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 | Thursday, May 04, 2000, updated at 12:36(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Annan Expresses Outrage at "Deliberate Attacks" on UN Soldiers in Sierra LeoneUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Wednesday expressed his outrage at "the continuing deliberate attacks" on UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, saying that former rebel leader Foday Sankoh is responsible for such acts.A statement, issued in the United Nations by his spokesman, said, "The Secretary-General expressed his outrage at the continuing deliberate attacks on United Nations personnel in Sierra Leone by armed groups and individuals belonging to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)." "Four soldiers from the Kenyan battalion of UNAMSIL (the UN Mission in Sierra Leone) have lost their lives while three others at least have been injured," the statement said. "A large number of UNAMSIL personnel are still being detained by RUF elements or are unaccounted for." "The leader of the RUF, Mr. Foday Sankoh, is responsible for their actions," the statement said. "He has ignored repeated appeals by UNAMSIL to stop these attacks." "The Secretary-General demands the immediate cessation of such hostile acts, and condemns in the strongest terms this flagrant violation by Mr. Sankoh and the RUF of the Lome Agreement and other related undertakings by RUF," the statement said. Sankoh and other leaders of the warring parties signed the Lome Agreement in July last year to end the nine-year civil war in the West African country, but little progress was made by the RUF to carry out the peace accord. "The Secretary-General believes that all those responsible for this unacceptable and criminal behavior, especially leaders with authority, must be held accountable for their actions," the statement said. Voicing full support for Annan's statement, the president of the UN Security Council for May, Wang Yingfan of China, reiterated in a statement he read to the press in the United Nations Wednesday that the Council condemned "in strongest terms the hostile and destructive" action staged by rebels in Sierra Leone, demanding the early release of hostage and the bringing of those responsible to justice. Seven UN peacekeepers have been killed in clashes with rebels in Sierra Leone and some 50 others have been seized, a UN spokeswoman said in the United Nations Wednesday. "Following the fighting that took place yesterday and earlier today between UN troops and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the northern areas of Makeni and Magburaka, we can confirm that seven UN soldiers have been killed," the spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, told a press conference. "As we announced to you earlier this morning, we can confirm that about 50 UN personnel are being detained by the RUF, at least 21 in the Makeni and Magburaka areas and 28 in the eastern area of Kailahun," she said. The detainees in the Makeni and Magburaka areas include three UN military observers. The others held in Kailahun include eight helicopter crew and two civilian members of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, known as the UNAMSIL, the spokeswoman said.
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