Hopes that an Irish Christian Brother, Brother Noel Bradshaw, may be released by his captors in Sierra Leone have been raised after the leader of the rebels requested he be freed.
Brother Bradshaw, a native of Lea, Portarlington, Co Laois, was taken hostage by rebels on February 28th. Two priests, Italian and Sierra Leone nationals, are also being held. The rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, who is in prison in Sierra Leone, asked the Revolutionary United Front on Tuesday to release the three missionaries within 72 hours. The authorities allowed him to contact rebel headquarters by radio.
Up to 31 children held captive by the rebels were released by them on Friday and all were reported to be well. Brother Bradshaw, who has been working in Makeni Catholic Mission, about 100 miles from Freetown, for over 10 years, lived in a leper colony and was teaching and working with victims of the war. He refused an offer to be evacuated from Sierra Leone when the country became destabilised in December and his family has not heard directly from him since.
His brother, Mr Hugh Bradshaw, learned of the disappearance only on Tuesday through the Department of Foreign Affairs. The message is understood to have come through the English Provincial of the Christian Brothers to their Irish counterparts at St Helen's Christian Brothers, Monkstown.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday they were aware of the rebel leader's call for the missionaries' release. Britain was maintaining a formal diplomatic mission in the country, "and we are in contact with them", he added.
Brother Bradshaw has been a member of the Christian Brothers since the mid-1960s and, after teaching in Ireland and carrying out social work in Dublin, went to live in Liberia. The war forced him to leave and he has been in Sierra Leone since.
According to the Foreign Affairs spokesman, "all the stops are being pulled" to establish the whereabouts of Brother Bradshaw. Yesterday the Department was in contact with Ireland's honorary consul in Sierra Leone, Dr Wadi Aboud, as well as the UN force on the ground, ECOMOG, and the British Foreign Office.
"We still do not know where he is being held, but it is probably in the bush with the two priests. Brother Bradshaw is regarded as being a very resourceful man. We are continuing to work hard. There have been no demands [from his captors]," the spokesman added.