Vicious RUF Leader Dies Peacefully

Foday Sankoh, the notorious leader of the Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement, has died in UN custody yesterday. Sankoh was awaiting the opening of his trial in a UN backed Special Court for atrocities committed during the civil war.

The UN reported yesterday that the 66-year-old Sankoh died in Freetown's Choithram Hospital after suffering a stroke last August. Since than the rebel was unable to talk, feed himself or move independently.

With his death the need for the Special Court is now being questioned as two other prominent rebel leaders, Sam Bockarie, the RUF's military commander and Johnny Paul Koroma, are both dead too.

Sankoh has lead a campaign of murder, rape and mutilation of tens of thousands of civilians during the 1991-2001 civil war, for power and the control of the country’s riches, mostly diamonds.

One of the people indicted by the court is Liberian President Charles Taylor, who has been charged with supporting the RUF in return for diamonds. Taylor is clinging to his post in Liberia, contrary to a cease-fire agreement that called for democratic elections and Taylor’s stepping down. One of his latest demands is to call off the extradition warrant issued for him.

Taylor and Sankoh met in a Libyan training camp where the RUF was founded and Taylor was receiving Libyan help to launch his planed rebellion in Liberia.