Release of 23 Indian soldiers imminent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 7: The release of 23 Indian peacekeeping soldiers, detained by rebel miltiamen in northern Sierra Leone for the past nine ...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 7: The release of 23 Indian peacekeeping soldiers, detained by rebel miltiamen in northern Sierra Leone for the past nine weeks, appeared imminent today as they were shifted by their captors to border with Liberia, according to reports reaching Army headquarters here.

The soldiers, who were detained at Kuiva by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) militiamen, have been taken to near the border town of Pendembu.

"These soldiers are fully armed and are being provided regular food supplies from their base location at Daru," an Army spokesman here said.

The move of the 23 Indian hostages comes even as reports said that two companies of the Gorkha Rifles located at Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone continued to be in a stand-off position with the heavily armed RUF cadres, who have surrounded them.

Besides the Gorkhas, eleven other UN military observers of different nationalities are also among those besieged.

According to UNASMIL sources, the shifting of Indian hostages to the Liberian border "appears to be in line with what RUF done earlier". Elaborating, they said that the RUF, whenever they wanted to release the detainees, moved them to Pendembu before releasing them on Liberian soil.

An Army spokesman here said that top RUF Commander, Brig Issa Sesay in the Kailahun sector had assured the company Commander that his forces had no "animosity with UNASMIL forces".