More than 800 UN troops to deploy in S. Leone rebel bastion

(Agence France Presse)

FREETOWN, Monday Oct 29, More than 800 Pakistani troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in war-scarred Sierra Leone will be deployed in Kailahun, where the country's 10-year-old civil war began, an official said Monday.

Major Mohammed Yerima, military spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), said the deployment of troops would be completed on Tuesday.

 "Over 800 will be deployed from Sunday to Tuesday," hè said over UN radio on Monday.

Large-scale deployment in Kailahun began Sunday although an advance batch of some Pakistani soldiers had been sent to the eastern town, some 300 kilometres (185 miles) east of the capital Freetown, on Thursday.

"This means that UNAMSIL deployment is almost all over Sierra Leone and our sectors have almost occupied the whole of the country," Yerima said.

Kailahun has been a stronghold of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group since 1991, when RUF members staged a shock attack, killing 14 soldiers and civilians and sparking a bloody and protracted war.

Kailahun is also rich in the so-called "blood diamonds", which have helped the RUF finance their war.

The RUF drive has claimed tens of thousands of lives and maimed or otherwise wounded an equal number.

More than 24,000 combattants in the war have surrendered since January under an ongoing disarmament programme, according to the government.