/ 19 October 1999

ALBRIGHT GETS TOUGH ON S. LEONE

UNITED States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived on Monday in Sierra Leone with a “tough message” for the head of state and his former foes on implementing a pact to end a brutal civil war, a US official said. Albright is to meet with former rebel and junta chiefs as well as President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah after coming to Freetown from Guinea, where she held brief talks with President Lansana Conte, according to officials. Albright began a six-nation tour of Africa earlier Monday in neighbouring Guinea, which currently shelters some 500000 refugees, mostly from Sierra Leone.