HUMAN Rights Watch on Monday accused rebels of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone of violating a peace accord by failing to release thousands of abducted children and prisoners of war. The organisation said it hopes the UN Secretary General’s special representative for children and armed conflict, Olara Otunnu, will exert pressure on the rebels during his three-day visit to Sierra Leone this week. The RUF agreed to release all non-combatants immediately after a ceasefire on May 18 but has freed only 345 of the thousands of children it is believed to have abducted during eight years of war. The children are used as combatants, laborers and sex slaves,” according to HRW’s executive director for Africa, Peter Takirambudde.