World News 30-08-2000 Sierra Leone Hostage Negotiations Continue who: Eleven British soldiers what: Still held by West Side Boys as negotiations enter second day where: Sierra Leone when: Yesterday snippet: "Face to face talks between the commanding officer of The Royal Irish Regiment and the leaders of jungle rebels holding 11 of his men entered their second day yesterday with little sign of a breakthrough," reports Sam Kiley in The Times today. Lt-Col Simon Fordham met in face-to-face talks with Brigadier Kalla of the so-called West Side Boys and reportedly has met at least one of the kidnapped soldiers. "They are in good health and are well and in good spirits," said Lieutenant Commander Tony Cramp, a British spokesman in the capital city, Freetown. "Negotiations are continuing in a very calm manner, which is obviously how we wish to keep it in the future". Meanwhile, it is business as usual for the UN peacekeeping force who arrived in force to suppress the rebel Revolutionary United Front earlier this year. "There is no real prospect of the rebels seizing power as there was in May when Britain sent more than 1,000 troops to defend Freetown," says The Guardian`s Chris McGreal. But a UN spokesman concedes that they have no real control more than about 30 miles outside the city. "It is a jungle out there," he says, "and the idea that we can control things is completely wrong." [... more]

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