/ 16 May 2000

RELEASED PEACEKEEPERS EXPECTED IN FREETOWN

THE 139 UN peacekeeepers freed by Sierra Leone rebels are expected to arrive in Freetown Tuesday, as international frustration rises over the situation in the country. Liberian President Charles Taylor called on Monday for a ceasefire in Sierra Leone after securing the release of 139 UN hostages being held by the rebel Revolutionary United Front. Taylor “expressed dismay over the continuation of hostilities in Sierra Leone while he endeavors to secure the release of all the hostages,” the Mediation and Security Council of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) in Monrovia said in a statement. According to the UN mission spokesman in Freetown, David Wimhurst, 347 peacekeepers were still being held by the rebels, most of them Zambian.