'Sankoh may be dead'

LONDON, MAY 14. Britain's military commander in Sierra Leone today said the West African nation's capital Freetown was now secure from rebel forces, and speculated that the rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, could be dead.

In another sign of growing optimism that the crisis in war-torn Sierra Leone was near an end, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Robin Cook, forecast violence would be over ``within a month.''

Mr. Cook pledged that British troops who have played a role in stabilising the situation would be pulled out as soon as U.N. troops were at full strength.

``The situation is much more stable now,'' the British commander, Brigadier David Richards, told BBC's `Breakfast with Frost.' ``I believe that Freetown is now secure by the U.N. and by the new government forces, he added.

''We do not believe that (rebel leader Foday) Sankoh has yet reasserted his authority over the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). He could be dead,`` he added.

Sankoh, whose rebels are holding some 500 U.N. peacekeepers captive, disappeared from his Freetown home after fighting earlier this week and has not been since or heard of since.

Brig. Richards said that aside from securing Freetown's Lungi airport to evacuate British and Foreign nationals, his forces had mainly provided logisitical help to U.N. forces.

At the United Nations, the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan's spokesman said Freetown was ''gradually returning to relative calm`` and that the arrival of British troops had had a positive effect.

''Freetown is gradually returning to a relative calm,`` Mr. Annan's spokesman, Mr. Fred Eckhard, said in a statement yesterday.

- Reuters, AFP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Ethiopia rejects U.N. ultimatum
Next     : Russia divided into administrative units