OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Friday 8.30PM.
THE rebel leader who instigated Sierra Leone’s civil war in 1991 has been charged with treason in Freetown.
Foday Sankoh, head of the Revolutionary United Front, was led into a Freetown courtroom under heavy guard on Friday. He made no plea, and his case has been adjourned to September 11. Sankoh returned to Sierra Leone after being held in Nigeria for a year on weapon smuggling charges.
The Sierra Leonean charges against him include treason and assisting the enemy to invade the country. If convicted he may face the death penalty.
The Revolutionary United Front was allied with Sierra Leone’s former military junta, which seized power last year and was ousted 10 months later by a the West African Ecomog peacekeeping force. Twelve civilians, including five journalists, were sentenced to death by hanging last week for collaborating with the junta.
Since the junta was toppled, rebels and junta soldiers have been waging a brutal campaign agaist civilians in the north of the country, attacking villages and massacring or injuring the inhabitants using machetes.
Aid workers say thousads have died or been maimed. The revels’ favourite “trademark” is to cut off people’s ears.
Earlier this week, rebels attacked a village in neighboring Guinea, killing seven Sierra Leonean women refugees and three Guineans and forcing other refugees to carry stolen food back over the border into Sierra Leone.