UN condemns 'callous' attack

UN will deploy in diamond areas in spite of attack

by Mark Doyle in Freetown

The Commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone has described as callous an attack on civilians which took place recently in the diamond mining region in the east of the country.

Lieutenant General Daniel Opande movingly told reporters on Tuesday that the massacre of at least nine civilians and possibly many more was one of the worst things he had seen in a long military career.

Attacks on children have been a hallmark of rebels

They were slaughtered like chickens, the general said, by a man he described as a renegade rebel commander, one Demba Marah.

He is from an apparent splinter group from the main rebel Revolutionary United Front, which has signed a ceasefire which the UN says the main force is largely respecting.

Six-month-old baby

The Kenyan UN commander said the scenes in the village of Henekuma had chilled his blood when he saw the remains of a murdered six-month-old baby, other small children and old people.

The UN saw nine bodies in the village, although some reports say the number of dead was much higher.

The war in Sierra Leone has been brutal

The assault on Henekuma appears to have been in revenge for earlier attacks on rebel positions by armed militia men opposed to the rebels.

Reliable reports said militia men known as Kamajors or Donsos had attacked several villages, killing at least 45 civilians.

Serious challenge

The outbreak of fighting between the rebels and the militia men in the diamond mining areas is a serious challenge for the UN, which has its largest peacekeeping force in the world in Sierra Leone.

The UN commander said it was apparent some splinter groups of rebels and militia men were not obeying the orders of their high commands, which were in favour of the ceasefire and UN-sponsored disarmament.

General Opande said nevertheless the UN deployment would continue in the diamond areas. A force of several thousand Pakistanis is due to be in place there in the next few weeks.