Hopes of a peaceful solution to the hostage crisis in Sierra Leone grew last night after a British army officer met one of the 11 Royal Irish Regiment soldiers being held hostage by a rebel militia group. Eight of the hostages are from the North, two from the Republic and one from Liverpool. A local army officer is also being held. As part of negotiations, a soldier was allowed to meet the regiment's commanding officer in Sierra Leone, Col Simon Fordham. The hostage was accompanied by Colonel Kallay, a leader of the West Side Boys rebel group which seized the soldiers on Friday.
The soldier met the British negotiation team and was later believed to have rejoined his comrades. Col Fordham was accompanied by Major Johnny Paul Koroma, a former coup leader, who is now a member of the Sierra Leone government. The rebel leader was given a letter from the government telling him to release the hostages.
According to some reports, the meeting with Colonel Kallay took place at a UN peacekeeping base. A senior British officer said the men had a good chance of being released unharmed. Speaking at the regimental headquarters in Ballymena, Co Antrim, Col Stewart Douglas said that although the men were being well treated their captors still had "the potential to be dangerous".
Col Douglas said he did not think the West Side Boys had "a direct hostile intent against our soldiers. For now we are concerned with talking our way out of this peacefully and successfully."