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 | Monday, May 08, 2000, updated at 09:09(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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UN Steps up Efforts to Free S.Leone PeacekeepersUnited Nations officials said they would step up efforts on Monday to locate hundreds of peacekeepers taken hostage or missing in Sierra Leone after the threat of a rebel attack on the capital appeared to recede.The first British paratroops, meanwhile, were due later in the day in neighboring Senegal after Britain's decision on Sunday to send five warships and about 1,600 soldiers to West Africa to help any of its citizens who may need to be airlifted out. Bernard Miyet, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, was expected to arrive in Freetown on Tuesday, spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York. The U.N. Security Council was briefed on the crisis in a special closed-door session on Sunday but issued no statement. Up to 500 peacekeepers are thought to be in the hands of Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels after clashes in various parts of the country during the week. One peacekeeper, a Kenyan, has been killed and another is missing, presumed dead. The U.N. special representative for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, told reporters in Freetown on Sunday night that a joint RUF-U.N. mission would go on Monday to areas where the peacekeepers were believed to be held to try to negotiate their release. "If they are there, we will ask for the prisoners to be released," Adeniji said.
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