An armed rebel group which kidnapped 11 soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment in Sierra Leone last Friday has demanded food, medicine and the release of one of its leaders in return for the release of the British soldiers, reports from Sierra Leone said last night. The Ministry of Defence (MoD), however, said it could not confirm the reports.
Sierra Leonean government officials and representatives of the British military contingent in Sierra Leone had earlier opened talks with the rebel group, the West Side Boys, to secure the release of the soldiers, from the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment. The soldiers have not been named, but 10 are from Northern Ireland and one is from another part of the United Kingdom, the MoD confirmed.
The West Side Boys are made up of former Sierra Leonean soldiers who ousted the elected government in 1997. The group is seeking the release of one of its leaders, Gen Papa, who is also know as "Bomb Blast". He is being held in prison in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. The rebel group kidnapped five British soldiers in Sierra Leone last year. The fact that they were released unharmed has given the MoD grounds for optimism that the current situation will be resolved without violence. "We are confident we can resolve it peacefully, but we are not complacent," a MoD spokesman said yesterday.
The soldiers, whose regiment is based at Canterbury in Kent, were kidnapped with a Sierra Leonean guide as they travelled in three Land-Rovers near the town of Masiaka, which is about 40 miles east of Freetown.
The soldiers were returning to their base in the town of Benguema, about 25 miles southeast of Freetown, after a liaison meeting with Jordanian United Nations peacekeepers, when they were ambushed outside the village of Forodugu.
One of the soldiers was able to send a radio message to British officials saying the group was unharmed.
The soldiers are in Sierra Leone, which has been devastated by civil war since 1991, as part of a 250-strong British army contingent training government troops. The Sierra Leonean government is attempting to restore order by defeating Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. But the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, recently scaled down the number of soldiers in the country after British troops held back a rebel advance on Freetown in May. Earlier, the British Defence Minister, Mr John Spellar, confirmed contact had been established with the rebel group and he was confident the discussions would secure the soldiers' release. "Our people on the ground have made contact and are seeking discussions with the group we believe captured them," he said.
"The leader of our 11-man team has been in contact and said he and his men are being fed and well treated. That is a useful indication. We also had a situation last year when five British officers working with the United Nations were captured in Sierra Leone and that was resolved peacefully. That gives us grounds for optimism."
The shadow defence secretary, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, said the kidnap of the soldiers was a matter of deep concern and the British government "must not lack the resolve to take whatever measures are necessary to secure their early release."
The kidnap follows last month's rescue of Maj Andrew Harrison of the Parachute Regiment and Indian peacekeepers. They were trapped in a compound surrounded by RUF rebels for two months until British troops and UN peacekeepers airlifted them to safety.