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Amnesty International today expressed concern about reports that civilians in Sierra Leone are being killed and injured in unlawful attacks as fighting continues along the border with Guinea.

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *

4 May 2001
AFR 51/004/2001
81/01

Amnesty International today expressed concern about reports that
civilians in Sierra Leone are being killed and injured in
unlawful attacks as fighting continues along the border with
Guinea.

AWhile efforts are being made to end conflict in Sierra
Leone and resolve growing tensions between Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone, little attention is being focused on the plight of
Sierra Leonean civilians caught up in fighting along the border,"
the organization said.

In the last two weeks military activity by Guinean
security forces is reported to have affected the towns of Kassiri
and Rokupr and the villages of Kychom, Rokon and Sino, all in
Kambia District in western Sierra Leone.

AGuinean security forces have launched indiscriminate
attacks on Sierra Leone territory; little or no effort has been
made to minimize the risk to civilian lives and property,@
Amnesty International said.

Although RUF forces are present in areas attacked by
Guinean security forces, artillery and helicopter gun-ship
attacks do not appear to have targeted RUF bases with any degree
of care and accuracy. Witnesses of some attacks confirm that,
while civilians suffered greatly, there were few RUF casualties
or damage to its bases or equipment. Victims of the attack on
Rokupr on 20 April seen in Port Loko hospital included a
seven-year-old boy with severe shrapnel wounds, which medical
staff feared would lead to amputation of his leg.

AInternational humanitarian law is being consistently
violated but there appears to be reluctance by the Sierra Leone
government and other members of the international community to
condemn unambiguously these breaches of the Geneva Conventions,
and Additional Protocol I, to which Guinea is a party.@

ACivilians are also at risk from the Sierra Leone armed
opposition Revolutionary United Front (RUF) which has carried out
deliberate and arbitrary killings and abductions and destroyed
homes,@ the organization added.

During a visit to Sierra Leone last month, Amnesty
International delegates met a number of people who had fled
Kambia District to escape violence from both sides. Many are now
in the villages of Barbara, Barlo Wharf and Konakridee.

One of them, a man from the town of Kambia, described
shelling by Guinean security forces around 26 March during which
a woman and her three children, all aged under 12 years, were
killed in their home. A woman from Kagbungbaw recounted the
killing of her husband by the RUF on 14 March and also how
Guinean security forces had shelled the village.

A woman from Mayogbor who had reached Barbara around 14
March after three days in the bush described how RUF forces came
to the village, gathered the villagers together, saying that they
would kill everyone. They demanded that rice supplies be handed
over and forced 16 people - 10 men and six women - to carry the
rice to Kassiri. All 10 men were subsequently killed; the women
managed to escape.

AThe Guinean government is obliged under international
law to ensure that its security forces make every effort to limit
the impact of military operations on the civilian population, and
the Sierra Leone government should insist that the safety of its
citizens be paramount,@ Amnesty International said. AThe RUF
must also end abuses, including killings and abductions of
civilians, in areas affected by fighting.@

AThe international community should bring pressure to
bear on Guinea and the RUF to ensure that combatants respect
international humanitarian law at all times,@ the organization
added.

While in Sierra Leone, Amnesty International raised its
concerns about the safety of civilians in areas close to the
border with Guinea, particularly in Kambia District, with the
government, the Guinean Ambassador to Sierra Leone and officials
of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). The
organization urged that immediate and effective measures be taken
to protect civilian lives and property and that the rights of
internally displaced people be respected.

Amnesty International also urged the government, UNAMSIL
and the diplomatic community to place respect and protection of
human rights prominently in all contact and dialogue with the
RUF, including during UNAMSIL meetings with RUF leaders and
broader meetings to resolve the conflict in Sierra Leone, such as
this week=s meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, of representatives of the
government, the RUF, the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), the United Nations and the Organization of
African Unity.

Background information
Hostilities along the borders of Guinea and Sierra Leone which
began in September 2000 have since intensified. In response to
RUF attacks across the border, Guinean security forces - both
ground troops and in helicopter gun-ships - have attacked
suspected RUF positions, particularly in Kambia District but also
in other parts of northern Sierra Leone which remain under rebel
control.

There have been dozens of civilian deaths and injuries
and extensive destruction of homes. Some towns and villages, for
example Kassiri and Kychom, have been repeatedly taken and
retaken by opposing forces. In some cases villages have been
completely destroyed and are now deserted, adding to an already
very large number of internally displaced people in Sierra Leone.

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