From Highlights of the Noon Briefing
by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations,
UN Headquarters, New York
This morning in Sierra Leone, despite
the agreement of last week that there would be unhindered access to UN
peacekeepers throughout the country, a patrol of 107 Indian peacekeepers
and six military observers were stopped by a group of rebels on their way
from Daru to Koidu in southeast Sierra Leone.
The rebels, all of them from the Revolutionary United Front, argued that they did not have clearance to let an armed escort move forward.
The peacekeepers returned to their base in the afternoon, four hours after they were stopped.