: Saturday, May 13, 2000 4:07 AM
Subject: [Fratrum] Fw: Rebels threaten to skin U.N. troops alive
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: New Millennium <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Newsgroups: alt.prophecies.nostradamus
> Sent: Friday, May 12, 2000 10:51 AM
> Subject: Rebels threaten to skin U.N. troops alive
>
>
> > 5/12/2000 09:29:00 ET
> >
> > S.Leone rebels threaten to skin U.N. troops alive -witness
> >
> > FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (Reuters) - Sierra Leone rebels are threatening
> > to skin alive scores of trapped U.N. peacekeepers, a British Army
> > officer who escaped from the scene said Friday.
> >
> > Maj. Phil Ashby told Reuters Television the RUF (Revolutionary United
> > Front) fighters were using scare tactics to terrify the lightly armed
> > foreign soldiers.
> >
> > "The RUF are quite good in psychological warfare, in scaring people into
> > either running away or disarming," he said.
> >
> > Ashby spent four months as an unarmed U.N. military observer trying to
> > persuade the Sierra Leone rebels to hand in their weapons under a 1999
> > peace deal. He was pinned down last week with 70 Kenyan peacekeepers in
> > the central town of Makeni.
> >
> > "Rebels would regularly come up to the gate wearing U.N. uniforms," he
> > said.
> > "I have just skinned the man who was wearing this uniform. In 15 minutes
> > I am coming back to do the same to you," he quoted one of them as
> > saying.
> >
> > Ashby and three other non-African officers broke out and reached the
> > capital, Freetown, Thursday after four harrowing days surrounded by the
> > rebels followed by a three-day trek.
> >
> > The rebels, whose leader Foday Sankoh has not been seen since a shootout
> > at his Freetown residence Monday, are holding nearly 500 U.N.
> > peacekeepers as captives or trapped in besieged compounds.
> >
> > CRISIS ERUPTS OVER SURRENDER
> >
> > At the height of Sierra Leone's civil war, which Sankoh launched in
> > 1991, RUF fighters hacked off hands and other limbs of defenseless
> > villagers to impose their reign of terror.
> >
> > Ashby, a member of a mountain and arctic warfare unit before becoming a
> > U.N. observer, said the crisis at Makeni erupted over a group of rebels
> > who volunteered to hand in their weapons under the peace deal and enter
> > the U.N. demobilization camp.
> >
> > Their commanders, who were dragging their feet on disarmament, viewed
> > that as desertion and demanded that the peacekeepers hand them back.
> >
> > "Clearly, we were not prepared to do that," Ashby said. "As a result,
> > the situation deteriorated, hostages were taken and Kenyans guarding the
> > disarmament camp were attacked."
> >
> > The peacekeepers, who had only 100 rounds of ammunition each, retreated
> > into a compound and were besieged by up to 5,000 heavily armed rebels,
> > Ashby said.
> > "For four days and four nights we were under siege day and night," he
> > recalled.
> >
> > "Generally during the day it was quite quiet, but there were sporadic
> > attacks all night. Small arms, machine guns, RPGs (rocket-propelled
> > grenades), meaning that no one slept a wink.
> >
> > "We were getting pretty run down and jumpy."
> >
> > Despite the scare tactics of the rebels, who were equipped with armored
> > personnel carriers, the Kenyans held firm.
> >
> > KENYAN TROOPS STAND FIRM
> >
> > "Luckily, the Kenyans, who had a good strong officer in charge and good
> > strong sergeant majors, held their nerve and called the RUF bluff,"
> > Ashby said.
> >
> > After the fourth night, Ashby and three others -- fellow Britons Lt.
> > Commander Paul Rowland and Maj. Andrew Samsonoff, and New Zealand Maj.
> > David Linguard -- decided to make a run for it.
> >
> > "Clearly as unarmed people there, we were nothing but a drain on the
> > resources of the Kenyans," he said.
> >
> > They slipped through rebel lines and struck out through the bush for
> > Freetown.
> >
> > They spent three days and three nights in rebel-held territory,
> > traveling by night and hiding by day.
> >
> > Exhausted by a succession of sleepless nights they began to hallucinate
> > and on day three, estimating that they had moved beyond rebel lines,
> > they decided to put their trust in local villagers.
> >
> > Ashby said the four officers stumbled into a village that had borne the
> > brunt of previous rebel atrocities. The villagers, some of whom bore the
> > scars of mutilations by the rebels, and members of a local militia
> > welcomed them.
> >
> > They then sent a local hunter with a message to the nearest U.N. base
> > and a helicopter came to airlift them out.
>
>
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