Word: rebel
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...that they've arrested rebel leader Foday Sankoh, the Sierra Leone government and the U.N. have to figure out what to do with him. And as long as Sankoh's men continue to hold some 350 U.N. peacekeeping troops hostage, that's an acute dilemma. The Sierra Leoneans, who sentenced Sankoh to death in 1998 before being obliged by an abortive peace deal to make him vice president, may be inclined to punish him for his innumerable crimes - a sentiment reflected in reports that he was paraded naked through the streets of Freetown by Sierra Leonean troops before being handed...
...even after his capture Wednesday a Sierra Leone government spokesman expressed the hope that Sankoh would send a message to his men to stop their campaign. Information minister Dr. Julius Spencer also told the BBC that if Sankoh failed to comply, "appropriate steps" would be taken. But if the rebel forces that have terrorized Sierra Leone for much of the past decade remain loyal to Sankoh, they're likely to demand his release as part of the price for freeing the hostages...
...However, there's been considerable speculation that the rebels behind the latest offensive might be taking orders not from Sankoh, but from other rebel leaders with links to neighboring Liberia; indeed, his contradictory statements at the beginning of the hostage crisis suggest he may have been taken off guard by the seizure. In addition, the fact that Sankoh was captured in the capital rather than having rejoined his comrades in the bush, as expected, implies that he may no longer have been in command of the rebel forces. But his almost mythical status among the RUF's fighters, most...
...desperation to free its 347 peacekeeping troops held hostage in Sierra Leone may undermine the larger objective of ending that unhappy country's malaise. Even as the U.N. military commander on the ground was reportedly planning an offensive into the rebel heartland Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy in Freetown urged restraint in counterattacks against the rebels for fear of endangering the hostages. Liberia's President Charles Taylor, a longtime ally and patron of the Revolutionary United Front rebels, had over the weekend secured the release of some 139 peacekeepers after being urged to intercede...
...pursuing the hostages' release - although the U.S. pulled back Tuesday from a plan to send the Reverend Jesse Jackson on a shuttle diplomacy mission to the region after the civil rights campaigner angered leaders in West Africa in reported comments that appeared to equate Sierra Leone?s murderous rebels with Nelson Mandela?s African National Congress. But even without Jesse Jackson, negotiations inevitably involve give and take, and the rebels' call for a halt to any U.N. or government counteroffensive reflects their primary concern to maintain control of Sierra Leone's diamond fields to the south and east. Indeed...