SIERRA LEONE: THOUSANDS DISPLACED DUE TO CIVIL WAR

Описание: (8 Nov 1995) English/Nat

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in Sierra Leone and now face starvation as a vicious civil war tears their country apart.

The war in the West African nation has pitted a little-known rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front, against the military government based in the capital, Freetown.

As the war rages in the countryside, villagers, mostly women and children, have been forced to flee to refugee camps in the provincial capitals.

The military government has promised free and fair elections in February to return the country to democracy but with the current state of anarchy it is difficult to imagine that elections will be possible.

The skull of a rebel soldier sends a stark message from the Sierra Leonian army to the gunmen in the bush.

This savage war has killed an estimated 10-thousand people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.

Neither side has hesitated to use terror as a weapon of war. But for sheer cruelty, the rebel Revolutionary United Front have few equals.

In hospitals set up by international organisations, mutilated refugees recount grim tales of horror.

This woman was living in a village not far from Bo when she and her children were attacked by an armed group.

They gave her a choice -- they would kill her children or cut off a finger for each one.

SOUNDBITE:
(English translation)
They told me the only reason they were mutilating me was to call my people from the bush. I gave all my fingers for my children.
SUPER CAPTION: Aye Mattia, victim of rebels

Other patients in this ward told similar tales.

SOUNDBITE:
They are really terrorising the people with their amputations. They cut the hands, the arms with machetes. We heard a story about a woman. The rebels told her to bring a ladder to Bo and they gave her a ladder and then cut off her hand. There's a lot of really horrible stories.
SUPER CAPTION: Dr Kathia van Egmond, Medecins Sans Frontieres

Some of the villagers have decided it's time to protect themselves and have set up self- defence organisations called Komajoes.

The Komajoes protect villages from the rebels and help the government of Valentine Strasser fight its war against them.

The 29-year-old leader seized power in a 1992 coup but has had little more success than the previous regime in combatting either rebels or Sierra Leone's crushing poverty.

SOUNDBITE:
Our problem now is we have to deal with the present situation which is the humanitarian situation that we have and we want to appeal to the world to pay attention to us, like they've given a lot of publicity to the situation in Bosnia, Rwanda and also Liberia very close to us. We think we form part of the international community, irrespective of our size and that they should listen to the predicament of our people and come to the aid of this country which is very much in need of humanitarian assistance.
SUPER CAPTION: Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio, Vice-Chairman of Sierra Leonian government

The United Nations does provide food aid for Sierra Leone. But aid officials complain that their efforts are hampered by frequent attacks on food convoys.

Sometimes the attackers are rebels, sometimes they are the same underpaid Government soldiers that were supposed to provide security for the convoys.

In several towns across the country, thousands of children who have lost their parents are surviving on food provided by international organisations.

But UNICEF estimates 25 to 30 children are dying every day from malnutrition and disease.

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