U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release
May 12, 1998
STATEMENT BY JAMES P RUBIN, SPOKESMAN
SIERRA LEONE: REBEL ATROCITIES AGAINST CIVILIANS
The United States urgently calls for an immediate end to the violence being wreaked on the civilian population of Sierra Leone by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the deposed military junta. Our Ambassador in Freetown and State Department officials have visited survivors and heard stories of entire villages being slaughtered or mutilated by rebel forces. The RUF calls its campaign "Operation No Living Thing." Hundreds of people are being treated in hospitals after rebels chopped their arms, legs, and/or ears with machetes. Thousands more have died before they were able to reach medical help. Many women and children have been raped. This unspeakable cruelty is a gross violation of every tenet of human rights and international humanitarian law.
The United States strongly condemns the rebels' horrific actions and urges rebel leadership to order an immediate end to the senseless slaughter, mutilation, and torture of the rural civilian population in Sierra Leone.
There are distressing rumors that the RUF and ex-junta forces are being assisted in their campaign of terror by other governments. Although we cannot confirm these rumors, it should be clear that any government or other party which is found to be helping the rebels to prolong the tragedy in Sierra Leone will face the strongest condemnation of the United States and the international community.