Johannesburg, South Africa. May 17 2000
Reports of torture have caused a split in the UN peacekeeping force, with its military commander backing the assault against the rebels while Kofi Annan's special representative is pressing for a ceasefire.
By CHRIS MCGREAL in Freetown
There is growing political pressure on British commanders in Sierra Leone to rein in the military assault against the Revolutionary United Front because of new threats against almost 500 UN peacekeepers held hostage by the rebels or semi-hostage by the president of neighbouring Liberia.
Concern over the fate of the abductees has heightened following reports that some of the 124 UN personnel released by the rebels into Liberia at the weekend were badly tortured and in "a terrible state".
The Liberian president, Charles Taylor, has admitted that 30 or 40 of the hostages have bullet wounds. He has so far blocked UN officials from meeting them and warned that the war against the RUF must be halted or it could harm the remaining abducted UN personnel.
Taylor, the RUF's principal foreign backer, has also confined 15 former hostages - including the only Briton among the 124 - to a hotel for the past three days.
The fate of the hostages has led to a split within the UN in Sierra Leone, with its military commander in Freetown backing the assault against the rebels while Kofi Annan's special representative is pressing for a ceasefire. The Freetown government is strongly opposed to any let-up in the war.
Taylor's warning came as the British officer coordinating the campaign against the rebels, Brigadier David Richards, claimed that the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) is making headway.
"We have definitely got over the worst of it in Freetown. The RUF is pulling back to Makeni. It's quite a rap on the knuckles for them. If there's one change to the plan it's that the SLA is doing better than we expected. We want it to keep pushing eastwards, without pausing," he said.
Brig Richards disowned a report on the BBC Today programme that claimed he had said UN forces are to go on the offensive against rebels. Peacekeepers will instead be used to hold areas already taken by the SLA.
"What I've got the UN to do is move up and fill the gaps behind the Sierra Leone army. The UN was a bit iffy about that but I persuaded them. The key to success now, my priority, is to get the SLA to keep going and keep fighting," he added.
But there are problems. Frontline government troops have been short of food, although Brig Richards says that problem is being addressed. The question of ammunition is more sensitive. The chief of Britain's defence staff, General Sir Charles Guthrie, who was in Freetown earlier this week, is returning home with a list of requirements for Sierra Leonean forces, including ammunition and possibly guns.
Whether they are supplied is a political decision, and there is concern that British weapons could fall into rebel hands if the tide of war turns.
The SLA and the UN are heavily reliant on the British in matters of strategy and logistics. A British officer is now running the Sierra Leone defence headquarters.
But Brig Richards says the various parties, including the UN and military factions now united to fight for the government, are at one on the need to take the war to the RUF's heartland.
The real test will come in the next few weeks as government forces launch an assault on the diamond areas that provide the rebels' financial lifeline. Russian helicopter gunships will back up the attack.
Charles Taylor's attempts to curb the SLA offensive are, in part, a bid to forestall an attack on the diamond mines, which have also proved profitable for the Liberian president.
The British army has also been trying to mend relations with the Nigerian military after one of its senior commanders warned that his men might shoot white troops.
Brig Richards described the incident as a "little local difficulty" at the international airport where the British took over responsibility for security for the Nigerians.
"One British soldier was told by a Nigerian soldier 'if you don't tell us what you are doing you will end up getting shot'. I'm confident this is a non-problem. It was not 'we will shoot you'," he said. "We have told the Nigerians what we are doing but it had not got down to the soldier level.".
But the Nigerian officer who made the remark, Lieutenant Colonel Ginda Usman, said the members of the Parachute Regiment had humiliated his men by detaining and disarming them on suspicion of being rebels. "They [the British] sometimes deployed right behind our positions and some of my soldiers were disarmed by them," Lt Col Ginda said.
"They said RUF rebels had captured UN uniforms and they couldn't be sure if my men were rebels in stolen uniforms. The paras even used to check me at the airport and I'm the commanding officer.
"I pointed out that there are white mercenaries working for the RUF and if we didn't know who you were then we could mistake them for mercenaries. And what do we do to mercenaries? We shoot them."
The British can ill afford to annoy the Nigerians. Their 3 000 troops are the largest contingent in the peacekeeping force.
More importantly, they have considerable experience of fighting in Sierra Leone and detest the RUF for atrocities it has committed against captured Nigerians.