mission was the first of a series of similar missions which will be carried out to assess the situation of Sierra Leonean returnees, Liberian refugees and Guinean nationals in these RUF-controlled areas."