Ex-S.Leone junta leader tells fighters to give up

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (Reuters) -- The leader of Sierra Leone's former military junta on Tuesday disavowed armed factions claiming allegiance to him and told them to turn themselves in.

"I want the Sierra Leonean public and the international community to know that with effect from this announcement...I have dissociated myself from any armed faction or military wing or group and none of this group is under my command," Johnny Paul Koroma said on state radio.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Crisis in Sierra Leone

He appealed to all the soldiers to turn themselves in to disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation camps that are supervised by United Nations peacekeepers.

The military junta was overthrown in February 1998 by a Nigerian-led West African intervention force.

Sierra Leone army soldiers loyal to the junta subsequently sided with rebels fighting the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

A peace deal to end the civil war was signed in July 1999 but many fighters remained at large.

When the deal unraveled in May, those loyal to the junta first fought the rebels as part of a loose pro-government alliance but a faction known as the West Side Boys later broke from the alliance and took to the hills outside the capital Freetown.

Fighting between the various forces has died down since late July and a spokesman for the reformed Sierra Leone Army said on Monday that around 800 soldiers from the discredited, pro-junta army had turned themselves in over the past days in the east.

Koroma called on the rest to hand in their weapons and, if they wanted, go through the screening process to sign up for the reformed army.

He said a "minority group of hard core and wayward criminals" with no political creed or any legitimate cause was causing trouble.

They were carrying out "unpatriotic and diabolical actions, falsely hoping that protection can be provided for them and using me and the AFRC (junta) as a shield."

If an armed faction known as the AFRC still existed and claimed allegiance to him, it should be dismantled, Koroma said.

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