November 6, 2000

U.N. Peacekeepers and Sierra Leone Police Fire on Protesters

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, Nov. 5 — United Nations peacekeepers and Sierra Leone police officers opened fire today to disperse hundreds of youths who were burning tires and demanding that a curfew be lifted, witnesses said. At least 13 civilians, including two children, were wounded.

The government had imposed the curfew to prevent rebel attacks, but people were angry over a spate of armed robberies during curfew hours.

The youths said the curfew, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., prevents them from mobilizing to protect their neighborhoods from robberies. The acting defense chief of staff, Tom Carew, appealed to protesters to go home while authorities looked into their grievances.

The protest began about 4:30 a.m. after thieves raided a home in the densely populated eastern end of the coastal capital. The police showed up after the culprits had fled. Angry youths then barricaded roads with burning tires.

Witnesses said that police officers in armored cars and and Nigerian peacekeepers from the United Nations force tried to scatter the surging crowd by firing automatic rifles — mostly in the air but sometimes in the direction of the protesters.

At least 13 protesters were injured, most with bullet wounds, said a German doctor, Alec Neelsen, who operated on several at Connaught Hospital. A Sierra Leonean medical officer later said the toll was 16, including gunshot victims and others who were stampeded by the crowd.

An Associated Press reporter counted eight with gunshot wounds lying on stretchers in the hospital's emergency ward. One of them, a 24- year-old motorcycle mechanic, Emmanuel Musa, was shot in the right ankle. "When I was wounded, I saw only U.N. soldiers in the area," Mr. Musa said. "One of them stopped a passing vehicle, which he asked to convey some of us to the hospital."

Ibrahim Conteh, 12, who also had a gunshot wound, said, "A soldier dropped his gun on the ground and it went off and hurt some of us."

Numerous other witnesses also reported seeing the troops and Sierra Leone police officers fire toward the crowds.

The curfew was put in place earlier this year in an effort to prevent incursions by Sierra Leone's rebel Revolutionary United Front, which controls much of the country's jungle interior.

The rebels, who have murdered tens of thousands of civilians and intentionally maimed many more in a campaign of terror, renewed Sierra Leone's eight-year civil war in May by advancing on the capital and capturing about 500 United Nations troops.

The 13,000-member peacekeeping force, the largest one currently under United Nations jurisdiction, has had organizational problems and internal conflicts. Two major contributors, India and Jordan, have announced they will pull out.

United Nations officials in Freetown could not be reached for comment, although a duty officer at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Edoardo Bellando, said he had been informed "third hand" that United Nations troops had been present when "police fired in the air to disperse a mob of thieves who were throwing rocks."

The Sierra Leone police inspector general, Keith Biddle, said the reasons behind the shooting were "not 100 percent clear," but contended that both peacekeepers and police officers had fired their guns.

Although the gunfire died down around 7:30 a.m., small crowds of protesters continued to gather until nearly noon.

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company