Drugged child soldiers flee S.Leone for Guinea

GENEVA (Reuters) -- Fifteen child soldiers from Sierra Leone who had been forced to fight by rebels who drugged them with cocaine were among 2,500 refugees who fled to Guinea this week, the United Nations said Friday.

The exodus from Sierra Leone to its northeastern neighbor has reached some 4,000 over the past two weeks, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Only 600 fled to Guinea between May and July.

"Intensified fighting in Sierra Leone's diamond area, fear of government bombing over rebel-held positions and harassment of the population by members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are among the reasons cited by the refugees for leaving Sierra Leone," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing.

"Fifteen child soldiers have been identified, including at least two girls. They had served for periods ranging from one to seven years with the rebels or -- in one case -- with the Sierra Leone army.

"All said they had been heavily drugged with cocaine....They said they had been captured by armed rebels and forced to fight as children," Redmond added.

The young people, who are receiving medical and psychological care, have been removed from refugee camps where they feared some of their former victims might recognize them, the spokesman said.

There are now 300,000 Sierra Leone refugees in Guinea and 96,000 in Liberia, according to the Geneva-based UNHCR.

Civil war broke out in Sierra Leone in 1991. A peace agreement was signed in July 1999 but the RUF was slow to disarm and has retained control of many areas in the north and east.

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