Word: sierras
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...hand, we feel a genuine moral pang when slaughter rages there. On the other, we are not willing to die ourselves to stop it. And sometimes a third factor makes the dilemma still more intractable: a warlord with absolutely no interest in peace. The result is Sierra Leone...
...that they've arrested rebel leader Foday Sankoh, the Sierra Leone government and the U.N. have to figure out what to do with him. And as long as Sankoh's men continue to hold some 350 U.N. peacekeeping troops hostage, that's an acute dilemma. The Sierra Leoneans, who sentenced Sankoh to death in 1998 before being obliged by an abortive peace deal to make him vice president, may be inclined to punish him for his innumerable crimes - a sentiment reflected in reports that he was paraded naked through the streets of Freetown by Sierra Leonean troops before being handed...
Before Sankoh's dramatic escape two weeks ago, the U.N. had hoped to negotiate through him to persuade his men to release the captive peacekeepers, and even after his capture Wednesday a Sierra Leone government spokesman expressed the hope that Sankoh would send a message to his men to stop their campaign. Information minister Dr. Julius Spencer also told the BBC that if Sankoh failed to comply, "appropriate steps" would be taken. But if the rebel forces that have terrorized Sierra Leone for much of the past decade remain loyal to Sankoh, they're likely to demand his release...
...that he may no longer have been in command of the rebel forces. But his almost mythical status among the RUF's fighters, most of whom were recruited as teenagers, can't be discounted. Last time around, Sankoh used the ability of his forces to brutalize the long-suffering Sierra Leoneans to parlay his way from death row into government. This time, his bargaining chip is likely to be 350 hapless U.N. peacekeepers...
...most viable means of pursuing the hostages' release - although the U.S. pulled back Tuesday from a plan to send the Reverend Jesse Jackson on a shuttle diplomacy mission to the region after the civil rights campaigner angered leaders in West Africa in reported comments that appeared to equate Sierra Leone?s murderous rebels with Nelson Mandela?s African National Congress. But even without Jesse Jackson, negotiations inevitably involve give and take, and the rebels' call for a halt to any U.N. or government counteroffensive reflects their primary concern to maintain control of Sierra Leone's diamond fields to the south...