Sierra Leone refugees head home from Guinea

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (Reuters) -- Three boats were due to leave Freetown on Wednesday to bring home hundreds of Sierra Leoneans who have taken refuge in the country's embassy in Guinea, government sources said.

They said 2,000 refugees had already made it back to Sierra Leone amid reports of violent attacks against their community in Guinea.

However in an address to the nation broadcast on television late on Tuesday, Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah denied the attacks had taken place and said his country could not afford to fall out with Guinea.

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Guinea is host to hundreds of thousands of refugees from the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Relations between the refugees and their hosts soured after a series of cross-border raids against towns in Guinea from Sierra Leone and Liberia this month.

By Tuesday afternoon around 3,000 Sierra Leoneans had gathered in their embassy in Conakry, witnesses told Reuters.

A U.S.-based human rights group said on Wednesday that thousands of Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees had been attacked and rounded up by Guinean police, soldiers and civilian militias.

In a statement issued in New York, Human Rights Watch said it had put together testimonies from 40 victims, including 10 women who had been raped, and had confirmed one case of a man who died during detention.

Kabbah denies attacks on refugees in Guinea

Kabbah, who held talks with his Guinean counterpart on Tuesday during a brief visit to the country, said the reports of violence against his nationals were false.

"There were reports of some Sierra Leoneans killed and some were molested during security forces raids in Guinea...This I can say from my discussions with President Lansana Conte is absolutely incorrect," he said in a televised broadcast to the nation late on Tuesday.

Conte has accused Sierra Leoneans and Liberians of collaborating with Guinean dissidents to destabilize the country.

Kabbah said Guinean authorities were screening refugee camps to separate civilian asylum-seekers from dissidents.

"If you have no rebel connection you will be free and have the right to stay in Guinea."

He said Guinea had been the first country to send troops to support his government from incursions by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

"We cannot have Liberia as our enemy and then have Guinea also as an enemy."

Liberian President Charles Taylor is widely believed to be one of the RUF's main backers.

Liberia has said last week it planned to evacuate its nationals from Guinea.

Taylor said on Tuesday that Liberia was building up its military forces at the border with Guinea. "It is not intended to attack Guinea, but to contain Liberian dissidents in Lofa," he said, referring to the area attacked by rebels from Guinea.

The regional body ECOWAS, which groups 16 West African countries, promised on Tuesday to call a summit in an effort to calm tensions.

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