/ 7 September 1998

Sierra Leonean rebel chief too hot to handle

LANSANA FOFANA, Freetown | Monday 7.30pm.

NO Sierra Leonean lawyer appears willing to defend Corporal Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leone’s rebel leader who has been charged with treason in Freetown.

Most lawyers contacted by reporters on Monday, and who declined to be quoted, said they would not defend the rebel leader, who is widely regarded as Sierra Leone’s “enemy number one”. Sankoh, who is in his mid-sixties, was extradited from Nigeria about six weeks ago, where he was being held on charges of illegally entring that country with ammunition.

Two weeks ago, 16 people — including five journalists — were sentenced to death for collaborating with Sierra Leone’s defeated military junta.

Sankoh, in handcuffs, was brought before a magistrate in Freetown last week. Attorney-General Solomon Berewa appeared for the state, and will be leading the prosecution when the rebel leader makes another appearance on September 11.

Meanwhile, even as Sankoh was being whisked from the courtroom, to an undisclosed place of detention, on Friday, RUF’s second in command, Sam Bockarie, alias “Mosquito”, threatened to wage a campaign of genocide if the rebel leader is not immediately released.

“I will order my troops to kill every living thing including chickens if our leader is not released,” he was quoted as saying by a leading European radio station, monitored in Freetown. — IPS.