A last minute all-night bid by Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo has reportedly failed to break the impasse in peace talks between the Government of Sierra Leone and the RUF/AFRC Forces. The encounter between Obasanjo and the RUF delegation in Togo in the presence of talks' chairman, Togolese Foreign Minister Joseph Koffigoh, witnessed instead a hardening of the RUF position. Obasanjo was ending a day's shuttle visit which took him first to Freetown where he repeated his earlier statement that Nigerian troops will stay until peace has been guaranteed, then to Monrovia and finally in Lomé. 

  Mr Koffigoh had sounded a warning against a hasty pullout of Ecomog troops from Sierra Leone the day before.

  Conflicting signals were still coming out today just like those on the day of Foday Sankoh's defiant broadcast on the BBC. Moments before the latest disclosure of Obansajo's deadlock, Sankoh was quoted as saying after meeting Presidents Eyadema and Obasanjo: "I think we have come to the end of the negotiations, it is just a matter of getting a mandate from my people, that is the People's War Council, the High Command of the combatants...Then I think we'll come to a final conclusion."  The implication was that the RUF had all but accepted the new government offer of four cabinet and four deputy ministerial posts.

  Obasanjo had confidently predicted in Freetown that "Within a few weeks I believe that Sierra Leone will start to live in peace and I am optimistic about that peace".

  A report by NINJAS has claimed that Obasanjo has offered a plane to take Foday Sankoh to meet his fighters in the bush in order to discuss the current peace proposals with them.

  The US-based Human Rights Watch has claimed in a report that rebel atrocities, including murder, rape and mutilation were among the worst violations of human rights in the world. The report also highlighted Ecomog Nigerian abuses but said that these were on a much smaller scale.

  In a separate development, Mrs Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights who recently paid a two-day visit to Sierra Leone has described the country as having being totally wrecked by "the grievous violations of human rights". Comparing Sierra Leone's humanitarian plight with conditions elsewhere, she said that the country's situation and needs "exceed those of Kosovo, and yet the international community pays more attention to Kosovo than Sierra Leone".  She has vowed to be torchbearer for sustained pressure to make Sierra Leone a priority disaster area.

  One sequel Mrs Robinson visit was the conclusion of a nine-point Human Rights Manifesto agreed with the Government, which she also hoped, following conversations with the RUF legal representative and spokesman Mr Omrie Golley, the RUF, too, would endorse. It includes provisions for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate atrocities committed during the war and a pledge by the Sierra Leone Government to raise the age limit for military recruits to 18 years.

  The RUF has agreed to give access into rebel-held areas of the country to United Nations humanitarian agencies. The RUF will be represented by Miss Josephine Tengbeh and the Government by Mr Kanja Sesay. Both will serve on an Implementation Committee that is to be set up.

  The NINJAS have evidently hit a raw nerve somewhere. Someone decided to play foul on them. On Thursday morning, their web site was temporarily put out of action after it was compromised by an intrusive and provocative message, which also blocked attempts to load their home page. Matters returned to normal some hours later during the day.

  In its latest report, the Ninjas say that heavy shelling was heard from the direction of on Thursday afternoon and that, according to their sources, it was the result of "panicky Nigerian soldiers who became alarmed when a small herd of deer passed through their command areas". There was panic in the city, according to the report.

  Unconfirmed reports say that two journalists among a group of six recently arrested by Ecomog and eventually handed to the police are to be tried shortly for state sabotage. They are Mr Jonathan Leigh, managing editor of the Independent Observer, and a staff member of the same paper, Jerry Tryson. The others have reportedly been released. (See here for our previous report.)

Click 23/06/99  for the current digest.