May 26, 1999
Web posted at: 10:01 a.m. EDT (1401 GMT)

In this story: Rebels demand amnesty, power sharing Despite tough rebel stance, government hopeful Condemned rebel leader stays in background Insurgents pledge to respect cease-fire RELATED STORIES, SITES

LOME, Togo (CNN) -- Procedural issues held up Sierra Leone's face-to-face peace talks Wednesday, one day after the session began with rebel demands for amnesty and power sharing, and government condemnations of rebel atrocities.

"There is no program. We don't know when or how things are going to proceed," said Solomon Rogers, delegation leader of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

Rogers told Reuters Wednesday afternoon that a meeting between the negotiating teams and a special West African ministerial committee, which would define ground rules for the talks, had yet to take place.

Togo's Foreign Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh, whose country is hosting the negotiations in its capital Lome, said the direct talks were now likely to start later in the day.

Rebels demand amnesty, power sharing

The effort to end the brutal eight-year was officially launched Tuesday in Lome with government and rebel delegates addressing a gathering of diplomats and regional officials.

"Contrary to the stories which are being spread about us, we are determined to engage in dialogue," Rogers said. "We are calling on the government to prove their goodwill by releasing (rebel leader) Foday Sankoh and by declaring a general amnesty for all Sierra Leone combatants."

Rogers also called for a transition government that would include the rebels' Revolutionary United Front.

In his speech, justice minister and chief government delegate Solomon Berewa spoke of the need to protect "the fundamental rights of the people of Sierra Leone to choose how they are governed."

"The amputees, the people who have been mutilated, cannot contribute to peace," Berewa said. "The criminal acts of arson in burning down businesses ... cannot contribute to development."

Despite tough rebel stance, government hopeful

Both amnesty and power sharing are hot issues in Sierra Leone, where the rebels' campaign to drive elected President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah from power has been accompanied by widespread allegations of atrocities. Witnesses and international aid organizations say the rebels have killed, maimed and raped thousands of civilians.

Some of Kabbah's Cabinet ministers are particularly opposed to any notion of their elected government sharing power with rebels -- something they have equated with rewarding people who take up arms.

But, despite the fundamental differences, Berewa said Tuesday that both sides appeared to be closer than they had ever been.

"As we commence this dialogue, we are encouraged by the fact that areas of agreement between RUF and the government are continuing to grow," Berewa said.

Condemned rebel leader stays in background

Sankoh, the rebels' leader who is on leave from prison, will stay largely in the background during the negotiations, rebel officials said.

But he has given his full blessings to the negotiations by signing a provisional cease-fire with Kabbah on May 18 that went into force on Monday to give the negotiations a chance.

Sankoh is appealing a death sentence for treason stemming from a 1997 coup against Kabbah by renegade soldiers who set up a junta in alliance with RUF.

A Nigerian-led West African force known as ECOMOG evicted the junta and restored Kabbah to power in the former British colony in March 1998. However, defeated junta soldiers and RUF guerrillas regrouped and relaunched the armed campaign.

Kabbah was forced to end a hard-line stand against talks with his opponents after rebels overwhelmed ECOMOG and invaded the capital in January. More than 5,000 people died in clashes.

Also Tuesday, in a town 35 miles west of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, 100 government-allied soldiers and as many as 1,000 rebels took a tentative step toward peace by shaking hands in a U.N.-monitored meeting.

There appeared to be more progress there than in the talks themselves, as the guerrillas pledged their commitment to the two-day-old truce.

"Whatever decision is taken at the ongoing peace talks between the government and the ... rebels, we are committed to such a decision," Brigadier Ibrahim Sillah Sesay, a senior rebel commander, told reporters.

ECOMOG officers and U.N. military observers also attended the meeting.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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