Fresh reports of murders, rapes and hand amputations by the rebel forces in Sierra Leone emerged yesterday, as British aid workers in Freetown were put on red alert for fear of a rebel hit squad seeking 'soft' targets.
The Department for International Development in London warned aid agencies to get out. One aid agency source said the department had said it had received 'credible intelligence' that a rebel assassination squad of the Revolutionary United Front fighters may be in Freetown.
Christian Aid withdrew its team of four yesterday, while a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said it and other agencies were reviewing security. The Foreign Office warned that Sierra Leone 'remains dangerous' and advised any Briton thinking of returning here not to do so.
The nature of the 'credible intelligence' is unclear, but the threat is believed to come after President Tejan Kabbah, who is backed by Britain's military presence, announced that RUF leader Foday Sankoh would shortly come to trial. The security fears for the British community follow the RUF's killing of American Reuters reporter Kurt Schork and Spanish camerman Miguel Gil Mareno on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch revealed evidence of fresh atrocities by the RUF up country. HRW spokesman Peter Bouckaert told The Observer in Freetown: 'What we are most concerned about is the possibility of another Kosovo or East Timor happening behind RUF lines, a massive retaliation against civilians. The RUF have the potential to do this, they have a history of extreme violence and the evidence we are getting on the ground points to massive abuse.'
Last week a team from HRW interviewed refugees from Masiaka and Lungi who had fled to the capital. One victim of the RUF was a 10-year-old girl, who had been captured outside a village with her parents and 10 brothers and sisters. She was flogged, then raped. 'She was a tiny girl,' said Bouckaert. She said her father died of exhaustion. The rebels, she said, grabbed hold of her sister, Mawa Camara, aged 20, the mother of a young baby. 'They cut off both her hands and a foot,' said the girl.
'Then she died. They cut off the hands of another woman and a man,' she said, but did not know what happened to them later.When government troops attacked the rebels, she made her escape.
'Mabinti' - not her real name - aged 16, left Masiaka, east of Freetown, fearing the RUF. She walked through bush roads in an attempt to flee to safety. The next morning she saw a young girl and a man lying by the side of the road. The hands of the girl had been cut off, and the man's right foot had been cut off. Both were still alive, but barely breathing.
These are the first reports of amputations that Human Rights Watch has heard for a year. The tactic of 'terror amputations' was first used by the RUF, but other factions in the civil war, including those now loyal to the British-backed government, have been guilty of it.
Another witness was a 20-year-old woman, Aisatu. She was seized by the rebels, many of whom were child soldiers, and gang-raped over three days. Her husband could only witness the rapes, helplessly. She saw one boy being slashed in the back with a machete. Brouckaert said: 'What we don't want to happen is another Kosovo, where an abusive force is given a large window of opportunity. We are very concerned that Unamsil (the UN Mission in Sierra Leone) are not taking the possibility of retaliation into their planning.'
Senior British military sources close to Brigadier David Richards, head of the joint forces operation here, are concerned that the progress of government forces against the RUF is much slower than it should be. The rainy season, which will slow down movement on the ground, is approaching, and the critical diamond fields remain in rebel hands.
The acting Defence Minister, Chief Sam Hingi Norman, criticised the UN's failure to carry out its mission. 'Some say the UN give up their weapons easily, but drive round Freetown forcefully.'
When the rebels first struck, some Jordanian officers abandoned their posts to the east of the capital and fled to the docks, to board a Danish-crewed ship. The Zambian battalion is believed to have handed over six armoured personnel carriers to the rebels. Human Rights Watch is also critical of some of the government's allies, who have also been responsible for human rights violations.
Norman is the man to receive any gift of arms from the British, a decision being considered at Cabinet level. He told The Observer he believed it was possible to 'immunise' children against bullets by traditional ceremonies - carried out by witch-doctors. Wasn't that juju? 'We don't call flak-jackets juju. Immunisation works. It works for me,' he declared, laughing.
Liberian President Charles Taylor said the Sierra Leone government's plan to put rebel leader Foday Sankoh on trial was foolish and could threaten the release of the last UN peacekeepers held by the RUF. 'It does not make any sense at this time to deal with the question of Foday Sankoh before disarmament and demobilisation and before elections are held,' he told reporters in his capital of Monrovia.
The RUF released 180 captives on Friday, and Taylor was confident that the rest, numbering about 70, would follow them to Liberia soon.